Dia De Las Gacias

Our friends Adam and Erin Smith opened up their home to over 25 Embassy personnel and Peace Corps Volunteers for a Thanksgiving feast. Chris and I were responsible for the ham. We bought two Virginia hams at a great deli near our apartment. All we needed to do was to heat them up. About 4 hours before go time I headed into the kitchen to start the prep. Much to my dismay the oven would not work. Fortunately, about 30 minutes earlier our Chilean neighbors stopped by to introduce themselves and told us to stop by if we ever needed anything… knock, knock, knock...

Chris and I have sponsored a couple Peace Corp volunteers, Jessica from Maryland, Leah from Minnesota and Rachel from Texas. Whenever they are in the capital they are welcome to stay with us and we try to take care of them. Most live in sparce accomodations, many bathe in cold water they have to carry from a well and pour into a three foot diameter plastic tub. Such is life in the country/campo. Some of them are responsible for building their homes and receive a couple hundred dollars each month from the Peace Corps. One volunteer told me that the entire annual budget for Peace Corps is equal to a single days budget in Iraq (I have not done a fact check to confirm the accuracy of the statement).

At dinner one of the volunteers asked Chris if he was a volunteer in the Peace Corps. He responded, “no it’s more like the War Corps, kind of like the peace corps but with guns”. Give thanks…

The Friday following Thanksgiving we traveled 1.5 hours up the coast to a resort called Las Vereneras (translates in to the poinsettias). Las Vereneras is a private club with personal homes and rental villas. The area is called Los Cabanos and it is pretty underdeveloped, but it has two nice resorts, one of them is all inclusive and looks like a standard Cancun experience - minus the warm beautiful water.

About 15 families from the embassy rented individual villas for the weekend. There were kids galore, great waterslides and a pirate ship in the middle of the pool. There is a wonderful support group for Embassy families in El Salvador. The kids go to private international schools in San Salvador. Every weekend there are family events at the embassy pool or trips out to Mayan ruins or to the beach. Chris and I miss SUmmers and Mae terribly and can't wait until they visit. They will love it here. The beach is not really a swimming beach. The sand is volcanic and it smells like the pacific. Its great for walking but better to relax in a hammock on the patio overlooking the sea drinking out of a coconut. I don’t think Chris went in the water once. Chris was able to get in a quick 18 and become fast friends with the only other person on the course at 7am. There are only 3 golf courses in the entire country and this one just squeezed in the second 9 within the past year. After not playing in over 3 months his first drive on a par 3 landed 1.5 feet from the hole. Tiene mucho suerte. All in all a good weekend at the beach.

Marine Ball

One on the benefits of living in a major metropolis is the ability to take advantage of the cultural activities. Which is what we did the second weekend in November. On Thursday night Chris and I attended what has become to be known as the best concert in the world, MANA, with an a tilde over the N.. Chris and I, along with tens of thousands of screaming El Salvadorans, packed the San Salvador futbol stadium to hear Mana play. Mana is a Mexican band that Chris has been listening to for over 10 years. He says they are the Latin U2 . It was great because we actually knew most of the songs. And they are great songs. We had 11th row, center stage seats. I have attached a video from the concert that I found on you tube.
http://www.truveo.com/Mana-San-Salvador-Me-Vale/id/2463552604
The entire concert was ruckus and confirmed that this place is not as dangerous as they make you believe. As you can imagine we stood out a little, literally, we could see over the heads of all the people in front of us. Not an obstructed view in the house!

On Friday night we attended the Marine Corps Ball in the Hotel Intercontinental, hosted by the Marines posted in El Salvador. We were celebrating the 229th anniversary of the Marine Corp. It has been interesting for me to get to know some people from the Army, Marines and Navy. There are only a couple Air Force guys down here and they take a lot of heckling from the other military branches.

At the Marine Ball we enjoyed a night of dancing salsa, meeting new people from El Salvador and from the Embassy, and laughing with our friends who were taking advantage of the free bar.

Chris and I took dance lessons three years ago and decided it’s best just to wing it. Salsa, disco, meringue, what’s the difference.



Word on the street was that the President of El Salvador was going to make an appearance. No such luck.

It was a working party for Chris so we sat at a Spanish speaking table. You’d be surprised at how much can be communicated with smiles and “oh noooo”, “si!” and shaking your head, regardless of whether or not you understand anything.






Chris looked handsome in his dress blues (our friend Tom calls him Major Nelson from I dream of Jeanie) , but the Marines dress uniforms take the cake. I am happy to report that we were not the last to leave the festivities. URAH!

Juyua & Suchitoto

An unexpected three day weekend in early November allowed us to venture out of the city to explore some of the Spanish colonial towns near San Salvador. On the United States scale, everything is near San Salvador, but with the terrain and traffic, a short 30 mile trip could take close to 2 hours in El Salvador. We decided to take 2 day-trips so that Mr. Football (?) wouldn’t have to miss Saturday night football at the boss’s house.

