Wandering with Tedder and Tamara

*Tamara posting*

First, my conversation with Victor, the man I met at the motorcycle shop who is from El Salvador. He speaks English, and so I was able to have a long chat with him - he spent around 17 years working in the U.S. if I remember correctly, and is now working here in Mexico (illegally). His family is all living in El Salvador, and he really wanted to let them know that he met us and that we may come by to say hi and see their home, etc. He hasn't seen them in a long time because he has been away working, and can't just fly back to see them, but really wants us to be able to see some of the lower-middle class family life in his home country. He warned us that it is not like Mexico, there is more theft, gangs, etc. and the unemployment rate is very high. We will have to be more careful there and also in Guatemala, but there are good people everywhere as well, and the countries still have a lot to offer and experience.

This morning we slept in and took it easy, then got ready to go snorkeling out at the reef - very close to here, only about 1 mile out. The first dive shop we went to was open, but nobody was there. The landscape workers outside indicated that they would be back in 5 minutes, but no one came so we went to the next shop down the road. It was great - she immediately paired us up with a guide, Pedro, (required to go to the reef because it is protected as a national area) and we were able to go with just the three of us in one boat with the guide. He was great, and when another boat came at our first snorkeling spot, he quickly took us to a different area because it was “too crowded”. He really wanted us to be the only ones in our spot and got mad when the same boat came and hooked up to our boat again. The second spot was really great to see schools of fish, and we got to a see a beautiful, colorful, big shell. All the pictures were on the special underwater camera, so those won't be on the website for a while.

We were out for 2 hours, and I had a little trouble with the mask. Ted tried it and had a hard time too, so it wasn't just me. I had to go back to the boat a little early, but since it was only my second time snorkeling, and I'm still not totally comfortable with it, it all worked out fine.

After an afternoon nap and good lunch we hit the town's shops with Ted's mom. Ted and I got a shell from the local reef and a Mayan leather burned/painted design cloth that is done locally. Hopefully the pictures make more sense of what it is because that description isn't the best :)

We had a good time wandering through the little shops, and there were some amazing jewelry here - just not my style.