Day 1: Landing in El Salvador

After a very early morning and fairly quick flights, we arrived in San Salvador, El Salvador with no problems. Much to our delight, we all had our luggage and had no problems going through customs.

The first thing we noticed was definitely the weather. It wasn't so much the heat as the humidity ;)

Three Rotarians were at the airport to meet us. Two (Liliana and Alvaro) were from the Santa Ana area and would be taking us back to Santa Ana with them. Lillyanna informed us that today would be more relaxed and the only thing on the agenda would be typical dinner in the evening.

En route to Santa Ana (a few hours north of San Salvador), we stopped at a beach side seafood restaurant in La Libertad, Nuevo Alta Mar. Liliana ordered the conch at lunch. I've had conch once before in the Bahamas, but it was a conch salad and was cooked and most definitely dead. This was a new type of conch, it was still moving. As much as I normally dislike seafood, I was eager to try it. The more I travel, the more I learn that I actually like seafood, just not when it's flown in to the middle of the USA. And the conch was no different. It didn't have a strong taste, but did taste very fresh. We even got Parker to try it.

After dinner, we took a quick walk to see the coast and then loaded back up in the vehicle. This part was pretty uneventful as well... and I only say that because I slept most of the drive.

A few miles south of Santa Ana, we took a detour to a scenic view overlooking Lago Coatepeque, near the Santa Ana volcano, that is still active. The lake is gorgeous. I remember seeing it from the plane and thinking it was massive but had not idea what it was. There are hot spots in the lake, much like hot springs.

We then headed to the neighborhood where we will be staying for two days. Christi and I are together in the house in the last pictures below. Paul and Jimmy are together just a few doors down and Parker is staying with Liliana downtown. Our community is gated and we were able to just roam around for awhile this evening. Liliana told us to 'go explore! You can't get out!'

We are getting ready for dinner now and I've been bit by my 20th mosquito. Time to go put on the bug spray and try to tame this hair from the humidity.

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We had a great welcoming dinner with the two Santa Ana clubs. We had a long and glorious first day. More pictures of our dinner to come. Tomorrow we start at an area hospital, then visit an area coffee plantation, and explore some of the city. And we will end the day with our first presentation! Eek! Wish us luck.

A HUGE thank you to Liliana and all of our host families today. Thanks for making us feel so welcome!