Father's Day

Today could have been a really melancholy day, considering it's my first Father's Day since my father died. But I got to have a great day, thanks to my friend Victor Paula, who happens to be a great dad himself. Victor was one of the students in the renewable energy class I taught. He's stayed in touch since the class ended, and we'd been talking about going out to do something together.

Today we made good on it, and he brought his family along, his wife Telma and their two little boys Victor Alejandro (three and a half) and Ernesto (six months). You can tell by how cheerful and trusting the two boys are that these must be great parents. I spent much of the day carrying Ernesto around and playing with Victor Alejandro, and they both acted very comfortable with me from first sight. This made me feel like a little bit of a dad myself (with no diaper changing required!).

Happy Father's Day Victor, Victor Alejandro, Ernesto and Telma!

The family picked me up at 10:00 am in their car, and we headed out to the coast. We took the coast road west from La Libertad, which I had not traveled before further than El Tunco beach. It's a winding road with many ocean overlooks, somewhat like Highway 1 on the Mendocino and Sonoma County coasts, but with lusher vegetation. There are five tunnels along the way, one a half kilometer long, which was exciting for Victor Alejandro.

We had lunch at a restaurant in Acajutla with an ocean view, followed by a quick car tour of the industrial facilities at the port. Victor used to work at the oil refinery, so he knows this area well. Then we headed inland to the Ruta de las Flores, a mountain road Basilia and I had previously explored by bus. Of course in the car we had the luxury of stopping where we liked to see the views. We made stops in Nahuizalco, Salcoatitán (where we went to the Pan Nuestro bakery where the owner's husband has a beautiful bonsai garden out back), Apaneca, and Ataco, plus a few fancy/rustic restaurant-lodges along the road that Victor and Telma were familiar with -- all very cute with relaxing atmospheres and beautiful landscaping.

Victor and I had a great time talking along the way about life in his country and mine. He was an exchange student in Kansas on the same CASS program in 1991-93 that allowed Basilia to go to the U.S. for the first time a few years later, so we had a lot of notes to compare. Telma was pretty quiet, but I did get her to tell me that she also has an engineering degree, and she's from Izalco, a town that Basi and I enjoyed visiting a few weeks ago. We saw a good chunk of western El Salvador today and didn't get back to San Salvador until 8:00 pm.

Thanks Victor and family for making this a happy father's day!