Un dia en la playa

One of the great things about El Salvador is that even though it is smaller than the state of Massachusetts, there are over 50 beaches. They are all on the Pacific Coast, but it is amazing the differences you will find at various beaches. For example, some beaches have black sand and you can find some of the best surfing in the world. Then others have "sand colored" sand as we know it, and hardly any waves at all.

Yesterday we went with our friend Ruby to the only beach here in El Salvador that has coral reef. I mean, it's no Roatan (the island we went to for our honeymoon that felt like you were snorkeling through the movie Finding Nemo), but we love it because at low-tide, there are no more waves and the whole beach becomes a gigantic wading pool among the rocks for as far as you can see, and you can see little colored fish. Plus, the sand isn't sand at all, but miniature versions of perfect shells.

This beach is a little fisherman's village, and they have their little houses built on the water's edge, with their little boats tied up in front of their houses, in the water. Just imagine this life....you go out in your boat, fish all day, come back to your house that is so literally on the beach that the water washes up through your "living room" which is just a roof over the sand, which also serves as a restaurant where you can fry up today's catch for anybody walking by who wants to eat.

Playing catch with a coconut

So really the most exhilerating part of the day was on the way home...we got off on a new highway, and I was really impressed by the streetlamps and reflectors on the road because driving on a highway at night in El Salvador is not usually very fun because of poor lighting and people that cross the road in the dark. So I was going on and on about how nice this highway is, and just as we were getting near our exit, we see the cars in front of us make a big U-turn and we're like...what the heck?!?! Then we realized that we had run out of highway. I mean, it just drops off to dirt and rocks, with no signs whatsover warning you that the highway has ended. I mean, not one traffic cone or anything! So, what did we do? Made a U-turn and drove a mile back down the highway, but keep in mind that we are going AGAINST traffic because you can't get into the other lane to go the right way down the road. Oh, El Salvador.

A weird slug-like animal that Elvis found stuck to a rock that had a hard turtle-like shell, but the shell actually started bending in half when he picked it up!