July 7: Lake Coatepeque

 On the evening of July 6, we headed to Lake Coatepeque.  Carlos and Delmi and their two boys, Guillermo and Bryan, had rented a house on the lake.  We spent that evening swimming and kayaking.  Then we spent all day on the 7th at the lake.  We swam and kayaked.  We ate delicious food, including pupusas and ceviche and fresh fruit.

And one of the highlights of the trip was they paid for an hour and a half trip on a boat around Lake Coatepeque.  The boat took us to an area where there are some little hot springs and we swam.  And then the boat took us to an area where the water is this bright, brilliant blue-green color and we swam there.  The water is warm and comfortable.  The girls loved jumping off the second level of the boat into the water.  That was one of their favorite parts of the trip.  It is a beautiful lake with lovely homes along the lake and an island in the middle of the lake.  And I love being on boats.  It was a pretty perfect day.

Michelle and I both spent some time reading on the trip.  She finished four or five books on the trip!  

Hard to see right by the shore...but there is a beautiful white bird (maybe an egret?)  right there.

When it was time to check out, we headed to downtown San Salvador and saw the Cathedral and the town square.  There are so many people there.  And so much traffic.

Then we drove to a restaurant El Volcan and had dinner with Delmi, Carlos, Guillermo and Bryan.  El Volcan has incredible views of San Salvador.  We ate tacos de pollo, res, carnitas y pastor.  My favorite and Michelle's favorite were the tacos de pastor.