Feliz Cumpleanos, Gloria! February 19, 2011

Our day began with breakfast cooked by Evelyn at 6:30am.     We had toast, fruit, refried beans, yogurt, juice, and coffee!   For Yours Truly, a can of "Coca-Cola Light"!!    At 8:30am, we climbed into the van and began our drive out of town.   We met Gloria's family at a gas station, and her brother-in-law led the way.   Our first stop--a towel factory!!   They make towels there for all different companies, including Tommy Hilfiger.    Their outlet store proved to be fun shopping----we bought over 20 beach towels at $5.00 apiece!!   Incredible deal!    While we were stopped there, we saw a womens' softball team getting ready to play, and graciously, they agreed to let us pose for a photo with them!  Everywhere we go, people are so good to us!    Salvadorians are happy, kind, gracious, and when they hear the English, they seem to go out of their way to show off their country and their culture!!    One of the things we found out yesterday as we traveled about the area is that MOST locals travel either by bus ($0.25 per ride) or in the back of pick-up trucks!   Small children ride in the back 

of the trucks, and there are no car seats in the cars!    How safety concious we've become....   AND yet, there is a motorcycle helmet law here!!    Our first sight-seeing stop for the day:  SAN ANDREAS.    San Andreas is a Mayan ruin that was uncovered in the 1900's.   We spent an hour there, looking about, climbing the ruins, and enjoying the museum.     Our next stop was HOYA de CEREN, which is the "Pompeii of the Central Americas".    It was a fabulous trip, and we learned a lot about the culture and history of the Salvadorian People.    After a meal at a very modern mall, we chose to return to our house instead of going to another Mayan ruin.  Again, we were exhausted!!    The fun wasn't over yet----today was Gloria's birthday and her entire family showed up at 8:00pm with supper for us, birthday cake for Gloria, and Pinata, and "Huevos Chimbos"--this is a Salvadorian tradition in which you take dyed hard-boiled eggs with confetti inside instead of the yolk and white!   You take the egg and smash it onto the birthday girl's head---it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!     We loved subjecting Gloria to these customs.   Her family was lovely and spoiled us rotten.   It's evident they love her so much.    It was hard to leave the mess for Evelyn to clean up, so we tried a little bit to clean, and then gave up and went to bed.   Evelyn wasn't nearly as annoyed with us as we thought she'd be!     All in all, it was a fantastic day, filled with fun, laughter, time with family, and we agreed that we would take advantage of God's "day of rest" on Sunday and not go anywhere!