Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas Sunshine

Having really warm weather for Christmas makes me feel like a kid again, as though I had never left California. (In SoCal where I grew up, it was not unusual to have 90+ degrees of sunshine on Christmas Day.)

Anyway, thought I'd take this ample free time (now that we're mostly set for going away on Friday) to put up some updates of what we've been up to in San Salvador. :)

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We recently climbed Santa Ana, which is the tallest (not steepest) volcano in El Salvador. It last erupted in 2005, which by nature's time frame is like a second ago! (So, I think that makes it tied for the second most active volcano we've climbed in Central America.)

Here is what the rim at the top looks like around the crater. Pretty steep when you try to look into the crater (left). Those little specks are people up ahead.


This particular crater has 3 strata, formed from 3 different eruptions over (a long period of) time. It's stunningly beautiful, and you can see all the layers even from afar. Down at the bottom there is a green boiling crater lake. Our friend Greg kicked a rock over to see how far down the crater is. For almost a full minute, you can still hear the rocks rolling/rumbling down below.



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Sometime in November, we went to the Marine Ball (again). It was fun to play dress up (putting my $20 dress to good use), but I think I've officially gotten it out of my system. This year, the good thing is that we got a deal. Dinner + dancing + open bar for $40 ain't bad at all.


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Lastly, some other time in November, the German embassy sponsored an Oktoberfest. It was pretty cool (especially because there were some social dancers there, tearing up the dance floor), but it was a teaser for the real thing we want to go to next year. :)

Here are pictures of us, with Will and Andrea, two of my favorite gringos:



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That's (really) it for now. We're super excited about going to Argentina!! :) We leave on Friday, and will be gone until after New Year's. On our agenda are glaciers!! -- and maybe some dancing and some wine tours. And definitely lots of eating. Argentinian steaks are supposed to actually come from happy (free-range) cows. :)

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