So Otto and his brother Erick came for a long weekend, which was also conveniently during the time of my birthday. Turned the big two five this year.
I took a taxi to the airport to meet Otto and Erick at the airport. Their flight was supposed to land at 11:15, but I didn`t see any sign of them until a little before 12. The airport security were trying to fine Otto and Erick $100 for issues with their luggage. They had brought a bunch of Polo shirts to their family in GT. Unfortunately they had left the tags on the shirts, so security thought that they were bringing them into the country to sell them. Erick is a financeer, so they had decided to start something without realizing what they were getting into. Erick had the guard get his superior and asked for Guatemala`s tax code. They slowly went through each article within the bags and added up the estimated value, it ended up being less than the taxable amount and they ended up getting through without having to pay anything.
After the deal at the airport, we headed over to Marty and Carlos`s to have some Caldo. Since we were planning on heading to El Salvador for the weekend, we were also supposed to pick up my passport. We forgot that part.
For the big birthday dinner we ended up going to a Sushi place which somebody on an online restaurant review had referred to as “The best sushi in Latin America”. After dinner we went to Quatro Grados Norte for some drinks.
"Best sushi in Latin America" - which probably ended up being pretty close to the truth. The rolls on the right are hot rolls... incredible
The following morning we had an incredible breakfast at our hotel the Westin Camino Real. The Camino Real is a serious hotel. We ended up sharing it with 4 floors of Taiwanese people… including the president. Since Sabrina is crazy about Taiwan I figured she`d be crazy about the fact that we stayed with her president. Here`s the gchat showing how excited she was:
Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to tell off the Taiwanese president. We at least had a chance to see his motorcade drive by…
The next morning we took off to El Salvador with Rodalfo and his friend Christian. We realized that we had totally forgotten my passport at Marty`s, so we had to drive around a bit to go through the steps of getting my passport. This put us a bit behind schedule, but we made up for it by averaging twice the speed limit on the way there.
We were very lucky that we had gone to get my passport. When we arrived at the boarder we had to go through an extremely thorough security check. This involved (1) waiting behind a pickup for a few moments, (2) asking if there was a line, realizing there was not and then driving around the parked truck, (3) slowly driving past the boarder patrol guard, (4) recieving a wave from the guard saying that it was ok to continue on. I honestly don`t even remember if we had to show them the passports or not. It all happened so fast that it was basically like, “wait, was that it?”. I was hoping for a stamp in my passport but unfortunately there was no stamp to be had.
Benvenidos a El Salvador. View after shortly after crossing the boarder.
In El Salvador we stayed at a hotel called “The Decameron”. Erick had gone there about a month or so before with his cousin Milton and his friend. It is an all inclusive with free food, a discoteca, shows/actividades, free dance classes, free dentist-cup-sized drinks (or a $10 upgrade to a coffee mug sized cup) and plenty of pool action and beach time. The Decameron was awesome in all respects except for the food. I was not very phased by this aspect as I still do not have much of an appetite and was therefore on a mostly liquid diet. Since I have not yet recieved professional advice (as well as medication) in regard to my stomach condition, it seemed only logical that alcohol would be the best way to kill off whatever is hanging out in my digestive tract.
Erick was adament about not dabbling with the Decameron`s sub-par food. We ended up mosty skipping out on the "Pastatorium" and instead brought a box of Pollo Campero for dinner. We ended up not easily finishing (party due to the fact of my minimal participation), so Rodalfo suggested selling the remaining few pieces.
After dinner we checked out the show, which was basically lip-syncing and dancing. It actually ended up being very good. We then went to the club and danced it up. There was a very mixed crowd including a very unique mañoso who gave up asking people to dance and instead astounded people with the originality of his pasos mañosos . We also held our own on the dance floor y solo falté un pocitito. Lento pero seguro. After the club shut down we then made our way back to the beach and proceeded to smoke cigars.
Sunset Beach.
Whimsical Aldo Rossi-esque style of the Decameron
Seawater pool. During high tide it became submerged and basically invisible.
Time on la playa
Out of complete curiosity, we ended up inquiring about the costs of membership opportunities at the Decameron. To our suprise, it is actually quite cheap for what you get. We then came to the conclusion that Plan B would be to buy a yearly membership ($6000) and LIVE at the Decameron. We still need to work out the details, but there is probably the possiblility of recieving a grant for a book deal in order to cover the cost.
Rodolfo, Christian, Otto, Erick, and myself. Otto already exhibiting clear signs of catching on to the long-term Decameron lifestlye.
We left the Decameron the following day around 3:00 and headed to get some ceviche. After driving for a while, we became impatient and decided to pull into a random hotel on the side of the road. It ended up being awesome and totally worth going to.
Natural pool that ended up blowing away the Decameron`s salt water wave pool.
ANGRY fish for lunch. I ended up not eating this because Rodalfo inspected it (and owning a seaside restaurant) decided that it was not quite fresh. It`s probably better... one less angry thing in my stomach. The second one ended up being awesome but WAY too big.
The service at the hotel was impecible and no time was spared in delivering the food. The waiters held nothing back and were running back and forth the whole time. This including running across wet pool tiles. This hotel was awesome, it was here that we slowly realized that we really liked El Salvador.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NWlQP7Fzsg[/youtube]
Check back for updates to this post. I`ll be getting more photos from Otto and Erick…
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