The Seaport City of Acajutla, El Salvador

Again, we did not plan an excursion here but Insignia guests were offered a complimentary shuttle ride to what the locals call the botanical garden. Let me just say that today was the perfect example of "getting what you pay for." The shuttle was supposed to have 3 stops for tourists - the botanical garden, the restaurant area and the coastline. 

 

We stopped at the first area and everyone got off the bus. Turns out it was basically a run down city park. Ronnie asked if I wanted to take any pictures but there was nothing there to photograph. We probably spent less than 5 minutes off the bus and then climbed back on. We were told that the bus would run every 10 minutes. NOT. So after a 20+ minute stop at the city park, we were taken down the road where the shuttle stopped again in order for us to walk down to a little overlook of the coast line. The view was nice so I snapped a few photos there. Then we walked back up the hill to wait for the bus. And wait. And wait. 

 

nice view from this elevation

Acajutla, Pacific seaport in southwestern El Salvador

While the coastline was nice, nothing else could in any way be considered attractive. There are bound to be prettier places in El Salvador but we did not see them. All we saw besides the ocean was poverty.

 

just watchin' the world go by

mothers and daughters - going to open up their food cart

 

Let me just say that the overall impression was POOR, POOR, POOR. Everything seemed broken down, run down and dirty. It reminded us very much of Indonesia, although much worse. It's easy to see why the people here would want to come to the U.S. I snapped a few photos through the dirty bus window and I regret that I didn't take more.

El Salvadorian woman

we saw block after block of crumbled buildings and houses

We waited for 30 or more minutes for the bus to pick us up. It was my understanding that our next stop would be the Botanical Gardens. To my big surprise, I was informed that we had already been! That was our first stop, what looked like a run down city park to me. While we waited for our ride, I counted 6 security guards armed with machine guns and stationed on either side of us, spaced along the road perhaps 10-30 yards apart. I couldn't get permission to take a photo but I managed to sneak a few.

armed and ready

I also saw a few locals and the one man on his bicycle with the cute little parrot that I got to hold. I think we were all ready to get back to the bus and into some AC. I still couldn't figure out why the locals wanted to shuttle us into town, because there were not any crafts or anything to sell us. The most we could have done was eat in one of the so-called "restaurants" which no one did. For one thing, it was 10 a.m. and no one was hungry. Also we would have been afraid to eat there even if we were. There's no reason to risk a stomach bug when there is more food than anyone could possibly eat on the ship.

 

a man and his bird

he loved my earrings and mask!

Sometimes there is some sort of local entertainment outside the ship. Today there was a cute little girl singing and dancing, accompanied by teen instrumentalists.

 

children entertainers

 

We were hot and sweaty by the time we got onto the bus and it felt good to get back onto the air conditioned ship. If nothing else, today has been a stark reminder of how blessed we are to live in the United States of America. We know we did nothing to deserve this blessing.

I can't resist shooting the sunset from our balcony window, so I will add one of those.

 

another beautiful sunset off our balcony

Tonight's dinner was Mexican themed. It wasn't your basic TexMex, but it was still enjoyable. The desserts were beyond delicious (and fattening). The women servers wore serapes and the buffet was decorated to reflect the Mexican theme as well. They don't put scales in our suites for a reason!