Day 2 "The Lake" El Salvador Trip

Day 2

Adventures at Lake Coatepaque

I learned a lot of things today. Like how to sit in the back of a truck that's driving on steep mountainsides, when they say the bus ride will take "un hora y media" it really means 3 hours, and most importantly, thanks to Claire, I learned how not to do a front flip into the lake. We went to Lake Coatepeque which is a "volcanic" lake. Nice to know it wasn't active! It took an hour and a half drive to be able to see its beautiful structure. The view from above was spectacular. Little did we know that it would take us another hour and a transfer from 3 busses to 2 smaller busses and 2 trucks, until we got to Carlos' righteous crib. Just like his sweetheart, his house was beautiful. It had everything we could ask for, from jet skis to a private helicopter. The lake was a perfect temperature, with random unusual warm spots. Obviously every teen in the place ran to the jet skis, and one of them was roped to a floatable raft for 2, or in our case, 7. John Dzurka called dibs on the speed boat. It broke down and we had to haul it back with a jet ski. But it was no big deal, it can easily be fixed. Everyone had fun jumping from the covered dock into the lake doing flips and shtuff, and taking pictures. After swimming, we were served us some awesome ceviche, and good old fashioned steaks. Clinton ate 3 steaks thanks to the vegetarian members of Team Ataco making generous donations to his cause. My opinion probably speaks for everyone else here and I thought the steaks were the best I've ever had! Before we left, Carlos, sprayed water on us has he took off into the sunset in his fancy helicopter! Clinton said, "Now that guy knows how to make an exit!" We all had a tiempo magnifico there and I'm contemplating on if I should take one of the quads we'll be riding tomorrow and drive down to Carlos' casa and just stay there until June 17th. Just kidding! Carlos is a brave man to invite 42 teenagers to his house, and we appreciate the hospitality we received there.

--Anthony Redendo

A Community Comes to Life

For dinner we had pupusas once again and as always it was delicious. We had them stuffed with beans or cheese or chicken. Tonight the town square was filled with different tents full of arts and crafts made by the local town people. We met one specifically named Victor who spoke perfect English as well as Spanish. We learned about his school and circular activities he is involved in, such as instruments he plays and his favorite sport, soccer. He showed us around and taught us some new words in Spanish. While walking around he stopped at a local shop that sold fruit such as bananas, pineapples, and berries covered in chocolate. We saw Ataco come alive with music, great food and laughter, making us feel welcome in their town. It is really neat how their community comes to life on a Saturday night at the Town Center with the lit Ataco fountain, marimba and street vendors (we sure like the shopping!) Gary Garrett even accompanied the mariachi band who played during dinner with his newly purchased maracas. Authentico! We had the chance to sign up for the activities we will be doing in addition to building, like working on a mural with a local artist, and visiting the medical clinic and local schools. The chaperones met with Mayor Oscar to work out the details of our work site. We have a lot of work to do...well digging, clean up, delivering our donations to outlaying villages of Ataco. Tomorrow is our last day of juega, and then it's trabajo, trabajo, trabajo.




--Paige Danner

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• FCCLA
• El
• salvador
• Ataco
• Service
• Trip