El Salvador

After another two night stay in Antigua at our favorite hostel (The Yellow House) with our favorite hostel staff (Julia!), we decided to chicken bus it to El Salvador.  The tourist shuttles are always easier (and more than twice as expensive), but generally go from one capitol to the next, and we wanted to stop before San Salvador.  We found a rough guide online for which busses we wanted to catch, and we crossed our fingers it would work out.  At our first stop, we knew what we were looking for, but then a friendly guide looked at us as he was getting off and said "Are you going to the border?"  We said yes, so he motioned for us to follow him.  We have had really good luck with friendly strangers helping us figure out where to go, so we followed him off the bus, and, as is the custom in bus stations, were immediately beset upon by 15 guys hustling us over to a bus.  We loaded our packs, and barely had time to sit down before the bus took off.  It only took us about five minutes to realize something was wrong from the direction we were heading, and the bus assistant soon confirmed our worst fear.  Yes, we were heading to the border, but instead of El Salvador, we were going to Mexico.  D`oh!

We got off at the next little town and grabbed another chicken bus in the opposite direction.  (I´m afraid our helper was a little embarassed to have "helped" us, but it wasn´t his fault!)  Back in town we were more careful about stating WHICH border we wanted to go to, and quickly found the right bus.  From there we made it to the border, did the customary long walk from one side´s bus stop to the other side´s bus stop, and after just two more busses made it to the pretty mountain town of Juayùa.  Finding street addresses is always difficult.  Even if the streets are marked, which they often aren´t, most people use the age-old method of "It is two blocks down and three blocks over from the yellow and white gas station".  We asked a local guy if he knew the way to the hotel we wanted to go to, and he pointed us down a street.  We cautiously headed in that direction, but I guess he could see our hesitancy because he ran up behind us and proceeded to walk us the rest of the way.  Many travelers opt to skip El Salvador altogether.  While the country has its share of volcanoes and waterfalls and jungle, you can find all of that bigger and better in surrounding countries.  Added to that is that the country is still trying to get tourists to trust it as a safe and interesting destination.  While options for tourists are expanding, the infastructure is still pretty basic.  But what the country does have is an extremely friendly and outgoing population.  Everywhere we went people smiled at us and said hello.  From little kids to old grandmothers, everyone who passed us had a friendly greeting.

We came to Juayùa specifically for the feria gastronomico, a food fair they have every weekend.  Booths were set up all around the main square, and we walked around looking for something weird to try.  We finally settled on frog.  It was marianated in a green sauce, almost like a pesto, and was served with rice, a tortilla with a weird white paste stuff inside, a small salad, and some delicious fried plantain.  I´ve never had frog before, and it tickles me to say it, but it tastes like chicken, only chewier.  For dessert we had a chocolate covered frozen banana.  There was a piragua guy, which is sort of like a snow cone, but then they put all sort of weird thick goop and powder and stuff on it, so the banana just looked more appealing.  Maybe we´ll try a piragua another time.

We also found a little place to get haircuts.  The lady was great, and it only cost $1.25 each!  We found that the hotels were expensive, but just about everything else is really cheap.  Our original plan had been to scoot through the country after this, but since we were enjoying it we decided we could spare another night.  In an unusual decision for us, we decided not on the cute little colonial town, but instead decided to spend a night in San Salvador, the capitol.  Our first hour-long bus went smoothly, and at the bus station we quickly found our next bus and got on.  It was still fairly empty so we figured we´d have a few minutes to wait, but it started to fill up fairly quickly.  Then a man got on and started making some kind of announcement.  This happens often on the busses, and is usually someone trying to sell something or give a sermon or whatever, so I´ve stopped even trying to figure out what they are saying.  But then he got off, and a few people followed him.  At first we wondered if there was going to be another bus that left sooner, but most people stayed on the bus so we weren´t sure.  We waited a few more minutes, and then someone else got on and said something, too quietly for us to make out, but again a few but not all the other people got off.  We decided something was up, so David got off the bus to take a look around, and sure enough across the street he found another bus station.  We unloaded and went across, and were even lucky enough to find a deluxe bus with more comfortable seats and curtains over the windows which was leaving promptly.  After we got on, a very nice lady came over to us to ask what we had paid for our seats, just checking to make sure we hadn´t been overcharged.  (We hadn´t, the two hour bus ride was just $1.25 each.)  These El Salvadoreans are just nice!  I still can´t figure out why so many people stayed on the original bus though.

We arrived at a rather chaotic bus terminal in San Salvador, and were able to quickly jump in a cab.  The neighborhoods in San Salvador are pretty clearly demarcated between the good side of town, the bad side of town, and the stuff in between.  We chose the good part of course, up near the university where the college students and most of the backpackers go.  Unfortunately we hadn´t really thought about it being a Sunday, and to our chagrin most things were closed.  We tried walking around, but with so few people around we just couldn´t be sure of how safe we were, not to mention there just wasn´t much to look at anyways.  We did end up in a mall at one point, which was a little weird.  They even have Cinnabon here!  Sadly it was at American prices, and I wasn´t willing to pay $4 for it.  ;)

Still we found a little local joint to have lunch.  For dinner we caved to convenience and went to Pizza Hut.  (The street was loaded with American fast food joints, there were even two Burger King´s less than a block away from each other.)  The Pizza Hut was fancified though, with waiters and a full menu of pastas and sandwiches and other stuff.  We went for a special take out deal, two pizzas for $9.  When we got back to our place we found one pizza was thin crust and one was thick crust.  Who knows why.  While we were waiting though, there were two young local guys sitting near us, talking in a mixture of spanish and unaccented english.  They had some tattoos and piercings, but were wearing jeans and polo shirts.   We started talking, and they told us they had each grown up in Los Angeles since they were little kids.

"But I got into a little trouble, and so I got sent back here a year ago.  It was really weird having to come back to a country I didn´t even remember.  I wish I could go back to the US, but I guess it will be alright here.  Gotta make the best of it anyways!"

They didn´t elaborate on what kind of trouble they had been in, but coming from LA and knowing the history El Salvador has with gang troubles, I could imagine.  But I was really impressed with their attitudes about it.  Neither tried to complain about how the mean old USA had treated them unfairly.  Whatever they had done, they were taking responsibility for it, and for the consequences they were now facing.  They weren´t thrilled with their new life, but they were making the best of it.  They got their food and as they said goodbye they directed us down the street to where we could find some "ladies".