We boarded the plane one by one, taxi-ed out towards the runway and then the captain came over the speaker system, "Señores y señoras, soy tu capitan. Vamos a despegar en unos veinte minutos que estamos el quinto en la pista. El vuelo va a durar...blahblahblah...gracias por viajar con Delta." IT JUST GOT REAL...
With tears in my eyes, the plane unstuck from the runway and I was overwhelmed with gratitude...we're actually doing this and this dream of mine was actually coming true! The start of a life changing experience...and this small group of hand picked individuals was chosen to do it.
During the three hour flight, we occupied ourselves with conversations, a good book and/or a nap, and before we knew it, we were descending to land!!
This airport was clearly much different than the ones we were used to, but we stuck together and quickly found out that we were not the only passengers traveling to El Salvador today!
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| Immigration & customs |
We picked up our luggage and passed through customs without a hitch! Outside, as we waited for our van to pick us up, we observed so many new things: the vibrant colors of all the different vegetation and flowers, various merengue songs sporadically heard from a distance, the armed guards on many street corners, the houses painted earthy tones with clay tiled roofs and the buzzing hustle of salvadorians chaotically weaving in and out of the crowds of people with no apparent system in place, but without incident. We were taking it all in and loving every bit of it!
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We loaded our van Salvadorian style (through the window!), then were on our way to the hotel with a quick stop at the new local lunch joint...the first Wendy's in El Salvador! Notice anything different about this Wendy's? El Salvador is definitely in full World Cup mode!! |
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| Loading our bags up |
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| A couple different things going on here that we normally wouldn't see in the US |
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| Like sardines on the bus |
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| Lunch at a sports bar?!?! Nope...Wendy's! |
After a tasty, entertaining lunch we headed to the hotel only to discover another beautiful panorama of the city.
After unpacking and freshening up a bit, we were off to the local church (1 of only 2 English speaking churches in the country) to spend the evening with the founders of the orphanage for an enjoyable evening learning more about the Ranch...how it started, it's mission, present programs in place, community outreach, their struggles, successes and future goals. We were treated to a delicious taco dinner, old fashioned coca cola and great company!
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| Meet & greet |
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| Buen provecho! :p |
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| SALUD!! |
With Day #1 complete, Day #2 awaits us...along with 26 children from the orphanage that we will be meeting. We call it a night while laying in our beds listening to the drum beat, fireworks and cheering from the streets below...an unforgettable rhythm that's already running through our veins. Buenas noches San Salvador!
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