El Salvador

Lars and I had the best time in El Salvador!  After we booked this trip, I realized that I haven't been to visit El Salvador in 18 years!  Way too long in my opinion.  I had prepared Lars for El Salvador the best I knew how, teaching him a few Spanish words and letting him know that my family was super nice and very gracious.  And here's how it went!

Day 1: Thanksgiving!  I didn't realize how many people travel for Thanksgiving so I was really glad we had Pre-Check as we cruised through security.  We had two flights and got to El Salvador in the evening.  We had dinner, hung out with my parents and grandparents, and then called it an early night as it had been a long day of traveling.

Day 2: When Lars and I travel, one of the important things to us is the food.  If we don't enjoy thefood where we visit, we aren't going to be super interested in going back (like Morocco!).  So our day started with a typical El Salvadorean breakfast that we loved!  Honestly, we loved all the food we had during our visit!  I've been to El Salvador twice before this trip so I wasn't worried about the food, I already knew I'd love it but I was concerned about Lars.  I shouldn't have been though, he thought everything we had was really good.

After breakfast, we hung out with my parents and grandparents while we were waiting for my parents' luggage to come in as it had gotten lost.  It didn't come that day (it took another two days to get there) but we were hoping it would.

Me and my parents.

 After waiting, we went out to lunch with my Aunt Doris.  We had the most amazing view as it was a restaurant that was on a volcano.  And once again, the food was delicious!

View from lunch.  Isn't it so pretty?

Lunch with Lars, my parents, and my Aunt Doris.

After lunch, we went to the volcano.  This was my first real volcano experience and it was breathtaking!  There were people selling fruit on the trail to the viewpoint so my dad bought some passion fruit.  I had never had passion fruit directly from the fruit before but I enjoyed it and so did Lars.  In fact, this was Lars' favorite part of the trip as seeing the volcano was nothing like he had imagined it would be, even the photos don't do it justice.

We visited a volcano.

Lars eating passion fruit at the volcano.  It was delicious but very messy.

After the volcano, we went back to town and visited my family's bakery.  It was really impressive to see all the machinery and work that goes into what they make there! 

We then went back to my grandparents' house, had dinner, and went to bed.  It was a fun day and while my Spanish is limited, I was starting to get back some of what I knew.  I could definitely understand more than I could speak though.

Day 3: Whenever Lars and I had some spare time, we spent it in my grandparents' backyard.  It was so peaceful and so pretty, we couldn't help but admire it!

My grandparents' backyard.

My dad with his parents.

Today we went to Ataco with a lot of my family.  One of our first stops was this area where we got some drinks and some food.  I don't remember what it was called but no surprise, we loved it.  

This was delicious although I don't remember what it was called.

Once we finished our snack, we walked along the streets of Ataco.  We stopped at a food market right by the church and park and then walked along looking for murals.  (While we also did some shopping, of course!)  Ataco is known for their murals and for good reason!  They're so colorful, detailed, and impressive!

My family in Ataco.

My dad told me all churches are near parks, this was a classic example.

Food market.

One of the beautiful murals they have in Ataco.

Another gorgeous mural.

What a view!

After walking along the streets we took a tour through the streets of Ataco.  It was fun to get that perspective and really cool!

On a bus tour around Ataco!

Ataco.

View on our tour.

We then went shopping along the streets on our way back to our van.  I found a few items I wanted and my dad, true to form, found some more fruit he bought.  (Seriously, he bought fruit pretty much everywhere we went, haha.)

Day 4:  Today we went to the coast to visit the fish market and have lunch by the ocean.  I was so entranced by the fish market though, that I forgot to take any pictures!  We got some seafood for dinner though and let me tell you, fresh seafood is a favorite of mine!  At lunch, we had ceviche as an appetizer and it was the best ceviche I've ever had.  They also had some mini mariachi bands going around asking people if they wanted them to sing for them, for a price of course.  We had them sing to us for a bit and we loved it!

Ceviche we had at the coast.

Lunch by the coast with Lars, my parents, my Aunt Emely and my Uncle Pepe.

We then went back to my grandparents' house and got ready to have my Grandpa's 92nd birthday party.  All the family came over and we had dinner and a mariachi band even came over!  The party was my favorite part of our trip because all my family was there, we were celebrating my Papa Berto's birthday with a mariachi band, and it was so much fun!  I loved that Lars got to experience a mariachi band in person! He told me afterwards that he didn't realize how much fun a mariachi band is as videos do not do them justice.

Lars and I with my grandparents at my Grandpa's 92nd birthday celebration.

My grandparents and three of their children.

Mariachi band for my Grandpa's birthday.

We definitely ended the day on a high note with celebrating my Grandpa's birthday so grandly!

Day 5: Today was my Grandpa's actual birthday!  So we went to breakfast at Pizza Hut (we didn't actually have pizza though, it was a typical breakfast) and they sang to him there.

Birthday breakfast and singing at Pizza Hut.

The reason we celebrated with a party the day before was because we had reserved a room at a resort called Decameron for the night.  We left early afternoon and got to the resort, checked in, and immediately started to enjoy the view!

Decameron.

It was beautiful!

Can I go back?

Evening stroll along the beach.

It was such an amazing experience!  We couldn't get enough of the gorgeous view!  We had so much fun playing in the ocean that evening!  Unfortunately, I think I accidentally drank too much ocean water while playing, and after dinner I felt a little sick so Lars and I called it an early night.  

Day 6: I have officially decided that the best way to start any day, is by starting it by the beach.  Lars and I took a morning walk along the beach as we woke up early.  There's nothing quite like a morning stroll along a beautiful beach!

My favorite way to start a day is by a beach.

So of course we went for a walk.

We then met up with my family for breakfast.  And I'm not kidding, our view was fantastic!!

This was our view from breakfast.

We didn't have to check out until early afternoon so after breakfast we played in the ocean some more.  We had such a great time!  

On our way back to my grandparents' house, I was able to get some pictures of some of the normal things they have in El Salvador that we don't see here.  For example, they have mango trees everywhere, so I got a picture of a mango tree.  They also have a lot of sugar cane and fruit stands.  (Yes, my dad bought more fruit from these stands when we were stuck in traffic.)

There's a mango tree in this picture!  The one with red leaves is the mango tree.

Sugar cane in the background next to a fruit stand.

Once we got back, we of course had to tell my grandparents how much fun we had so we chatted with them.  We also found Ramona!  This turtle is my dad's childhood pet, so she's around 50 years old and still kicking.

My dad with Ramona, his childhood pet.

We headed back to the US the next morning (super early!).  It was such an amazing experience to go to El Salvador with my parents to visit my dad's family.  I've been wanting to take Lars there for years so I'm so happy that we were able to visit.  Every single thing about this trip was fantastic!  Lars and I loved our time with my family.  Everyone was so nice to Lars, whom they nicknamed, 'El Chepe,' and so welcoming to him!  He told me later that he didn't realize that when I told him my family was super generous, that they were actually going to be even more kind, generous, compassionate, and helpful than I had told him!  I love that he had that experience and I love that I was able to visit my family, it had been too long and I honestly cannot wait to go back.