El Salvador is not a lot different than southern Mexico. They do use the dollar for currency and they have some different foods, but the people are just as warm and friendly.
A few days after arriving, we hired Angel, a driver and ventured into the capital city of San Salvador. This is a city of six and a half million people. The same as any large city, they have a combination of wonderful restaurants, shopping, old cathedrals and statues but there is also much poverty.
One of the reasons for our trip to”the city” was a visit to the eye doctor for Dale. She had been experiencing flashes of light in the corner of her left eye since she face planted while skiing in Idaho last December. After the initial examination, the “Doctora” revealed that Dale would need laser surgery to repair three tears to the vitreous, the portion of the eye protecting the retina. Well, this was not exactly the place that we had in mind for any kind of surgery! The Doctora stressed the importance of the surgery before any more tears or detachment could occur. This is a distinct possibility while bouncing around the Pacific aboard a sailboat. OK….schedule is open for the next day and we had a hotel reserved. We scheduled it, but spent the next several hours researching the doctor and the eye clinic where the laser surgery would take place. All good findings, so on we went….eye surgery in San Salvador! The surgery was successful. Rest and no heavy lifting for a month….hope Ken doesn’t need to be winched up the mast for a while!
Back in Bahia del Sol, we celebrated Ken’s 66th birthday with a nice dinner with friends, Jim and Laura.
We also participated in a beach clean up. Most of our pictures are of the wonderful scenery of the ports that we visit, but this one is of the gritty reality of this country. El Salvador is beautiful, but has a real problem with litter. There is a movement to teach the people how to clean up their country, let’s hope it works and the natural beauty of this country will shine again. Since the beach is our “area” we spent a very hot day working with other cruisers and locals to clean one area.
We also attended a Mango Festival in honor of Fiesta de las Cruces, El Salvador’s equivalent to our Thanksgiving. Along with other cruisers we took a bus to the festival and braved the crowds to eat and drink all things Mango. These Central Americans sure know how to party!
 San Salvador – lots of street art |
 Definitely a big city |
 Street performers everywhere! |
 Nice parks |
 Beautiful night time views |
 Many people follow the old ways of life |
 Traffic everywhere |
 Street side vendors |
 A little traffic…no problem! |
 Barbed wire everywhere |
 ….even in the nice areas |
 Beach clean up |
 An all too familiar scene |
 Mango Festival |
 |
 Sugar cane field with volcano in the background |