A friend of Paddy's from a previous trip to Guatemala has a house on the beach in El Salvador, and he let us use it. It was our goal to reach it, and from Antigua it took 3 days, but we made it! Bill's house is right on a black volcanic sand beach with impressively loud waves, complete with a pool, kitchen, caretaker man, and 3 hammocks so we can be comfortable while doing sweeeeet f.a.

For the past 2 days, we have woken up at whatever time we please, gone for a warming bath in the ocean, then the pool, caught the jitney trucks into town to watch whatever world cup match was on in the air conditioned supermarket, come home just in time for hammock siesta time, and repeat.

It's so hot and humid during the day, but this usually means rain at night (cue wet season) so we were treated to 2 really impressive thunderstorms - one that passed directly overhead where the lightning lit up everything as if a huge neon light had been turned on in the sky. Perhaps it was time to get out of the pool. Branches crashed to the ground off the palm trees, the rain rained through windows and doors, and we found a stray crab wandering around in the kitchen to avoid getting crushed by airborne coconuts.

There was also a powercut the following evening - we barbecued by candlelight, except for Dina who was smart enough to bring a head torch. So Paddy and I delegated the cooking to her while we faffed around with matches. After a successful barbecued chicken, potatoes, salad and tortillas we were mightily enjoying the thought that washing up was impossible (no water either) - but the power came back.