the Zoo!

A new zoo opened two years ago, where endangered animals, mostly cats, are kept in very large, nice enclosures. It is also only about 30 min. away! Here are the girls in the back of the car - thoroughly enjoying the freedom of moving around and playing during a long car ride.

Enjoying the abundant mango!

Ok, so not that mobile in this picture!

The zoo had two paths you could take: a simple, walking (mostly straight) path, and the challenging, uphill, through the jungle path.  Well, in order to see the white tiger, you had to go on the second one (or so I thought), so up the hill we went. I was so thankful for the clear-cut steps up that mountain! It was so hot and humid, my shirt was actually sticking to my skin.  We were so thankful for our water bottles, insect repellent, and hats! And the views were quite worth it!

At first we thought it was a flying cockroach, but it ended up being a VERY large beetle! 

Resting after our steep climb!

There were quite a few of these bridges.  They warn you not to jump when you are crossing them.
They seemed pretty solid to me.

For a while Tory and Natalia were collecting all sorts of interesting leaves: dried up, colorful, or just cool.

Hangin' with the FAM

Lots of fun things are going on! Cousin time!

Fingerpainting

Hanging out at the mall

Hard to tell, but they are on a train....

We were able to hang out at a pool today! It was great to jump into a cold pool with the tremendous heat we were feeling. The slide was a big hit!

Seems random, but after the pool, Ale went to soccer practice,
and was able to go into the national stadium to snap this shot.

Jardín Botánico

Today we visited the Botanical Gardens in San Salvador. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of the great variety of beautiful flowers and plants.  The girls each got a bag of turtle and fish food.  They were swarmed by about 30 turtles of varied sizes.  Some even got out of the pond to get some of the fallen food. The fish in the pond included Tilapia, which were interesting to see.  We also saw very large iguanas. 

The kids were super excited about the playground they had in the gardens; and really, it was so beautiful to be surrounded by these ancient, giant trees, especially the bamboo.

El Boquerón

I wanted to share a few pictures of normal, not-that-exciting-everyday activity.

Me posting, the girls watching TV as they eat some delicious mango

Enjoying popsicles in the hammok

We were able to go to El Boquerón today. It has really been developed since the last time I was here. It used to be quite dangerous to go up this mountain, but now it has become a popular tourist spot.  The steep hill many cars parked on made me think they would soon be rolling down the mountain, but somehow they beat gravity.  There was a great play area for the girls, and the view of the city below was beautiful!

Are you wondering how on earth she hurt her face? Well, it happens to be mosquito bites! Tory puts bandaids on her bites, so she won't scratch them and make them worse.... and like a good little sister, Natalia wanted to cover up her bites too, even though it seem like she never thinks twice about them after being bitten.

First Beach Day

We were able to go to the Costa del Sol beach for the day! We got there around 9:30 and stayed until 6:30. Thankfully, it did not rain until we were packing up for the day. Claudia's friend let us use her beach house.  Just as I used to do when I was little, the first thing to do after a long, hot car ride is to jump into the pool!

They had this WONDERFUL new way of giving the pool extra shade, using triangles over the pool.

I got to hang out here a lot, reading or talking while we watched the girls play.

There were many individual beach houses along this lane, which was used to reach the beach.

Mama Carmencita, Natalia, Karen, Gaby, and Tory.

They wanted to be buried!

The guys were all there too, in case you were wondering....We just have to keep in mind that this is World Cup Year, so most of the time they were up in a bedroom with AC and a flat screen enjoying the games. Every now and then, they would appear, however. Here is Ale, getting so big!

I loved the background colors of this pic