La Crea Ahuerto!

So, our internet connection at the house went out, so I haven’t posted for a while.  That doesn’t mean things haven’t been happening!  The last few visits at La Crea (a religious home for addicted women) have been excellent.  Our most recent project is a vegetable garden.  The women there have just loved it.   It’s tricky to plant in the middle of the rainy season, so I hope it grows well.  We planted beets, radishes, lettuce and cabbage.  It’s awesome because some of the women who aren’t really into basketball are really anxious to work in the garden.  It’s great to see them getting involved in something in which they are really interested.

Los Blancos

This weekend was really nice.  I’ve had a cold the last few days, so I was planning on just lying around the house, but I got talked into going to the beach.  It was stunningJ  Our friend Angel knew the hombre who owns this “mini hotel” on Los Blancos beach, so we parked and ate there.  Upstairs, there was a beautiful view of the ocean.  It was magnificent.  We even saw a ship on the horizon.  It was breezy and perfect outside.  We hunted for shells and played a little in the powerful waves, and just hung out.  It was soo relaxing after a week of work. 

When we got home from the beach, we decided to get dinner.  A few of us went to this Italian place in La Gran villa.  It was delicious!  Probably the best meal I’ve had in El Salvador, and yes, it was ItalianaJ 
We were in the gelato place next door when it started raining.  It was POURING and, of course, none of us came prepared.  The gelato workers put on Avatar in English, and everyone in the shop just bunkered down for a little while.  We finally decided it had slowed down enough to go home, and I’m glad we left when we did because when we got home, it started up again.  Ohh, rainy season.  

El Templo

The San Salvador Latter-day Saint temple open house is going on for the next few weeks.  We went through the open house as a team, and the other day, we got to volunteer in the temple for a few hours.  Amazing.  It is soo stunning.  The national flower is planted all over the outside and is used in the design of the temple in the windows.  It’s magnificent.  When we volunteered, I got to direct people going on tours in the hallway, then they moved me over to the bride’s room, the Sala de Novias ,if you will.  Yeah.  It was beautiful.  It’s not even dedicated, but it’s still amazing to be able to spend time in the temple of the Lord.  

Independence Day!

The fourth of July was pretty rad.  We took off work for the day and had some fun.  We spent the day out at the Lago de Coatapeque.  It is so beautiful up there.  We had an all-American hamburger barbeque and played in the lake.  That night, we went over to the church and roasted s’mores and lit off some amazing fireworks.  Happy birthday America!

Ruins and Puerto de Diablo

Two weekends ago we went and toured some ruins.  It was awesome to see something so old.  It’s also interesting to look at how building techniques and styles are still employed in parts of El Salvador.  After the ruins, we hiked the Pureto de Diablo (Devil’s gate).  The hike was awesome, there was water dripping and running all along the stone peak as we were climbing.  At the top, it was absolutely sublime.  We could see for kilometers around the peak.  It was a little cloudy, but it cleared up as we were hiking and we could see forever.  There was this one little hut on the edge of the cliff.  I can’t even imagine what it would be like to wake up in the morning and have this incredible, surreal view.