Parental Visit!

So, my sister and parents left yesterday morning after an 18 day trip in El Salvador. It was great! It was wonderful to see them and spend time with them as well as to be able to get to see more of El Salvador. Our favorite places where Parque El Impossible, Suchitoto, and Playa El Cuco - and in my opinion, my site!
Parque El Impossible was amazing. Its a protected rain forest and a guide takes you on one of four hikes around it. We choose to go to a waterfall that was beautiful and pretty warm, so great for swimming. The guide was very knowledgeable and more than patient to answer our MANY questions.
On the way to Suchitoto, we went to Joya de Ceren, which is like Pompeii of Central America. We were all expecting to be sort of disappointed because of what the guide book said (much of it hasn't been uncovered in order to figure out a way to preserve it), but it was really interesting and our guide spoke great English. We landed in Suchitoto, and stayed at Las Puertas on the town square - great location - and a very nice hotel with pretty good food. We found a little jewerly store there with jewerly from 4 different jewelers - so there was some working with recycled materials, another with silver, another with different stones and found objects, and the last one I don't quite remember, but it was a great store and I found some great earrings! We also went on a boat tour to Isla de los Pajaros, which was pretty cool to see all the different birds, but especially to hear them.
Playa El Cuco is a surfers hang-out, especially this time of year, but luckily when we were there, there weren't many waves, so we had a great time playing in the waves and taking a walk on the beach. The beach is a beautiful one as well. Very nice and sandy, but also there are cliffs about 100 feet behind the beach at low tide. Very beautiful, and we found wild bee hives!
I enjoyed taking my parents to my site to show them where and how I live. We stayed in my house, which I think was a little taxing on them, but we visited women who make jewerly, the women who harvest honey (and they gave us coconuts - YUM!), and went to a friend's house and they learned (sort of) how to make pupusas (the national dish)! We also went to the beach at my site, and they decided it is the nicest beach in El Salvador!
But - unfortunately they are gone, so now it's back to the grindstone ...

Attack of the Mosquitos!

So, I forgot how back the mosquitoes are in the rainy season. Since the rains have just recently come to my site, there has been an extreme hatching! It's especially worse near my pila (where I have my water, so I wash my clothes, dishes, and everything but go to the bathroom and shower). They especially like my ankles, so I have started poisoning myself - don't worry totally legal - with OFF! But, I do have a headache from it, so I try to use it little as possible. Also, there is a something they put in the water here (in standing water) called abate, but the clinic doesn't have it, so people have to wash their pilas every other day. However, this is hard work, so most don't do this. So, there are TONS! It's like Rand at the forth of July, but hotter and wetter, so I can't wear long sleeves and pants. Also, they attack me when I'm bathing! They're relentless! I just am hoping I don't get dengue...