Volcanos and Whale Watching

On Wednesday, March 16th we took advantage of the Obama vacation at the school and headed out towards Santa Ana to climb the Ilamatepec (Santa Ana) Volcano - it is the highest volcano (not highest point) in El Salvador at approximately 7800 feet. Near by is Cerro Verde (an older volcano that looks, well, like a green hill as per the Spanish name) and Izalco, which is a barren and steep volcano (you climb straight up and ski down - see middle pic) from more recent lava flows. The first picture is the beautiful and nearby (crater) Lake Coatapeque. Ilamatepec (see last pic above) is somewhere in between in its development (vegetated, not as steep as Izalco); it had a small eruption in 2005 (previous one being in 1904) and was closed off for 3 years - there is a lake in the crater with steam coming up from spots. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=5907

Cole loves nature, science, and rocks, so volcanos fit right in there. He also has a book on volcanos. SO for this 5 year old boy, the chance to actually climb a volcano was pretty cool. These volcanos are part of a national parque and they have guards who accompany groups as there have been robberies in the past and it is good tourism to keep folks safe! Verdad? We got there just in time (a bit before) at 11am when the trips leave (as we got caught up in the First Lady's traffic as she and the girls headed to a nearby archeological site) and ascended the volcano with a group of about 20 or so folks from various places - Germany, U.S., Canada, El Salvador... One couple were there with their two kids - who wanted to go somewhere different than the average American traveler and it sounds like they were having great fun and adventures (and have been around the world). Cole did great hiking up and down with very few breaks; it took us about 1 1/2 hours to get up and of course shorter going down.

On Saturday March 26th a neighbor/colleague organized a group to meet up at Los Cobanos to go whale watching ~ it is the time of the year (Nov-April) when whales come to birth and feed before heading back up North. We met up at 7:30am and headed out in search of whales and came upon a mama and her baby. (My pictures of the whale experience does not capture the moment - but a teacher/RPCV in the other boat will pass along a few good pics that I will add later). Along the way we saw a tortuga floating with a bird on its back and a dolphin that swam along with the boat. Cole also enjoyed being a boat captain (a non-operational part of the boat). And towards the end many of us jumped into the water and floated to cool off - Rich and Cole led the way with the jump in!

SO - this is our El Salvador - there is lots to do and perhaps we are enticing a few of you to visit! Bienvenidos! Here is a website of various ecoexperiences in El Salvador. http://www.ecoexperienciaselsalvador.com/ NEXT we will be exploring the nearby Central American country of Guatemala. April 8-11th Rich has a principal's conference in Antigua where Cole and I will join him. Then we will be off to Lake Atitlan April 16-20th for the first part of our Semana Santa (Holy week) break.