At the Muelle!

El Salvador HELP Volunteers are the cream of the crop, not that this was ever in question, but just in case, here´s some proof of this fact!

As part of their welcome to El Salvador we decided to take them on a surprise excursion just over 12 hours after arriving.

Wednesday, 8:00 pm; Volunteers arrive at the airport.

Thursday, 7:30 am; Volunteers board a bus to an undisclosed location.

Alex will have to get used to just being too long for EVERYTHING!

11:00; Volunteer arrive at La Libertad, a scorching coastal town of El Salvador, treated to some delicious Michoacanas (Mexican fresh fruit popsicles).

The ever responsible and trustworthy country directors at work.

11:30; Volunteers are presented the Mercado de Pescado on the Muelle, the local fish markey located on the pier, really cool place!

THE CHALLENGE:
This is where the fun starts! The volunteers were challenged to find the most disgusting or crazy thing they could in the market, barter a price, and deal with the stench of their purchase all the way back to the house. Their buys were then voted on at a team meeting that night for the best purchase. It was a great icebreaker into the culture, and a lot of fun, and at time downright nasty!

After that was when we decided it was time for lunch, so with stench-filled havoc in hand we bee-lined up to one of the local Pupuserias for some delicious pupusas.

We got to enjoy the black sands of La Libertad, practice skipping rocks, and getting clothes wet in a climate quite insuitable for drying, and having a good time together.

What a good looking bunch if you ask me, I am a little unnerved at how much I sound like a biased father-figure though...

THE RESULTS:
So by that night there were some interesting smells from the garage, as our winnings had been stewing in San Salvador´s heat (only slightly more bearable than the exhausting heat of La Libertad). While everyone´s "catch" was equally fun and entertaining, here are our runners-up and winner of the competition.

In third place, and actually quite impressive:

Kassandras Tiburon (shark) head, that´s right, just the head.

The vendors on the pier were a little confused as to why she wanted the head, especially since she had it dug out of a bucket full of guts and putrid remains NOT meant for selling.

Our second runner-up, and a surprise to the end, Bryan´s fish head.

Though a shark sounds cooler than a fish, I think Bryan´s beat out Kassandra´s because of house disgusting it looked, and because he pulled it out of the bag it came in, leaving a nice spot of blood on the garage floor.

And the winner is...

Esther´s ... ... ... thing she bought...

So after close inspection, it seems to be some sort of fish, flayed down the middle and split open and flattened, with nice additions to make it look like a little devil face. Shock factor and surprise definitely got her the win. She now gets to pick our first vacation spot, nice work Esther! And to all the other volunteers who whether they wanted to or not, found something wonderfully awful and carried it home from the pier.