Posted by After breakfast we said goodbye to our hostess after taking a group picture with her. We drove to an extinct volcano caldera called Lago Verde (Green Lake). The hike around the lake took about an hour. It was a really nice walk. You could hear the buzz of bees the whole time but we never saw any. The lake provides drinking water for the local community and as picture shows there are many restrictions.
We then drove to Cerro Verde National Park. Here we hiked on a trail that had old growth trees and,where a coffee Plantation had been, new growth trees. The trail had great views of the Santa Ana volcano caldera. We had lunch at a park Restaurant overlooking the Santa Ana volcano only when the clouds parted.
At 2pm we boarded the bus. As we drove down the mountain we stopped to see coffee pickers. They told us they make $1.87 for every 25 lbs that they pick. A good day is picking 150 lbs. After picking and bagging, they carry them down to the road and have to pour the beans out and remove any bad beans before getting the bags weighed. Julio had picked beans as a child and helped explain what we were seeing. After this we drove to San Salvador to check into our hotel. We decided to eat at the Sports Bar in the hotel. Some of the group joining us for the main tour joined us.
Tomorrow we visit our first Mayan ruin and walk around San Salvador.
Elsie's Travel Blog 