What can I say? I guess when Erik saw Joseph taking a bath he wanted in too.

Nothing like a few Christmas stockings to get in the mood for the holidays.

Norma & I had the chance to attend the Maná concert on November 15th, which was amazing. They started around 9:30 pm and played until about 11:30 pm.  They did a good mix of old and new songs, but the majority were from their previous albums.  The whole crowd sang along the entire night, which was good and bad.  Most of the photos I took with my camera phone didn’t turn out too well, but the one below of the band looks pretty good.  Norma and I were in the 18th row, dead center, which made for a great experience. I’ll try and find some sound clips of the show and put them up too.

Maná, November 15, 2007

Chris & Norma in El Estadio Mágico Gonzalez

Here the whole family went to see El Boqueron, one of the tallest volcanic peaks near San Salvador. As you can see from the pics, at the very bottom of the crater, a smaller peak has formed because of additional volcanic activity.

This site has lots of TV, cell phone, and radio towers because it looks out directly on the city below.

Here are Wayne, Melinda, Erik, Joseph, Chris, and Norma

I’m still trying to improve my photomerge skills - but you get the idea

Today we had the chance to tour a private reptile farm. This place raises lots of animals for export to the U.S., Europe, and Mexico. They raise everything from bearded dragons to giant tortises. They have a 26 acre area for the animals and a similar sized farm, which supplies the necessary food. While they may have lots of one kind of species, like a geko, they won’t have thousands to export. So, lots of the farm is dedicated to research and learning of how to best raise them.

I was amazed at how well taken care of this place was and how humanely the animals are treated. The owners go to great lengths to combat harvesting wild animals, and will only sell animals they raise from birth.

We were able to see the complete process, from the incubators to the packing area, which was really cool. Below are lots of photos that I think you will enjoy.

Norma, Wayne, Melinda, and I went to a small town, Apaneca, to go on a 12 part zipline canopy tour.  The course is located in a coffee plantation, which is a good way to make dual usage of the space. I was surprised to see high quality US-imported equipment, which helped us all feel much safer. 

The course has six small runs (about 40 feet each) and six large ones, which vary in length.  The picture of me is on the longest one, which is about 900 feet in length with a 300 foot drop - very cool. 

The team of five that went with us was very professional, and I highly recommend going on this outing. In the near future they will be adding a night tour, which would be fun too.

Here’s the link to the company: http://www.apanecanopy.com/

Norma gearing up.

Here I am soaring through the Salvadoran rainforest. Wheee!!

This time Joseph is munching on some rubber bands.

 
Do I even need to say anything about this?

It must have been a rather hard day.