Sarah’s Visit and Sightseeing

I was thrilled to get a visit from Sarah this past week. In addition to fitting in Spanish classes (to which Sarah accompanied me, building on her already solid Spanish), we paid visits to El Tuncon, the surfer beach I referenced in an earlier post; Lago Coatepeque, a beautiful crater lake in the west of the country; and El Pital, El Salvador’s highest point. Gotta love small, accessible countries.

We started the week by relaxing on the Playa del Tuncon, or "Pig Beach":

El Tuncon, a quiet surfing hamlet

On the way to the beach...

Once again, Sarah proved herself to be the quick one, pointing out that the rock actually does look like a pig - a pig on its back

Sarah's "Baywatch" moment

Whoa Bro!

Sarah and me

At Lago Coatepeque, we hiked to the summit of the Santa Ana Volcano (an active volcano whose last eruption was in 2005) and took in fantastic views of the volcano’s crater:

View of Cerro Verde and Izalco Volcano on the hike to the Santa Ana Volcano

Me trying to keep up with Sarah, with view of Lake Coatepeque in the background

Sarah peers into the crater

Sarah and me above the Santa Ana crater

Great view of Lake Coatepeque

Storm brewing at dusk in front of our hotel

We also did a little canoeing around the lake and did some swimming:

In San Salvador, we celebrated Sarah’s 30th birthday with my host parents Rosa and Angel, our good friends Rafa, and my Japanese host step-brother Také.

Here’s us singing rousing renditions of “Feliz Cumpleaños” and “Queremos Pastel” (“Happy Birthday” and “We Want Cake”):

Také, Rafa, Angel, Rosa and Sarah

Next, Sarah and I hiked to the top of the San Salvador Volcano, this one long since dormant.

San Salvador Volcano

Then, this past weekend we hiked to El Salvador’s highest point. To be honest, it was a little anti-climatic, what with the cloud obscured views and the barbed wire fence running over the marker at the summit, but we did enjoy a nice hike.

To El Pital or to The Clouds? A false choice.

At El Salvador's highest point (2730m)

Sarah reaches the top. Whew!

Seriously, this is the only view from the summit

Can you say, LOST? You could almost hear Rousseau's message playing... "Il est dehors..."

Sarah takes a ride on the zip line

A nicer view from near the summit

Finally, we toured around the famous city of La Palma. La Palma is an eclectic art enthusiast's dream, and is where Fernando Llort, El Salvadoran painter of world fame, founded what is called “Naïve Art” and formed local cooperatives to learn the style and make a living from it. From the Lonely Planet: “These bright, primitive images of mountain villages, campesinos [villagers] or Christ images are painted on anything from seeds to church walls.” Incredibly, 75% of the town makes a living through this art form. Here’s a selection of sights from La Palma.

Seriously, almost everything becomes art in this town: