Our Day Off Excursion (11/14/2018)

In the morning as I was completing my prayer and devotion time in the hotel dining room, John came in and told me that he was going to be returning to NC to be with his wife who was carrying for her sister who was having some health issues.  He told me he was going to arrange for a cab to take him to the airport in San Salvador. When Brian arrived, I asked him if he could arrange for transportation to the airport for John. Brian asked Juan De Dios to take John to the airport.

We said our goodbyes to John and headed for the Volcano National Park.  Brian arranged for a guide to take us on the hike through one of the volcanoes.  Jhenny agreed to act as if translator since our guide did not speak Spanish.  The views were beautiful.   Some of the trail was steep.  At one point Terry tripped and fell.  For a few moments we all (including Terry) thought he might have broken his leg. But he hadn't and although he limped some, he was okay.  There were 60 mile an hour winds, but because we were in the crater we only heard and saw the wind, we didn't feel it.  To me it sounded like the waves crashing on the beach. 

After the hike we drove to a restaurant on a lake.  We were given a complementary cup of a seafood bisque. It was very good.  I got a chicken dish that was very good.  Some ordered a meal with sausage and other local dishes, some ordered fried fish and Nina ordered a  garlic shrimp salad. 

After lunch we drove to the Mayan ruin at Tazumal.  We toured the small museum and I made use of the photo translation feature in Google Translate to read portions of the descriptions in the museum.  We were able to climb up a portion of the ruin.  Although we all bemoaned not being able to go to the very top, I was happy with the length of climb when I had to descend steps that seemed to have gotten a lot steeper between the climb up and the climb down.  After walking around the ruin, we visited the shops near the entrance to the ruins.  A few people made purchases, but I just "window shopped".

We had a short time to rest or start packing before dinner.  At dinner we all talked a bit about the mission.  We initially planned to make our final trek to the Super Mercado for ice cream, but by the time we had finished taking we decided we needed the time to pack. 

I shared some of my extra space in my suitcase to take some of Jhenny's gifts back.  The packing kept my mind off the good-byes I would say tomorrow.Read more