Up early, and it's Saturday....crap!
Oh well, it makes time to post some photos.

One of the field drips that the Welcoming Committee took us on was up into the mountains towards the west of San Salvador. They are all volcanoes, of course, but none active. I think there is one to the east that smokes from time to time. Anyway. At the lower altitudes, the fields were covered with corn or cane sugar. (the coca cola here is made with real cane sugar; I think if they used the high fructose corn syrup they feed the gringos, no one here would drink it)(more on coke later)

With a little more altitude, though, the main crop is coffee, coffee, coffee. It's everywhere! Coffee is grown on huge fincas (plantations) or in a patch of ground behind a little shack. I think the small ones get together in collaboratives to share the processing, and there is a lot to be done between the red bean on the tree and your mug. (pausing to sip).  Here's a link to a blog that will tell you about the process and the costs: The real cost of coffee

Eventually, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant call El Jardin de Celeste. We were surrounded by the garden; it was full of outrageously bright flowers, bougainvillea, bromeliads, orchids, and whatever these are.

The orchids, it turns out, are for sale, so now there are three of them on our shady patio columns. I bought the one hanging on the tree to the left of the door. I'll take a better photo when the sun comes up.

Then it was time for lunch. There were many choices, of course, so we went with the Plato Tipico,

chicken for Carol, meat for me. (meat - beef, usually grass fed). Also on the plato: rice, naturally, mashed red beans, avocado, and some fiery green sauce. It also came with amazing fresh tomato soup, which Carol had with just a dollop of crema. But I had Soup de Tortilla, which was really a meal by itself. Built on Carols tomato soup, there were fried tortillas, queso fresco (I think), crema on top, and lurking down on the bottom, a few slices of avocado. I googled recipes, and the closest I could find was this version:  Mexican Soupa de Tortilla  

After lunch we went on the the village of Ataco, usually a sleepy, kinda touristy little village, but today they were having a coffee festival of sorts, so there was lots of music, food stands, and, well, coffee! There were also a lot of colorful old weathered walls. 

Also some clothing (I took this for a neighbor, Scott Coulter) Indigo was once the basis for the entire Salvadoran economy, but it crashed when cheaper chemical dyes became available. (mid 19th century)

I'm not sure if this is local indigo or cheap chemical. I am hoping to find the real thing in something other than a tie dyed tee shirt.

OK, the sun is up, the birds are too, and I need to make more coffee!

Enjoy the weekend!