Celebrating Match Day a La Playa

Today was  a great time.  Dr. Romero took us to the small private beach club where her family has a membership at the Costa del Sol.  We were told it is the most beautiful beach in the country and was definitely very popular.  It was pretty amazing to see how large the beaches are and experience how massive the waves are in the Pacific Ocean.  Definitely a cool experience to get to see and swim in the Pacific for the first time and the beauty of the beach definitely lived up to the hype.  It seemed very untouched largely because there was literally one hundred yards or more of sand between the resorts and the ocean.  The sun here is incredibly strong and even with 50 SPF sunscreen on I tried to limit the direct sun exposure to my horribly pasty white skin to a minimum.

The drive to the Costa del Sol was about an hour or so from our apartment in San Sal.  We were able to stop in Ocolito on the way which is the pupusa capital of the entire country.  The town is basically a church and dozens of stands which make and sell pupusas.  They are absolutely amazing and are similar in some ways to a quesadilla.  You get  a choice of either rice or corn dough which is stuffed with either refried beans, cheese or both flattened out and grilled on both sides.  It was definitely neat to be able to watch our food be made and see some of the locals who flocked to us when they saw an SUV full of "gringos" pull up.  There were several children there who were selling cashews, which are native to El Salvador, and small souvenirs.  Dr. Romero explained that because of the poverty here these children would probably never have the opportunity to receive an education and had been working since a very young age in hopes of earning a few dollars at best per day that they could contribute to their family. It was definitely a humbling site and made me feel very blessed to have been born not only in the States but into such an amazing family who did and still do everything in their power to allow me to reach my goals (miss you Mom and Dad).

We passed several resorts along the coast but extreme poverty is still the norm.  We were told that gang violence is also very common at the public beaches and just driving by those areas you could tell it probably would not have been a great area for us to stop.  Even with all the poverty this country is absolutely gorgeous.  I wish I had pictures that did it justice.  I have never been to a place where you could stand on an amazing beach then turn around and be staring at a massive active volcano or be driving down the coastline and in the opposite lane people are herding cattle.  It was a great experience to see it all.

We have been invited by one of Dr. Romero's friends to his beach house tomorrow.  We were told they will be preparing a traditional El Salvadorian meal for us and we are very much looking forward to experiencing more of their culture.  Hopefully we will return to our apartment in San Sal early enough to finish up all our laundry and get rested up for what hopefully will be a much busier week in the clinic.

Pupuseria in Ocolito

Cabana at Costa Del Sol

Amazing El Salvadorian Coast Line