Monday, December 27, 2010

Interlude: Around El Tunco, El Salvador (November 23 - December 18, 2010)

El Tunco being small, relatively quiet, not overly touristy, and mostly affordable, we decide to stay for the better part of a month, with our intention to learn how to surf... so we bought four used surf boards for a total of about $300...

...these boards needed some minor repairs so Jason spearheaded this project...
tools and materials for surfboard repair: fiberglass, sandpaper, epoxy-like filler, resin, brush, scissors, alcohol, and WD-40...
waxing the newly-repaired boards

tuna purchased in La Libertad's fish marked for $2/lb.
  yes, that is only the head of what was an enormous fish.

Jesucristo Salvador del Mundo(Jesus Christ Saviour of the world).  This bizarre installation is found at a prominent intersection in the capital of San Salvador, to where we took a weekend sidetrip...

the view from the Jesus sculpture, looking more like New Jersey sprawl than central America.  San Salvador sadly lacks culture, seeming to have copied foot for foot, burger king for burger king,  New Jersey.

seen just near Jesus Saviour of the World, this is Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was brutally murdered on March 24, 1980 in El Salvador.  Romero was a Catholic bishop who defended human rights and organized against the abuses of the then-El Salvadorean government, and his murderers were a death squad who had been trained at the US Army School of the Americas in Georgia, USA.  These military death squads terrorized El Salvador with politically-motivated assassinations, later that same year murdering an American charity worker and three nuns in a case that along with Romero's murder became an international scandal.

we stayed two nights in Santa Tecla, near San Salvador, and above is the street food we located in the Santa Tecla market...

Sunday morning in Santa Tecla

pupusas consumed in a Santa Tecla pupuseria: corn with jalapeƱo, corn with beans, rice with zucchini, plantain with shrimp!

"this business is protected with the blood of Christ- the keys are in heaven"
religion does tend to get bizarre in central America

back in El Tunco, Sonia and Jeff ready to hit the waves

only two days later, Sonia and Jeff tearing it up on La Bocana (ha ha ha, they wish)


El Tunco provided quality time to play music.  Here is Craig with our English friend Tom, who plays ukelele.
 
footbag on the beach, late in the afternoons

marvelous El Tunco sunset

Sonia's idea for a good birthday (Jason's) time

...the music is gaining momentum on Jeff´s birthday...
by now we have formed a band, called "No Leftovers", featuring the three original guitars, plus two ukeleles (English Tom, Canadian Darrell) and an additional guitar (Australian Michael).  Playing mostly folk music, plus a little reggae and classic rock

two Belgian cyclists passed through El Tunco while we were there; they are going from New York to Buenos Aires

indoor camping? Craig and Mike's mosquito solution at La Sombra hostel, where we were based for the month

Mike returned from San Francisco with a lot of energy, a harmonica, a frisbee, a nerf football, many sets of guitar strings, and a bunch of other stuff

....dusk colors at El Tunco...

No Leftovers celebrated its first public performance at Coco Bar in El Tunco on Wednesday Open Mic night.  We played 6 songs, 45 minutes, to about 75 people, and it was quite a party.

To see videos of the following songs, click on the links below:

"Monkey Wisdom": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7a3yvA1w9M

"The Jeff Song": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7UXXygQscA


...here we all are (plus Tom), eating a fish tacos dinner organized by Jason...

Jason and Tom chilling on the beach

surfers and bodyboarders in the water at sunset

we hope to surf like this someday

beach bonfire near the end of our stay in El Tunco

a final El Tunco gourmet meal: beerbatter-fried red snapper with guacamole and honey mustard dipping sauces.

At the end of our stay, we were able to sell the four surfboards again for $260, which came to a cost of a little more than $10 a person for the whole month.  This is usually the rental cost of a surfboard for one day!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Happy belated birthday Jason! Looks like you had an awesome one.
-Mikey