It makes me smile when I think about how I met Amy back in 2008 in Michigan at a training preparing us to live in internationally as International Volunteers through the United Methodist church. She picked me up from the airport and drove me to the training. We hit it off immediately and when we arrived and hour later, everyone else at the training was certain that we’d been friends for years not minutes. Since then, I went and visited her in Michigan in 2009 after we had both returned from our respective international experiences, we met up in Chicago in 2010 and did a little international community tour of Chicago and now she is coming to visit me in El Salvador! I love it when happenstance meetings turn into extended friendships!I was a little nervous about being a tour guide…and driving. Therefore, I rented a car…and a driver…and we were off exploring! Silly me figured that Raul, the driver, would know where the beach Costa del Sol was located, so ignorantly didn’t figure out directions from the airport. As Amy and I were catching up on the happenings from her mission trip and my new life in El Salvador, Raul mentioned that #1 we were running out of gas quickly and #2 he didn’t know where the illusive restaurant Las Olas was located. We used Salvadoran GPS: rolling down the window and asking someone for directions to the restaurant and a gasolinera. The man graciously hopped in and took us up this sketchy looking road to where we arrived and someone got out with a Gerry can. I’m about 99% confident it didn’t contain premium gas as the owner of the rental car had requested, but I was happy to have gas, so I took a picture (because having a tourist friend in town gives me the green light to act like a tourist, too)!
Monday, I took a personal day and we went to the volcano right outside San Salvador and had lunch. Afterwards, we decided to go check out some ruins about 45 minutes outside the city. They were closed. So were the ruins a little further out. We were not defeated that easily, and decided to go downtown to check out the cathedral where Romero is buried. It was closed for renovations. Fine, we’ll settle for the National Palace. It was open, but had closed 20 minutes earlier. El Rosario Church…open…unique…and amazing! It thankfully redeemed our afternoon. Lesson learned for when more visitors come: save the beach for a Monday! Good times with a good friend! I’m so glad that Amy made the stop! :)
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