August 28, 2008
Where to begin? I uploaded 465 photos from my camera and I still need to load as many from Kathy's camera, and I haven't scanned but one of the 31 pages of sketches I worked on, but we might as well begin at the beginning.

After an all night flight from Los Angeles to El Salvador (which means "The Savior" as in Jesus. Most Spanish named countries and towns are named for the Saints, but I never knew E.S. stood for the Big Guy), we ended up in Suchitoto, a sleepy, quaint colonial town, north of San Salvador (I know, kind of repetitious aren't they?) overlooking Lake Suchitlan. Here is the view off the balcony of La Posada Resort, where we stayed:



And here's the restuarant where we ate breakfast every morning, also overlooking the lake:




On the wall at left (above) is an original, handmade antique plow:




But the real charm of the place was the custom breakfasts made each morning by the local cook. Check out the scrambled eggs with chiles, refried beans, fried bananas, creative tomatoes with the chile strips, fresh squeezed orange juice and cafe con leche (coffee with milk) the latter being the standard throughout central and South America.




After breakfast I would sit out on the balcony and sketch the scenery. Here's my take on the lake and the afternoon clouds:




Next stop, Peru.

"It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you've wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane."
—Charles Lindbergh