On Saturday we set out with two friends, Erin and Adam, for the Juyua Gastronomical Festival. Some of you might be thinking the same thing I was …”tempting”. It sounded more like a first class ticket to zipro-ville to me. Nonetheless, we all piled into their Subaru and drove up into the mountains to the west of the city. The city was very quaint, central park, a large mercado of crap made in Guatemala and China and a very professional looking array of food booths. Chris jumped in with his eyes shut, no tiene miedo with no aftereffects suffered, figures. I wimped out and ate fresh cashews and an orange I brought just in case. Maybe next time...

After lunch we hiked down to a few waterfalls and pools on the mountain side. To speed up the trip to the trail we accepted the assistance of a few friendly locals who agreed to drive us down to the trail. We rode in a mode of transport called a Tuk Tuk, because of the sound the engine makes when struggling to haul 4 gringos up a 3 degree incline.

Before departing the town we stopped in at a pharmacy to buy some aspirin for my pounding head. You can imagine my surprise when they charged me 4.5 cents for two pills. Don’t they know how much it costs to develop those drugs? They could be selling them for at least 5 times as much and make a 500% profit.

On Monday we set off on our second day-drip to Suchitoto. Suchitoto is another Spanish colonial town to the north of San Salvador. It endured very heavy fighting throughout their civil war. The buildings still have bullet holes and large murals of FLMN & Communist leaders. After the civil war the revolutionaries/guerrillas went legit and formed a political party. I’m not an expert, actually I’m barely informed, but I compare the FLMN to the Democrats and the Arena Party to the Republicans. This is a bit of a stretch since many FLMN activists identify with the ideals of Hugo Chaves and Fidel Castro but it simplifies the situation for me. My general view of world politics in skewed and sometimes inaccurate.

We traveled up with four other couples, actually Chris invited us to go with them and they accepted. They are all involved with regional security so we felt very safe blindly following them thru the countryside. After lunch and walking around the standard city central: park, church, hotels, shops…we decided to take a boat trip recommended in the travel book. Eleven bodies climbed into a sketchy looking boat that proceeded to drop at least one foot into the water until there was less than 12 inches of play between boat floating and boat sinking. And that wasn’t the concern; the concern was whether or not we could plow thru the plants that grow near the land. As the plants were overtaking the boat I just kept thinking snakes are more afraid of you than you are of them.

The boat captain succeeded without any snake incidents, and guided our craft over to an island that contained an ancient cave. On arrival to the island we all shook our heads in a “fool me twice, shame on me” fashion as we inspected the 4 by 2 foot cave. Back to the boat, back to the city… enough exploring for one weekend.

mi casa es su casa

Chris spent two weeks looking for housing for us in San Salvador. The majority of Embassy people live inside gated communities with little to no green space. Since El Sal is a critical crime zone, as far as the state department is concerned, the housing requirements for safety are extreme... you cannot just pick any old house or apartment. There are regulations in place for razor wire, alarm systems, bars on windows, cameras etc.






After weeks of searching for a furnished home up to speed with the security regs, Chris settled on a nice apartment complex. It is brand new and beautiful. We have 4 bedroom for all the visitors we are sure to have, tennis courts, pool and close proximity to the embassy. Our edificio is like the united nations.

We have a beautiful top floor apartment with views of the volcano. We eat most of our meals on the patio and are enjoying the reprieve from "house projects" here. The view from our kitchen window is great for watching for friends or when the tennis court opens up.

All in all we have a great place to live that is easily accessible to shopping, embassy, restarants, neighborhood and highways. 30minutes from the airport and 40 minutes from the beach. Plenty safe and ready for visitors.

Intro to El Sal - parte dos

There are two Continental flights from Omaha to San Salvador every day, an early flight that arrives at noon and a late flight arriving at 8pm. The entire duration of the trip, Epply to Cumapala, is 6.5 hours. After spending approximately 8 hours in the Houston airport and 17 hours traveling I arrived in El Salvador (one of the perks of flying on employee passes). Chris was waiting at the gate for me and escorted me thru customs in the diplo. line, muy importante!


One of my first impression of San Salvador was the great condition of the roads, and the crazy painted buses packed full of people. All of the buses are privately owned and run, what seems to be, a frantically random schedule and route. There are obscure, unmarked bus stops scattered about the city and campo. I guess it is a good thing that we are not allowed, or should I say discouraged from taking the public buses by embassy security. The embassy security dispatch would spend all day trying to help lost gringos who took the wrong bus. The local maras (i.e. gangs) extort the bus owners and the buses are often “held up” by banderos who politely ask everyone to give them one dollar before they exit the autobus peacefully, bounty in hand.



