Our DREAM PARADISE is being washed by the RIVER. (part 1 of our experience living in El Salvador as family)

After loving the experience of living in our beach house we build,(Our PARADISE) for 4 months, in 2010, something unexpected and terrible happened to our PARADISE in 2011, but it still feels like yesterday. (You can check my previous post about it).

Our beautiful paradise is being washed by the river

After one year of our last trip to El Salvador, we decided to actually move to El Salvador with our boys, which was August 2011. Our decision was made upon the life style we fell in love with while going back and forth to El Salvador. We went there with a plan. What was our plan?

Our plan was to finish building the beach house so that we can start renting it, like a vacation house, which was supposed to be our primary income while living in El Salvador. In October we already had some people wanting to go and rent it out for a week, so we had to start on the building project right away.
But we needed a place to live, which we ended up buying a town house in Santa Ana city, where the boys would go to school.

Before picture of our paradise.

This was our favorite place on earth. So peaceful, so alive and wind breeze was amazing.

The last picture of the whole property and house as a whole.

While we are trying to adjust to life in a city, which was again really new to us, and signing up the boys to school, we had builders working on our beach home as fast as we could to get it ready for October. But unfortunately the plans changed on us and everything started to work against us. What has happened was that the river which was like 8-10 lots away from our house, started to make a turn towards our direction and slowly started to wash all the lots, one by one and it was getting closer and closer to our home. Just to explain a little bit better. The river runs into the ocean and because it was winter time, which rains a lot in the mountains and makes the river a little bit bigger. And so when it joins the ocean it can get pretty big. The lots were made of sand and not dirt which makes it even easier to wash.

Packing all of our things. Taking all of the doors and windows off.


All packed, nothing left. The boys and their friend from the beach Carlos.

At first, we didn't really think nothing of it because the river always been there and it was still far away and it gets big in winter time just like every year. Well, after a week or so when we went back to the beach and saw that for some reason the river really changed direction and started to wash more of the lots and getting closer and closer, we got scared and thought we had to start doing something to save our home. We spend thousands of dollars to build a rock wall from the ocean front and from the river side, because like I said before when the river joins the ocean it just makes it easier to wash all this sand from underneath the property and then the rest of the sand on top of it collapses.

So our building project had to stop and now we are investing into saving our home. The company which owns all these properties brought all the machines to the beach to try to dig so that the river would run the other direction, we had workers building the rock wall for about a week, we had like 15 truck loads of rocks bringing and dumping the rocks, till eventually, we had to stop, because everyone who was trying to help us said don't waste any more money.

All the neighbors and people who lived there would come and watch the river and they said that for 50 years they lived there, they never saw this before. Some of the people living there said the river will come just to wash this house and go back to its normal place, some people said it will stop before it washes the house.

We prayed to God, we asked God. We were so confused. I knew we came to El Salvador for a reason, I knew God gave us this house and this opportunity because there is no way we could ever have built this house with out God's blessings, I knew God brought us here for a reason. So this doesn't make any sense. But we stayed strong, and we knew what is happening and what is going to happen has its purpose and we kept trusting in Gods way and his direction, even though we have never felt so confused and devastated in our lives. We felt like our dreams and all this hard work went down the drain.

Now it was time to move all the furniture from our paradise to Santa Ana, where we lived, which is about 1.5hr away. It was time to say good bye to our wonderful memories and dreams we had. Tears coming down. We still really don't understand why, but I know one day we will. And I know God had a purpose and I trust that and one day it will all make sense.

We build this wall of rocks to protect the sand from washing underneath our property. And when you have the river water from the side of the property joining the ocean, now you have the property washing even faster from both sides.

The funny thing is (well not really funny, but it doesn't make any sense) how the river or the ocean was not really any different than any other time. But the river just decided to make a little snake like shape from just going straight just to wash our house. And it wasn't any bigger than any other year, but because our home and all the homes are built on the sand and not dirt, the river just slowly washed the sand from underneath the home, which made the home collapsed.

Last picture of our beautiful coconut trees and the three trouble makers. Boys' 1st friend and friend forever in El Salvador.


Had to take this last beautiful shot of my coconut trees and the sun.


The river used to run far away by those trees you can see on this picture. This is the first time it decised to change direction and come to wash our paradise.




The walls and glass started cracking since there is no sand left underneath the foundation.

Digging the coconut trees before they fall into the river.


Digged all the coconut trees out. As you can see the river in the daytime is not very big or deep it actually dries out, but in the evening it fills up. During day time people cross the river (there is very little water), but if you want to cross it back you better do it before 4 pm because it fills up again.

The river is not very big or deep, but because like you can see on this picture the land is all sand, the river can barely touch the sand and it washes it, and then what happens is all the sand on top falls in. So that is what happened to our house. The river didn't even touch it, but because it did wash all the sand underneath it, the heavy concrete posts and foundation collapses.










My husband and our real good friends (feel like family to us) from the beach. They have been the biggest support through all of this.




My lovely husband who created this paradise with all his heart for his family and ofcourse with Gods help.



As a family, we still trying to figure out the purpose of this terrible thing we had to go through as a family, especially since this was supposed to be our dream, and this was supposed to be our primary income and now it was all gone. We felt lost and confused. This is why we came to El Salvador in first place for the beach and build a rental vacation home. Do we go back to Canada after we got rid of everything we owned? Where do we go from here? Our primary income is gone, how do we continue?

This is where we as a family went through the hardest times in our lives. We were and are first and most always grateful for our health and our family, but we took a big hit, but we survived and we did learn a lot, and we did get back up. We as a family cherished the most wonderful memories living here in our paradise that will last a life time and nothing can take that away and for that, we are forever grateful and would not change have changed a thing.

So this was our Part 1 of our experience living in El Salvador as a family. Keep following me if you would like to see more posts about our life in El Salvador.

**THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY POST. If you found it interesting or helpful, don't forget to upvote and if you have any suggestions how I can improve, they are very welcomed. Thank you. GOD BLESS YOU!