A Few Shots

A couple of dudes on the beach watching a soccer game. (click for larger image)


A still life / slice of life at the beach. (click image for a larger view)

Benjamin with some boards at our hostel, Essencia Nativa (click for larger image)


Horses running up the street as we drove down it in the mountains (click for larger image)


Artwork on the wall at my favorite Taco place in El Zonte.

Some Swell and an Employee Revolt

The Project: We got the main part of a retaining wall finished yesterday on the property, made out of coconut palm trees laid on their sides with rebar tacked in, and it looks great. No one has ever seen this type of wall down here before, so we´re kind of pioneering some building styles.. cool. It worked for us becuase the palms were free from another spot, and a lot of chain saw work and trucks loads got them there. We added gravel to the trench and backed it with rubble for drainage in the rainy season. A little treatment on the bottoms and ends and some rebar hammered into pilot holes makes for a great looking natural and cheap wall. Pictures to come. The goal of this project is to use as many natural and local materials as possible. Bamboo has already been purchased and TS has a bazzillion ideas for how he wants to use it.
Surfing: I had a really fun surf yesterday morning (although challenging) - I didn´t do super well, but I left the water with a smile cuz the waves were just awesome.There was a swell (6 feet at 14 seconds) with a strong offshore wind which means they stand up longer before falling over. It felt like heavy rain-soft hail on the backside of every wave I duckdove from all the water getting blown off the lip from behind me. There were a few times I couldn´t see well enough to drop in, due to the amount of spray getting blown up and over the wave from the winds. Even though it may not sound like it, it was pretty much the best conditions to surf in; offshore winds with a swell. now I just have to get a lot better at catching all the waves that I paddle for. everyone out there was laughing and yelling and encouraging each other, which doesn´t happen too often in many surf spots (due to the competitive nature of having a limited amount of waves rolling through and too many people in the world that like to surf). One thing about El Zonte is that by now we know most of the locals by name and when we see them in the water it´s usually pretty amiable. Mostly it´s just kids now anyway, many of the older guys wait for the coming swells that I am afraid will be coming before I¨m in shape for them. 10-15 foot waves are common in about a month.

Life: Tim Sorensen and his parents (who are in town for a couple weeks) are taking off today to Antigua Guatemala, so I¨m heading up the prop for a few days. Everything should be cool, we hope.... His workers had a little revolt today; they said the new project of digging holes for fence posts was too hard and they wanted more money. Classic. I guess you can´t escape employee needs in any society (even during an economic downturn). TS fixed it though, and they were happily digging away this morning when we saw them last. In case you´re wondering how the situation got fixed, he promised them a bonus at the end of this particular project, if they finish up in 2.5 days before he gets back. Easy.

Some More Pics

TS in his new toyota land cruiser

walter, the oldest son of the family, cleaning up some rocks on the property

The daily commute, now he takes the bus for 25 cents since TS moved over to el Zonte.




TS pondering how to do something or other.

Adrienne Gordon made it out after a super marathon in Costa Rica. She placed first in her category, and 4th for women ( I think, unless I mixed that up).

Updated photos from previous stories

Turns out you need sunscreen in other places than just the shoulders when you´re surfing for the first time in three years.

This is us taking Marleni´s family out to dinner the other night. Marleni is the lady with 5 kids that both Tim S and I have financially assisted on numerous occasions. One of them being this dinner. It was crazy, see the previous blog post for the story.

Here´s a shot of TS putting his new truck in the ditch. Story below as well.

Friends, Kids and Driving

A few short stories, in no particular order of importance:

Friends- Benjamin (BJ) and Megan (our friends from university) are staying in El Zonte, they come down here fairly regularly. The other night while TK, TS and I (TD) were hanging out in El Tunco, we met a guy named Steve from Santa Monica. The next day Steve went to El Zonte, saw BJ and Meg and they had a reason to have a mini reunion party! The three of them traveled together for a while in Zanzibar (Tanzani) in 2005 and have loosely kept in touch. Cool reunion, and great guy. Steve took off to Guatemala but I´m sure one of us (if not all) will see him again someday.