Chris is naturally inclined to stay very busy, and his new position down here is a custom fit. He has been working 12 hour days, Saturdays and Sundays included. He loves the work and the people: I like to break down his job into three parts when explaining it to friends & family: Part 1. Military – i.e. coordinate sending El Sal troops to US for training, etc; Part 2. Humanitarian – i.e. coordinate free medical clinics staffed by US Military doctors, dentists and nurses; and Part 3. Party Planner – i.e. “The four star only drinks wines from the south of Spain, not the North of Spain, make it happen…”. And for someone who likes to fly by the seat of his pants, literally, this third part has proven to be a challenge. He is learning to appreciate the beauty in the details, a man after my own heart. So far we are experiencing a work/home “role” reversal. I am struggling with not working for the first time since school and always want to go and explore when Chris is done working, where he comes home tired and wants to rest on the weekend. Rest assured James; Chris is no longer soliciting Tuesday afternoon golf partners. Que lastima! And for those of you missing his semi-weekly coffee shop rants, don’t take it personally, he doesn’t have much time to hang out pondering the meaning of the universe and surfing the web for “interesting articles”. At least for another 11 months…



Needless to say Chris had my entire week scheduled prior to my plane touching down in El Salvador, not a minute to spare. After a leisurely breakfast at the embassy cafeteria (where Chris has his daily Spanish lesson, typico breakfast, and first cup of café con leche – alas, he is quite disappointed that they do not serve espresso in the cafeteria) he began to brief me on the ways of the Embassy and his take on San Salvador. Although he had some very keen observations, I’m afraid that he lost me somewhere after “You know LIsh…I’m a bit a celebrity around here”.



The first week included: a 3 hour bible study (M); a luncheon with the American Women’s Association (T); spouse luncheon hosted by the Ambassadors wife (W); volunteering in a bodega in the part of town we were clearly instructed not to go (R); and dinner every night with a different couple or group. I’ve managed to study a little Spanish in between activities, but the language differences are strikingly apparent. I often repeat myself to a very confused looking El Salvadoran until finally hitting the jackpot with a pronunciation that they understand. Who knew “la cuenta” would be my downfall.

Since tourism is not exactly booming in El Salvador, the need to speak ingles is not on the forefront. Although many Salvadorans go to school in the states, the majority of the population does not speak English. Chris has a theory that people who only speak one language do not understand how difficult it is to understand a native speaking going 100miles per hour. We both have a renewed respect and appreciation for people who are not native English speakers, what a huge accomplishment to survive and succeed in a foreign land with so many unknown words and expressions. Although right now I feel like there is no way I will be able to understand the endless streaming of gibberish on CNN espanol, Chris continues to encourage me and makes me laugh at the bold confidence he displays when communicating in Spanish. Stay tuned for future language skills updates.

Intro to El Sal

Chris and I have been in El Salvador for a few short weeks and it feels like we've been here forever. This is my first time posting so please remember that I am an engineer, much more comfortable with graphs than para-graphs.

For those of you unfamiliar with El Salvador I'll provide a very brief gringo overview. The country is small and covered in volcanoes. Although only 150miles by 60 miles, roughly the size of Massachusetts, the terrain is difficult to maneuver. It takes about 3.5 hours to travel 120 miles by car.


El Salvador has the highest population density in the region, approx 290 people per square mile. The official population of the country is 6.7 mil, but the unofficial count is that over 2 million of these are in the US, legally and illegally, working and sending money back to family members here. The capital is San Salvador, pop. 2.5 million, they use the US dollar for currency, same time zone as Lincoln NE, and the electricity current and plugs are the same as the US. El Sal is beautiful and tropical and strangely accommodating. There is an obvious lack of gringos here. Due to the recent civil war and current gang problems, tourism is not a mainstay of the area. They are working on it by building new all inclusive resorts, but it has a way to go.

El Salvadoran people are very, very kind and welcoming (except on the roads). But even then they sometimes surprise you. Chris likes to say that driving in El Salvador is like being in a fist fight. We have yet to see a traffic cop and have accepted the El Sal practice of optional turn signals. It is not strange to us to see a herd of cattle, a man with his three kids, or a makeshift double decker pickup truck with three layers of dinning room tables stacked up on top of each other with people sitting at the very top swaying with the moving traffic, crossing the 4 lane pan-Americana highway a dusk. It is different than what we are used to, but it seems to work down here.

There is only one guide book for El Salvador, Lonely Planet. I am going to borrow a well written introduction to further describe the country...

"Your going to El Salvador. People ask why. You tell them about the surfing, the hiking, and the museums, and they've already stopped listening. You mention being interested in the civil war and they turn around and ask you: 'Isn't it dangerous there?'

You remind them the war has been over since 1992, for the more than a decade. Over longer than the war in Guatemala, in fact, and didn't your sister spend two weeks learning Spanish in Antigua? But what about gangs? You point out that it's not as if gang members hang out on every street corner. That more tourists get robbed in Mexico or Costa Rica than they do in EL Sal. They shake their head. No, there was an article in Newsweek. They're not convinced.

And they may never be. You'll return with pictures of cloud forests and moonscapes on the tops of vocans. You learned to surf on the best waves in Central America. You caught a funk band at a boho bar in San Sal. You went hiking in Perquin with a guerrilla-turned-tour guide, who told you about the war as it was: terrifying, thrilling, boring, inspiring, confusing and sad. You ate pupusas in a city park watching little boys chase pigeons. ....Like a colonial church, bright blue, battered by earthquakes, El Salvador is still standing."


Nicaragua & El Salvador. Lonely Planet