Salvadoran Heaven

I know, you should be impressed right? I found heaven in El Salvador. All of the religions in the world and the beliefs, who knew after living here for 5 months I would find this spiritual place in my own backyard.
Heaven also goes by the name of Jardin de Celeste. It’s as close to heaven as you can get in El Salvador. In case you were wondering, it’s a hotel. :-)
Okay, here’s some background…I traveled back on November 6th for our second part of training after living in our communities for almost two months, completing our Asamblea General; we returned to San Vicente to our old host families for two intense weeks of technical training. We also have five days of Spanish.

(My friend Andrew and I playing with bubbles at our visit to Tin Marin, the children's museum in San Salvador)
We have been learning all about everything from Engineers without Borders in El Salvador, grant writing, Peace Corps grants and opportunities, how to make shampoo (a lot of communities make it and sell it), art classes, murals, sports and games with kids, and all kinds of other things as resources we can use to bring back to our communities in order to start projects ourselves. It’s been a pretty intense time for everyone in my training group and we are all pretty drained. We spent six of those two weeks traveling to San Salvador, doing a huge HIV/AIDS Sexual Education training, and a day in Ataco…which leads me back to Heaven.

Peace Corps somehow has a wonderful relationship with this hotel, where we can stay and eat here for a discounted price. Not only is it outside Ataco (only a 45 minute bus from my community), but there are flowers everywhere. I put in small bowls along the pathways. It’s truly a garden (jardin in Spanish) everywhere you walk. The cabins have 3-4 beds, beautiful living areas with a full kitchen, TV, outside seating and hammocks. It’s just breathtaking and the perfect get away. Get this; the cabins are only $40 a night. Heaven is not that expensive…but on a Peace Corps budget that is about 1/6 of my salary. So when YOU come and visit, we will stay here. Hint, hint. Not only is the place beautiful, but the restaurant is beyond fantastic. It’s by the far the best food I have eaten in El Salvador. Sorry, but I did not get a lot of good photos. I shall describe you my meals instead. Dinner our first night there (after visiting an AMAZING waterfall and going swimming in Juayua…photos below) we had a roasted tomato garlic sauce with spaghetti and a chopped, pre-tossed salad with pine nuts and balsamic dressing. They have these DELICIOUS fresh warm soft on the inside, crusty on the outside bread rolls with garlic chive butter and this cilantro type salsa to put on top. I think I ate like 5 rolls. I could have just had those for dinner.

(waterfall in Juayua)
Breakfast we thoroughly enjoyed fresh squeezed orange juice, fluffy thick pancakes not cooked in an inch of oil (how they make them here), with homemade syrup and caramel sauce. Our lunch was more Salvadoran typical food, roasted chicken, rice, but with a succulent Caesar salad. I know, is your mouth watering yet? I almost died and literally went to heaven, but then I realized I was already there. Oh gosh, so happy. We stopped by a bakery on the way back to San Salvador and I bought this delicious pastry. It has chocolate drizzle and pineapple jam on the inside. Can you say yummmmmm!

(most of my training group post-waterfall)
I think I described enough food for you for this post. We have four days of Spanish reconnect starting tomorrow (intense Spanish classes) which finishes on Wednesday, then THANKSGIVING! Then on Friday we have our Swearing In party all the current volunteers put on for our new class. I am pretty excited. Oh I recently found out about my Embassy family that is hosting myself and two of my best friends from my training group for Thanksgiving. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica (awesome) and met his Costa Rican wife there (even cooler), they have two daughters, one who is coming to visit (sweet, someone our age there) and is nominated to leave for Peace Corps in Sub-Saharan Africa this summer. I think I will have an amazing, fantastic thanksgiving. <3 I will update after of course, do not worry. Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving to you and hope all is well! Adios from Heaven. (below is our picnic in our hostel room in San Salvador, we had a craving for healthy food...obviously I choose avocado. :-)