Day 2: National Museum, San Andreas Ruins and Maria Inmacualada Orphanage

The cathedral in Santa Ana.
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Journal Entry by Kallan Lyons

What an amazing first full day! Breakfast at 8 at the Alamo Hotel—beans mashed with rice are excellent! We all piled into the bus and made our way to ‘Museo de Antropologia, David J. Guzman', an anthropology museum in San Salvador. With two El Salvador Rotaract members and a tour guide we learned about religion, culture and architecture in El Salvador. A great introduction to the rest of the trip.

Next stop, the San Andreas ruins on the outskirts of Santa Ana. With the weather on our side (30º + and clear skies!) we loaded on the sunscreen and began our exploration. Lombardo, our Central American correspondent stops to point out mango trees! Fresh fruit that we unfortunately cannot eat, but still a neat change from apple trees. The ruins are an old temple built by a small indigenous group, the Papilas. Very beautiful and a look into how much history El Salvador has. Pictures cannot do this place justice!

The group at the San Andreas Ruins.
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We hopped back into the bus, cranked the air conditioning and headed into Santa Ana for a tour and lunch. The stunning cathedral is a UNESCO site. The opera house was unfortunately closed, so the group grabbed a quick lunch at the mall food court. It felt like we were back in North America (Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King…) but the prices made a huge difference. Most of the travelers went to Le Neveria, an ice cream shop where you could buy a chocolate waffle cone with two scoops—two for $2.30!

Playing 'Streets and Avenues' at the orphanage.
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The next and final stop of the day is in the city of Chalchuapa to bring donations and visit with an all girls orphanage. The girls ranged in age from 6 to 16. The Rotaractors split into three groups to play games. Despite the language barrier we all had a great time and shared many laughs. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the orphanage and near the end of the day we received a special surprise from the girls. Each age group had prepared a dance to present us. They were very talented! We all danced and took many photos.

Playing 'Streets and Avenues' at the orphanage.
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They are a special group of kids and left a handprint on all our hearts. Saying goodbye to the girls after having spent most of the day with them was not easy. As they hugged and thanked us, we were all smiles and wished we could stay for much longer. We headed back to the hotel to wind down and prepare for day 3. If the rest of the trip is as great as today, I’ll never want to leave!