Kids - TS drove a boatload of kids to La Libertad (the closest ¨city¨) the other night for a birthday dinner. Our little friend Carlos turned 17 and it was time to celebrate. All the kids had on shoes and slicked back hair, which I´ve never seen. We went to a little Mexican restaraunt, and wow, what a gong show. In typical latin america style, we had three more kids in the back of the truck than we intended on taking to this free meal, and by the time we arrived the whole 12 of us were loud and very unorganized. After we ordered, which was hilarious and took at least 20 minutes of yelling and changing meal ideas, the food came out piece by piece. This sent a few of them into mood swings since they were hungry, and let me tell you, that was funny by itself. Yes, they ate as much as possible since it was free, and ordered more at will without asking TS, which made him a little annoyed and made me laugh even harder!! Good times with a truck load of kids at dinner.

Driving - On the way to the above mentioned dinner, Marlini was barking orders at TS of where to turn to go look for her oldest son, so he could come with us. Turns here are often completely unmarked, and only wide enough for one truck turning quite sharply. The 3´x 3´ cement dranaige ditch on either side of the small bridge also makes things interesting. Yep, you guessed it, Tim put us in the ditch with his new truck. Not his fault, I´d like to clarify. With one wheel 2.5 feet deep in a cement void, half of the bed hanging off into the unlit highway, and kids running around laughing, I decided to shoot some pictures. We´ll get them up on here soon. After a few good ones, me and about 10 little hands lifted the front bumper straight up and out, and we were on our way. No harm, no foul. One tough truck.

Land Cruiser

Man it´s been a cool and crazy few days down here! TK and I had a great trip down, as we upgraded to first class somehow and had some rich guy buy us a big dinner in LAX before the flight. Things have been rolling fairly smoothly with TS´s property, electrical is coming today, water rights have been purchased and signed for. The property is slowly getting cleaned up. There are-were rocks everywhere, and trash, and thick brush etc. It´s hot work, it´s the summer season right now, hot and dry. The waves have been decent, their not always great but they´re not flat either.. TS ended up buying a truck. Nope, he didn´t go for comfort. He fell in love with a ´67 Toyota Land Cruiser pick up. It´s got more style than any other vehicle here on the beach, but needs a little (ok maybe a lot of) work on the cab and auxillary stuff.. TK took off today, and we´ve got some work to do over at Zonte. pictures to follow when we find good internet...cheers

Starting off pretty normal - 2 days out

Hi people.

Things are starting off pretty normal for this trip so far, as I'm 2 days out from getting on a plane.

I had a short chat with Tim S. two days ago. He is still looking for a truck, he's seen a ton of them already, but none that work yet.

I bought a cordless tool set at home depot yesterday, $100 off sale price, and found it to be used and slightly beat up.

TK flies in to Denver today, and will try to deadhead on my flight to get down there (fly in an open seat with his pilot badge essentially). He's not too sure if it will work on the way back... I told him not to worry about it, and to cross that bridge when he gets to it (good luck TK).

Tim S. mentioned that he's staying with Marlinis family (the lady/family that we helped out with a house last time). His plan at this point is to learn how to make adobe on their house and add on a room. I'm pretty excited to see how a first time adobe room in the jungle does :)

That's the news for now! Stay posted for more, and feel free to leave comments and such.

Getting Ready to Leave Denver

This is the new blog for Tim Sorensen and Tim DeMasters with a focus on their current trip to El Salvador. I've created this blog to meet a few different goals:

1) To update our friends and family on Tim S.'s building project in El Zonte
2) To stay connected while we travel
3) To build a professional portfolio of images viewable here and in other projects

4) To allow people to get involved from their armchairs

Wish us luck, we'll see how this turns out!!