The rainy season

The thing about the rainy season in El Salvador is... it really rains. This is our first "summer" here - only it is really winter. And winter in July mostly means rain. But the backyard looks great. Everything is growing. Even pots of plants we hid because we thought they were dead - those are growing, too. The mango tree is dripping with fruit. We have been enjoying the Salvadoran snack of sliced green mangoes with worcestershire sauce and lime juice. I'm not good at cutting the green mango - I have a band aid on my thumb to prove it. On our next trip to the grocery store - we are going super native! We are going to buy the green spice called "alguashte" - it is ground up pumpkin seeds. Then we'll sprinkle that on the mango as well.

We have bananas again on our trees. I still can't believe bananas grow pointing up. And I just now figured out where cashews come from. I have been seeing the fruit here and didn't know that "thing" attached at the bottom was a cashew. No wonder cashews are so expensive. I'd never make it as a Salavadoran farmer, but I sure am learning a lot.

We have had some wonderful visitors from S.C. in the past few weeks. Vic and Linda, our neighbors, and Natalie, Maggie's friend, both came and stayed here in the complejo with us. We shopped, we ate, we drove around a lot. It was so nice to have a little piece of home with us for awhile. It also helped us with missing our son, Will, just a little bit less. We have driven back and forth to the airport a bunch, but the trip we are most looking forward to is Will's return on August 6. We wandered around the airport when we took Natalie on Sunday, and we finally found the Pollo Campero on the third floor. Every time we get on a plane there are loads of boxes of roast chicken. Now we know where they are coming from.

We took Vic and Linda to the Botanical Garden. The picture is of the flower I really want to grow in our backyard. I think it is amazing. The most entertaining part of the garden visit was watching an employee cut down a tree. He climbed a really tall dead tree barefooted. Then he cut off most the limbs with a machete. It was better than watching the Travel Channel. I think we sat there for 30 minutes. He was so agile. I still can't figure out how he did it without shoes on.

I realized today that I have forgotten my password for my online banking. But unlike the States, there is a lovely note in Spanish on the bank website encouraging me to visit my Personal Representative to get my new password. I foresee another adventure when we go to the bank. We have been running into a lot of "no ay" lately - meaning whatever it is we want, they don't have it. Sometimes there's a long explanation - sometimes there's not. Hopefully I won't get the "no ay" treatment at the bank. They are usually pretty nice.

We also took our visitors to the pier and the beach. We walked all the way to the end of the pier and saw a man fishing while wearing a Clemson hat. He was delightful. Turned out his brother is getting his Ph.d. there. James was sorry he didn't take his picture. You just never know who you will meet here. The other picture is from the beach club. The pool we are standing in does not look like much - but it is lovely. The club has these big rock pools by the ocean - the waves splash over the walls. The nice thing is that you can swim and not worry about the rough current. We are laughing in the photo because Linda looks so short.


For everyone considering a trip to El Salvador - please come visit us! and please bring magazines. I've run out of Oprah's so I'm reading back issues of Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker. I think I'd read anything at this point. Oh, guess what. For the third time today - it is RAINING!