Elated to be in El Salvador - day 1-2

We woke yesterday morning to a United update that our flight from South Bend was delayed 2 hours, which would have us miss our connection to Chicago, and our connection to Texas, and ultimately to San Salvador!  So we jumped in the car and drove to Chicago to catch our flight, calling the airline along the way to get our tickets changed.  We made it with 20 minutes to spare, and then sat on the runway, leading us to a full on sprint to the gate in Texas.  We boarded the plane dripping in sweat...and then sat on the runway.  It felt like the scene in Home Alone when they overslept and nearly missed their flight!  Luckily no children were left behind - except for our fuzzy one Finn - who had already been delivered by Grandma Sandy to Neema.  

Airplane shot compliments of Gigi :)

As if the antics of the first part of the day were not enough, the rental car company said they could not fulfill our reservation, but that they could walk us down to another company that has the only 2 vehicles left in all of San Salvador - a 15 person van or a pickup truck.  We of course went with the truck :)

It took about an hour to get to the house. Windy roads and very dark, but eventually we found the house.  Another cool add to the photos is Gia snapping pics from the back seat.  So fur traveling with these adults!

Just gorgeous, up on a hill overlook the ocean.  We dropped our bags...

Here are photos of the house we took the next morning...

Once we settled in we headed out to dinner at Beto, highly recommended by Corey's former student and El Salvador resident, Andrea.  So good!  Fresh ceviche sitting along the ocean.  What could be better!

I can see why the El Salvador students that traveled to Uganda with me said there were similarities.  The heat, the roadside huts and dogs, and the smell of bonfires.  Yet there are also many similarities to Mexico.

Day 2: For our first full day in El Salvador we headed to a restaurant in Surf City to Puro Surf Hotel to the Covana Kitchen restaurant (https://www.purosurf.com/restaurant).  The dining outdoors was beautiful and the food was really good.  Caden had waffles, the girls shared avo toast and eggs benedict, I had chia seed pudding, and Corey had a local egg dish.  Fresh coconuts for the kids and French press coffee for Corey and me.

After breakfast we ventured down to the beach.  We walked, the kids enjoyed the tide pools, and we played in the waves.  

We headed up to get smoothies to go, and then ended up getting caught up in some serious UNO.  So we enjoyed some gaming and ate more ceviche.  After a 3 reshuffles, we finally threw in the cards - figuratively and literally, and set off to find a grocery store. 

As luck would have it, they were in siesta when we arrived.  They were due back in 15 minutes, so we wandered about to pass the time, buying Caden flipflops and getting candy for the new international candy unwrapping videos the kids started in Israel.  We got back 10 minutes after 1 (due back at 1) and they still weren't open.  We sat and waited, but the crew began to melt down - again, both figuratively and literally. We headed out for home to enjoy the pool - some of us more aggressively than others!

We scheduled to have a chef prepare an early dinner.  Natalia arrived at 2:30 and we were eating more delicious ceviche but 3:45.  Life is good!  We then had a course of shrimp, steak, potatoes, salad, bread, and 3 desserts while we played rounds of family games - HeadsUp, Family Feud, Psych, and the non-drinking version of Cheers to the Governor.  It was one of those memorable nights :)

Key takeaways from today's Psych game: Gia has an epically messy room, Caden's favorite day involves computer games and Chick-fil-A, Lily continues to have an extreme phobia of germs, Corey is committed to Notre Dame football and it is the one thing he would pull an all-nighter for, and after a long day, you will find me baking or in a bath :)