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!