Central America - El Salvador

Hola All in Year 2

How are you all?

I hope you liked reading about my day in LA. Fun wasn't it.We are now in El Salvador which in a country in Central America. It is quite a small country and they don't get many tourists or foreign visitors here. We have just spent a wonderful 2 weeks exploring this lovely place. The time difference between here and England is that we are 6hrs behind you. The money is the same as America, dollars or this is the symbol $ it is like our £ sign.

After our mammoth journey here from NZ we stayed in a great hostel called El Robles. This was not only our home for 1 week but also our classroom as this is where we took our Spanish classes for 5 days from 8-12. 

Our classroom was a little different though as it wasn't in a building but under the trees in the garden. It was very pretty as we sat and learnt this new language in the shade with a small breeze blowing around us.

Our "Outside" Classroom

Here we are with our teacher Hannibal, they pronounce Annival. He was a really good teacher and very patient with Mrs Maynard who struggled a lot. Tim was a bit naughty and laughed a lot when she couldn't get the words right. That's not a nice thing to do is it when someones trying their best. What do you think?

After our daily lessons the rest of the day was spent relaxing in the sunshine, reading in a hammock, splashing around in the small pool or practicing our spanish with the local people that worked and lived in the hostel. 

I made a new friend called Gabi who was the owners niece and was staying at El Robles for her school holiday.  Gabi was 11 years old. She told me all about her school.

The school day over here starts at 7am but finishes at 12.30pm just in time for lunch. She explained that this was because it can get so hot in the middle of the day it is hard to concentrate so starting the day earlier means the air is cooler and they can do more work.

Here I am with Mrs Maynard and Gabi on one early evening as she helped Mrs Maynard do some homework. In return of Spanish lesson Mrs Maynard taught Gabi some BSL.

We were all very sad to leave this little place as we had a great weeks stay here.
 

Here we all our saying goodbye to the lovely family that own the place.

We had a small trip to the next town called Attco. Mrs Maynard was excited about going to this town as she had heard it was a very arty place. Check out the street and shop walls. They are really different and pretty aren't they.

Near this town was a coffee planation and processing factory. This is how and where coffee comes from in the different stages -

1 Hand picked from the bushes.









 

 

2 Depulped, which means taking off the red outer shell by putting it through a machine.

3 The sticky yellow bean is then washed and sits in a bath of water for 2days.

4 The beans are then washed again, separated by size and weight and are laid out to dry on large playground size patio in the sunshine. They are turned every few hours to make sure they dry evenly.

 

5 After the drying process the beans go into another big machines that rotates round like a big tumble dryer and takes the final thin shell off leaving the green coffee bean.

 

6 All the beans are then bagged up.

7 This green bean is then roasted in big ovens and at the end you get the coffe beans like we buy in England.

You can buy coffee in beans so you can crush them yourselves at home or when it is already done for you and all you need to do is add water.
 
Here I am with the final product and like what you see in the supermarkets.

 

Mrs Maynard and Tim then got to taste the coffee. I didn't want to as I prefer milk or orange juice than coffee. We all found this tour very interesting and learnt a lot. 

When we got back to town they had a big local food market or food fiesta in the town square. After all the walking around we decided to grab a snack and try some El Salvadorian tacos. They were really yummy.  In the small bag you see on the side is a chilli sauce. We don't like spice so decided not to pour any on.

On top of the taco was refined beans which is like a kidney bean in a paste form, lettuce, small bits of chicken and grated cheese a little bit like goats cheese. It was very yummy indeed.

The next town we stopped at was called Santa Ana and was a lot bigger, a little smelly and a real hustle and bustle feel to the place. We were only there so we could climb a big volcano called Volcan Santa Ana.When we climbed Volcan Santa Ana it also has a amazing views of another Volcano called Volcan Izalco. It's pretty cool isn't it. To walk up Volcan Santa Ana we had to go in a group and take a guide. When we nearly got the top it was very rocky and bleak. We all agreed that we can imagine this is what the moons looks like a little bit. What do you think?
 
When at the top looking down into the crater there was a bright aqua blue lake. 

Well, year 2 that is our adventures up to date for now. Next country is Honduras which is next to El Salvador on the map.
 

As they are next to each other this means that we can just jump on a bus and head over to Honduras rather than in a plane. Nice and easy.

Adios for now.
Lots of love to you all.
Xx