Feels like home.

Each and every day I am in El Sal I fall in love with it a little bit more. This weekend I experienced the beach. Black sand, 14 ft. waves, cuts and bruises, hammocks, and sun. I don't think it gets much better.

With some ladies and the motor pool we embarked on our journey at 9:45 a.m. Along the road to Costa del Sol were the most amazing sights. We saw a cow tied up to a fence post like a dog, naked children, women with pots atop their heads, a car vertical in a ditch, laundry day in the creek, horses eating grass, chickens, men selling fish, and women selling tortillas. It was incredible. I couldn't help but smile and think to myself how much I love it here.

When we arrived at Club Salvadoreno we were given our "bungalow" number (21). Two hammocks and a picnic table overlooking the crashing waves, black sand, and sun filled sky. And so we went....fearless into the ocean. I must first say that this is the surfing capital of the americas and possibly the whole world. But we didn't care. We went for it. An 8 ft. wave later, we were down. Thirty seconds in the water and we were hit head on by a giant wave. With no where to go we scattered. I stood the longest (which probably why I bled the most). A few seconds of confusion and embarrassment later got up blood streaming down our legs and feet.

We walked to a sandy part of the beach across rocks and sticks with our bloody feet and pain. High tide and all the sandy part was full of water so we climbed on top of a rock and sat and enjoyed the sun and secretly tried to slow our heartbeats. Another trek across the rocks and we made it back to our bungalow. Next step....lunch and the pool. No more ocean for us thank you.

Around 4 o'clock when we decided to go home the tide had receded and the beautiful, walkable beach was exposed. Too late. We already had motor pool on its way. Maybe next time we will take our lessons learned and wait until low tide to adventure into the water.