Hotel Real Leon

... are ´trained´ by taking them for walks and practice fights. In training, the roosters actually wear boxing gloves to cover their claws, so as not to hurt each other, but during the fight these are removed. The actual fighting involves an agreement between the two owners over the rules, the referees, the weights of the roosters, and several other things. A small ring is set up, and surrounded by bleachers (it´s a small community event, so the ...

... not feeling well with a high temperature and the trots (yes again!) and I feared that he would not be able to go on this little adventure, luckily however, his fever broke on Thursday evening and we were onboard the truck to Volcan Cerro Negro early on Friday morning. A bumpy ride out to the volcanoes took about an hour and before we knew it we were being handed our little orange bags which contained our overalls and were also given our boards.

Volcan Cerro ...

... and I got dressed up to go have a nice steak dinner for his birthday. We had the nicest dinner we've had yet on this trip in a beautiful old hotel. Then we came back to hostel to enjoy a few Mojitos before heading off to bed. I think Devin enjoyed his birthday... it was defiantly a full weekend.

Tomorrow we are heading south with a friend from our Volcano boarding experience. He is from LA and he will be hitching a ride down with us to the Isla.

... restaurant, came over to find out all about who we were and where we were coming from.  She ended up sitting with us all night as we made dinner and settled into our temporary home.

The next day we went and rented surfboards from the local surf shop and tried to learn the art of surfing. Surprisingly enough Chrisitna and I did quite well, managing to get up on the board and being able to experience that exhilarating feeling of catching ...

... lovely.

Okay – now for the day! It was a great one – I really enjoyed it and experienced some awesome experiences (terrible English I know! Sorry). We got to sleep in a tad bit, and then we had the choice of riding in the medical truck and doing medicine visits to a community (which would take all day), or visit a clinic, a hospital, go back to the Villa, then go to a natural cold springs. Though the 2nd option did sound appealing, I ...

... only an orphanage – it was an orphanage of all severely handicapped children/adults. The people ranged from babies to adults (one man was 33 years old). The people were either dropped off as babies on the porch, drug babies, people who accumulated the disease from lack of nutrition, or put in an orphanage by a family who wanted them but just couldn’t take care of them. It was so sad. They said if they had occupational therapists or the correct treatment, they ...

... a bit loco, but it went well. I was surprised by how many kids didn't really know how to wash hands, and then when we did the actual hand washing part – how incredibly (and I mean incredibly) dirty their hands were. Not only were their hands dirty, with black under their nails, but there were bugs swarming most of the children’s face/eyes/hair. I felt like the gnats just lived on the children. Needless to say, I went and used my anti-bacterial stuff after each class (so ...

... what they do with them though. They do this pay-it-forward thing with people in need. The farm raises a pig or cow or something until it is about to give birth… then gives the animal to a family… and they have 2 years to give the farm back 1 pig/cow and they keep the rest. It is a way to “feed them for life by teaching them how to fish – rather than feeding them for a day by giving them a fish”.

The next thing we did was my ...

... the surf. The surf is about 5 ft. and really
good. I paddle out and the first ride I get drilled and pull a muscle
in my back. I was in a lot of pain and dizzy in the 81 degree water. No
more surfing for today. The fact that I had 3 hours of sleep the night
before, the drinks, and not ready for the ocean really kicked my ass.
Time for rest. So I take a nap for a bit and rest off ...

... Hostels are great, but many of the bigger ones are full of gap year kids that you can´t really learn much from, and this was a very welcome change - my views on budgeting and travelling certainly changed a bit!

I traded my machete (a gift and as yet unused) for a cyclotaxi ride to the bus station and finally got to Leon on the afternoon of the second day after leaving San Salvador. And i damn glad to be in a hammock doing nothing ...