We found that Tortuga Surf Lodge was a great choice. We met the owner Roberto last night who was a very interesting and friendly guy. As you would expect he is surfing mad but after having a few beers with him and watching him in a surf video we realized there was more to him than just surfing. He explained the whole history both political and geographical and it was obvious this place was run more out of love of surfing than a business venture. For a tiny country El Salvador has about 10 murders per day (mostly gang related) which [View Full Entry]

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Finally we are at the beach and within 5 minutes of arriving at our beach side surf lodge we were in the water ducking under the waves. Its about 30 degrees here, very humid and much to our delight it seems to only rain in the middle of the night. The sea is like a warm bath which means you don't need to hurry out but we are lucky enough to have a refreshing pool with ocean views at our lodge. The village we are staying in is called El Tunco which pretty much merges into El Sunzal. This is a [View Full Entry]

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Spent over two weeks at the tranquilo Horizonte Beach Resort. I lost my jounal with this entry, but will eventually write something about this awsome surf spot, but here are some pictures. This was one of our favorite places on the trip so far. [View Full Entry]

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Taking the scenic HWY 2 we cruised along the El Salvadorian coast, passing farms and towns scattered along the semi mountainous jungle landscape. The fresh smell of post rain fills the air. We stopped in the town of Sunzal which is said to have one of the longest point breaks in Central America and checked in to a cheap hotel with a pool and use of their kitchen. After taking a dip in the pool to cool off, we put a pot of soup on the burner then went to check out town. The sun was setting so we watched the [View Full Entry]

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I´ve been through a complicated set of emotions in the past few weeks--through what I would consider my latest "adjustment period." The thing they usually don´t tell you about "culture shock" is that it comes in waves...some that are more intimidating and crushing than others. I had thought it was an orderly process--the honeymoon period, the culture shock, then the delicious profundity of feeling "settled" in a "foreign" place. Not true. Every time I´d get a wave of depression, self-doubt, or have another experience that convinced me that I truly don´t have as secure a hold [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Monterico, the fastest way to the El Salvador boarder was by ferry. We drove the truck onto a 40 ft, rickety, wooden boat and prayed it wouldn't sink. The boat ride was fun as we sat on top of the truck, listening to music as we cruised through the canals toward the boarder. Safely arriving on solid ground, we paid the ferry captain 75Q ($10) and drove the rest of the way to El Salvador. The boarder crossing was a slow process because we were stuck behind a long line of truckers. In total it took over three hours [View Full Entry]

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At the prodding of the youth, we put together an improvised play with a very short 2 weeks of rehearsal for Mother´s day. Uniting the two communities Ciudad Romero and Nueva Esperanza, we had a cast of 14 youth who cross-dressed to make the theme of gender more apparent and to internalize and understand the different "roles" that men and women play in daily life (plus, it´s just funny and campy--which is always enjoyable!). The play centered around a family, specifically a day in the life of Mamá Julia, who confronts the daily tasks of cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, maintaining order [View Full Entry]

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Click the above link to see the work I´m doing featured in the ArtCorps May e-newsletter! (Haz un clic para ver una versión en español también!) Here´s the beginning of the article... Theater has proven to be a necessary tool for helping the youth of Bajo Lempa, El Salvador develop teamwork and leadership skills--and receive an invitation to perform internationally. "We believe that art is a tool that greatly facilitates the work that we do every day to achieve the empowerment of our communities and the strengthening of ou [View Full Entry]

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Bout chuffin´ time too i say! Kelly Slater i am not, but boo ya, it was awesome and i cant wait for doing it everyday for a few months, even though i did solve rising sea level problems by drinking most of the Pacific... The real reason for leaving Nica was that i couldnt eat any more Chicken Subways, too much of a good think is a bad thing. Was gutted it didnt work out down there, and i wondered what i had done so wrong to get so much bad karma at the same time, it must be something i [View Full Entry]

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When people go travelling by themselves, there's usually no shortage of opportunity to meet other travellers. But I've found that travelling in the eastern half of El Salvador, travelling by myself really means travelling by myself, I've gone entire days without seeing another gringo even so much as on the other side of the street. My last blog mainly covered the western half of El Salvador which seems to be more popularly backpacked, but in the eastern, less-travelled half it has felt like [View Full Entry]

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