Experience of a life time. Four months living on the beach.

After we build our house on the beautiful beach in El Salvador, where my husband is from, we decided to take a little break from our busy lives in Canada and go to our just built house on the beach for 4 months. Our boys were still pretty young, grade 2 and 4. We were very excited to take our boys there so that they can learn first hand the different culture, a different world, learn the Spanish language and experience living in Third World Country in an exotic place.

When we got to El Salvador, we were very anxious to go straight to the beach to see our new home, which we have not seen yet. My husband's uncle was the one who was in charge of the whole building process. When we arrived there, we did not really know what to expect, but we were just blown away how perfect it was, even though it was not 100% finished yet. When we went on top of the flat platform roof of our house and saw our yard and the beach and the ocean, we felt like this is just a dream. We couldn't believe that this is our house and that we made this happen.




My son Marcus and I going up our stairway to the top of the house, which is a flat platform, which we will use to keep on building a 2 storey level house later on.

The boys, on the other hand, didn't really understand it yet, what a blessing this is and how fortunate we were, to own a home on the beach, but they were super excited too. It was just one of those wonderful days in our lives that we will remember for ever as a family.

Living on the beach was something completely new to all of us, not just our boys. This was our dream, to build a house which we can eventually retire in, and the beach was absolutely beautiful and also private.

My husband and I celebrating our home in paradise with fresh and delicious coconuts

Our days would usually start with us waking up around 6-7am (before the sun comes out) and going for a morning walk at the beach before it gets too hot.

This is how our morning walks looked like. Peace, Freedom, Ocean Air.

After enjoying the morning walk, we would water our twelve, still small then, coconut trees. When the coconuts are small, you have to water them twice in a day, since they will die from too much sun and heat. During winter time which is during the May -Sept months, you can water less, depending how much rain you get at the beach. After the trees are two years old, you don't have to water them since their roots already reached the water from underneath the sand, which is not very deep down.


Coconut farms are mostly grown at the beaches since they need the salt from the ocean. If you live far away from the ocean, you would actually have to spray the coconut trees with salt if you want the good quality coconuts. The sand also plays a great factor at how fast they grow, since the roots are easily spreading towards the water and not to mention the hot weather, where in the mountains is way cooler and more rain, and the higher you go, the colder it gets and that is why the mountains are perfect for coffee farms. The colder, the better.

After we already enjoyed the beautiful nature, it was time to relax and enjoy the coffee and some breakfast. Lots of times we would just enjoy our coffee on top of the roof enjoying the view of the ocean.

Before the noon, we usually went swimming in the ocean, or go fishing in the river which was about 5 min walk. Every day, except Sundays I would homeschool the boys, or just help them with their homework that the teachers gave them.




My son Marcus fishing the El Salvadorian style in the river. This fish net is one of the smallest sizes (there are different sizes of the nets and they are also made differently for different kinds of fish, or crabs etc.) and it was my favorite one. You have to learn the technique of throwing this net, which we learned from our just people always trying to help.

The boys and their new friend Carlos having fun in the river, which is joined with the ocean. This was actually one of the best days to swim in the river because the waves from the ocean were pretty big and they were pushing us toward the river.

In the evenings, we would usually go for a swim again, and then go for a nice evening walk at the beach. We would always enjoy the sunset, unless we were not home, and have a bonfire after the sun goes down, which was around 6:30 pm. In the evenings, when the sun was down and it was already dark, sometimes we would go on top of the roof and watch some movies on the laptop as a family. We would always finish the night with as enjoying the gorgeous view of the stars and the moon. Absolutely amazing. I don't think we ever saw so many stars in the sky like we did living on the beach. And it wasn't just sometimes, it was almost every single night.

Enjoying lunch in our favorite spot.


Digging for crabs and making new friends while enjoying the evening walk on the beach. El Salvadorian people love catching the crabs. While walking on the beach you can see all the little crabs, but when you get closer to them they run really quickly into their holes and hide. It is very tricky to catch them, and that is why it's like a fun game for the people while enjoying the beach.


Beautiful sunset


The boys having some snacks under the hut, next to the bonfire, where we usually cooked some hot dogs.

We have a lot of family in El Salvador, so on the weekends we usually had family staying and enjoying the beach, which was always fun. Lots of beach soccer, fishing, swimming, crabbing etc. What is really cool about living in El Salvador is that people come right to your doorstep selling you things like fresh seafood, things like fresh baked goods "pan dulce", fresh fish "pescado fresco", fresh baked buns "pan", ice cream "helado", tamales (El Salvadorian food), even clothes and anything you can really think of. Which was really new to us, but it was actually really beneficial, since we would usually do shopping once a week in a Sonsonate city, which was about 45 minutes away. We had some other stores closer by, but we usually ended up going to the city.

Enjoying the ocean with family.


Buying some fresh, live fish from the fisherman. The fishermen come to the shore to pull their nets filled with fish and you can purchase the still live, fresh fish from them. If you help them by pulling the fish net to the shore they will actually give you the fish for free.

My husband was always worried, that we were going to be bored after a month living on the beach, but that was not the case. We still had a lot of work around the house and every day at the beach was a different day, with different activities, either planned activities or unexpected activities, go with it, activities etc. As a mom, I was always busy cooking, cleaning and laundry which I really enjoyed since there is no need for a dryer because I had one outside and it took 5-10 minutes for the clothes to dry in this everyday ocean breeze and sun.

While living at the beach and making some new friends and learning the new world and their system, we experienced more amazing things.

These are some crabs that we caught at night on the beach. Because it is pretty dark you have to use flash light to go and catch some crabs, which is the best time to do some crabbing.


