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Published: August 7th 2010
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Las Cascadas de Don Juan
A good view of the waterfalls with the youngsters already at play. Friday, 6 August;
Today was our fun day with Mr. Moody. We left the hotel and headed for Ahuachapan and beyond to visit a really cool waterfall called Las Cascadas de Don Juan. The falls are sort of southwest of Santa Ana. The drive was pleasant and not all that long, with interesting folks along the way at the beginning and interesting natural scenery afterwards. The waterfalls were bought by a local guy all the way to the top and he runs a mini tourist attraction. Besides the waterfall, which only costs a dollar or two (including parking), they have a very nice store/restaurant with good clean restrooms to boot. The folks there were very helpful and willing to explain the flowers and other natural stuff they had on display. I got to see what a cocoa bean looks like, inside and out, then had a cup of fresh hot cocoa from local fruit! After a brief walk up to the really cool falls, I go to enjoy all the young ones, and a couple not so young ones, frolic in and under the falls. Check out the pics. We then reboarded our busses to return aways back down the
Volcanic Ridge
View from our minibus of the volcanic ridge along the route. Each of the cloud-looking things are vents,. road to a really nifty restaurant called Entre Los Nubes Jardin (In The Clouds Garden or Garden In The Clouds) for lunch. This place was awesome! Besides having a really nice open-air restaurant, they also offered us a tour of their gardens. The have a Japanese Garden section and they give you a tour of their coffee plants with a very good dialog about how they grow coffee. Lunch was a selection of Tortialla Soup (which I order and was delicious!), Chicken Soup, Quesadillas, Tostadas, or Chicken Sandwich.
After lunch, we headed over to the town of Ataco for some market shopping. There were a lot of stores with a lot of different items, some hand made and special and others there were the typical tourist stuff. At the waterfalls we bought a bag of their coffee and another of fresh ground cocoa, hoping we won't have problems getting them into the U.S. since they were both non-commerically bagged. My wife picked up a couple more rocks to add to her rock garden at home (don't tell the authorities on her!), and a couple of smaller items at the market. When we got back to Santa Ana, we decided
Store/Restaurant at Waterfalls
A view thru the lush foliage of the store/restaurant that is the entrance to the waterfalls. we had time to check out the cathedral and the famous theater of Santa Ana, along with a bit more shopping in a nearby artisans market. We returned safe and sound to the hotel about 4pm and were told we needed to be ready for dinner by 6pm. At 6pm, we all went to an Argentinian restaurant where we had a very nice meal consisting of a cup of broth (very different), a small salad, the main entree (Talpia, Chicken, or Steak) with veggies and baked potato, then dessert of flan or cake. Everything was delicious although I was not that impressed by my steak since I found it a bit tough. Before dinner, we all shared our experiences during the trip and what made the biggest impression. I mentioned that I'd expected to work hard, both building houses and interpreting, but was very surprised and impressed by how friendly all the people of El Salvador have been and the fact that the folks we helped that had so little were so happy and thankful for everything we gave to them or did for them. All in all a very rewarding experience.
Tomorrow the rest of the group return
Inside the Restaurant
You can see the beautiful plants and flowers, plus a very pretty fountain/pool. to Pensacola while my wife and I start our actual vacation by flying to Peru for a 17 day whirlwind tour. Until then, hope you are enjoying my blog and will continue to follow us. As a parting thought, I hope some of you will think of how good we have it in the U.S. and what we could do to help the great people of places like El Salvador that have so little in comparison.
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