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| Click on map to enlarge |
El Salvador is clearly (to me) poorer than Nicaragua. Most of the houses in the countryside were less substantial than those in Nicaragua. In fact, we saw almost no new construction in El Salvador.
On the way to Ataco, we passed through (but did not stop in) the town of Sonsonate (not to be confused with Cincinnati).
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| Between Sonsonate and Ataco |
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| Greetings to the US Ambassador |
In Ataco, our first stop was at El Carmen Estate, home of Cafe Ataco, a coffee factory.
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| One of the factory buildings |
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| Drying the coffee beans |
The factory reminded me of the factories we saw in Cuba, with a lot of very old equipment.
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| The guard who traveled on the bus with us |
After the factory tour, we had lunch, with entertainment by some local musicians.
We were then driven to the center of Ataco and given about 45 minutes to walk around. There appeared to be some sort of pre-Christmas festival going on. Below are some scenes from the town.
We then returned to the ship, where a Salvadoran band serenaded us.
On the ship it was formal night, so we had a chance to photograph ourselves in our finery.
Next: Days 5-7--Sea days and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