One of our friends brought us an Iguana which the boys never saw one or hold one before. Iguanas are not very easy to spot in El Salvador since people eat them after they catch them. Most people go hunting for them and then they either sell them or just eat them. Iguanas are actually afraid of people in El Salvador so they hide pretty good, nothing like Mexico where you can see them on the beaches and resorts.


Boys are excited about the coconuts, (the green and the yellow coconuts) and trying to see how heavy they are.


Boys' new friend. They were just amazed by it. We tried to find a turtle laying eggs on the beach or the little baby turtles running toward the ocean, but didn't have the chance yet. One day.


Making more friends who just wanted to come inside our house.

People in El Salvador don't live inside their houses, they live outside. The only real reason they use the house is to sleep in. Most people cook outside because they don't want the smoke inside and it gets too hot. The showers are outside. And you cannot make people stay inside their houses. They are always out and about, or just sitting outside their houses and talking to everyone, or they are just simply relaxing on the hammock. And this is one of the things we really liked about living in El Salvador, but at the same time, we missed that cozy couch and sealed house that we always lived in Canada so it took some time to get used to that.

Watching the ocean, we realized how every single day the waves are different. Some days the waves are huge and rough and scary to swim in, other days the waves are just perfect for swimming with our boards. Then there are days when the waves are really small. Every hour the ocean changes. In the mornings the ocean slowly goes in, where it gets farther and farther away through out the day, and then in the afternoon, it slowly starts to come in closer and closer.

The ocean is going in farther and farther away in the daytime and then comes out slowly at night.

The ocean water is very warm. You can just walk into it, and not feel cold at all. The breeze is amazing, and because of it, you don't feel hot, which is good and bad since you can burn really easy. After swimming in the ocean for while, your skin feels really dry and you can see the salt on your skin, which can be uncomfortable, till you rinse it off with normal sweet water.

DID YOU KNOW? El Salvador is known for one of the best if not the best surfing waves in the world.

Another great experience we had was showering outside. We had a shower outside, which was the coolest thing ever, especially while taking a quick cooling shower at night before going to bed. You could see all the stars while showering, in a cool water, (we had no hot water, which is normal in El Salvador) and if we had hot water, we wouldn't use it anyway because living at the beach it is just too hot and you start sweating right after you had a cool shower. But eventually, we also build a shower inside the house.

This was our shower which was really cool. The shower door is actually missing on this picture because we were fixing it.

Living at the beach, we did not really pay any attention to time, but eventually, we could tell time, just by looking at the sun, which was super cool, and it's something we never pay attention to living in Canada. What does beach mean to us? It means freedom, no worry, joy, abundance, beauty, health, happiness and just peace like nowhere on earth.

So many times we wished for a cloudy or rainy day and some mornings we would get really excited because it would be pretty cloudy and it is pouring rain in the mountains, but by the times 10 o'clock comes, it all clears up again, and no drop of rain. So that is another thing we learned is that it barely rains on the beach, even during the winter time.

One of the things we did not like about living on the beach is that the salt from the ocean destroys everything that is metal. That includes appliances, bikes, lawnmower, kitchen utensils etc. I mean anything and everything that is metal will eventually rust. And if you don't try to cover it or take care of it it will rust super fast.
There is one thing you can do to slow down the process of rusting and that is applying this kind of sealer (not sure what the name of it was).
Also when you are building on the beach, you have to know which products you can use, so that the salt will not destroy it.
We had to wash our vehicles regularly just to rinse the salt off.

On one side of our property, we have a river which joins the ocean and which is about 5 min walk. This river is great for swimming, fishing, and crabbing. It is made of mostly sweet water and some salty water when the ocean waves come in. We also have a beautiful volcana which is like a little lake that is filled up with the ocean water. This volcana is in the opposite direction and it is about 30 min walk and it is also a popular place to swim.


This is the volcana. In daytime usually, there is no much water and people use this space and the beach for quadding and then at evening slowly it gets all filled up with the ocean water.


We went boating on our boat up the river where is a great spot for fishing, crabbing, shrimp catching.

During Christmas and Easter, the beaches get really packed with people. This is the time when all the people celebrate with all their families. They come with all their family and lots of food for the whole day and just enjoy the ocean. The celebration goes on for about a week. This is really the only two times where you see lots of people at the beach, otherwise, it is pretty quiet.

What I loved the most was that we lived there for four months, is that not once my boys wanted to watch the television, or sit for hours on the computer. We enjoyed the nature, we ate healthy, fresh foods, we did not use the microwave, we did not have wifi, but instead, we appreciated the stars, the moon the sun, the ocean, and all the living things surrounding us. We learned how amazing people are in El Salvador. You can ask anyone who has been in El Salvador, and everyone will tell you how wonderful and amazing people are in El Salvador. They will go out of their ways to help you out. People are not in a hurry or stressed out. One great example is when we went fishing and my husband didn't know how to use the fishing net and he was just practicing, one of the guys who was just walking by started talking to us and he ended up spending about an hour showing us how to throw the net. Since then, we became really good friends. But this isn't just one situation, this is how El Salvadorian people are. AMAZING.

My husband enjoying some fresh, straight from the ocean seafood that we just bought from a guy who came to our house selling fresh fish and seafood and if you have no beer, No Problem, he has that covered too. What a service and it comes to your door.


This is how our house looked like after we put all this extra work. I couldn't be any more perfect, even though we did not finish building the top of the house.




This was our main dish living on the beach. Fresh tortillas, lettuce, shrimp, either meat or fish and rice.



We are very grateful and blessed for this opportunity and the most precious memories for our family.

Thank you for visiting my post. God Bless You and remember Dream Big and Never Give Up.