small fish in a big pot of warm milk

Where to start, where to start...

Before leaving San Salvador we visited Joya de Ceren, the Maya version of Italy´s Pompeii. It´s an entire village preserved in volcanic ash. Even the corn and beans on the kitchen tables had stayed preserved.

I finished Harry Potter in three days, although usually when the new books are released I can do it in two. Yes, I have an addiction.

We got to experience a night on the town with Karla and her friend. This included going to a very artsy bar and listening to an 80´s cover band. If you don´t know, Bon Jovi and Guns´n´Roses are very hip here.

Then we returned to Suchitoto. When we were there previously we ate dinner at a beautiful restaurant overlooking a lake and Chris ended up getting asked to play a gig! I let him write about it first in his blog so I didn´t steal his thunder. So, we returned to Suchitoto for Chris to perform! In El Salvador! Just the opportunity alone was enough, but the audience loved it, I got to join him for a song (which was our first time performing together), and we even made a little money from it! And got free drinks and yummy food. This would even be a good deal in the states, for those who aren´t savy to normal gig standards.

From Suchitoto we headed over to Santa Ana, the second most populous city in the country, located in western El Salvador. There´s not a ton to do in the actual city (although we did have some interesting experiences), but the setting is magnificent. It´s surrounded by three volcanos and the countryside is a deep, lush green. Our hotel in Santa Ana was located in a neighborhood near the bus station, amdist many, many bars. It wasn´t until we had been in our hotel for a couple hours that we noticed a sign in the hotel that advertised their hourly rates. That gives you a little insight into that specific neighborhood. And a little insight into what kinds of noises we heard from the surrouding rooms. (Actually, I slept through the noises and Chris was the one that heard them each night. I can sleep through fire alarms.) Prostitutes aside, it was very interesting to observe the differences between this neighborhood and the nicer, more wealthy neighborhood near the central plaza. Especially in regards to the treatment we received. In the more affluent neighborhood we were the target of many jokes, sneers, and cold glances. In the poor neighborhood we were greeted with smiles and "holas." I´ll let you readers make your own judgements.

We attempted to catch a bus to one of the nearby volcanos to go for a hike. Alas, we were, as usual, at the mercy of our guidebooks for information, and the bus information left a little to be desired. We missed our chance and were pretty bummed.

But then! Hooray, we left Santa Ana for a nearby lake called Coatepeque, one of the most beautiful lakes I´ve ever seen. It was by far the most crystal-clear water I had seen anywhere in Central America. Yep, people down here are not known for their environmental education. But more on that later. Back to the lake. It´s a crater lake, once an active volcano. Most of the lakeside property is privately owned, we saw some SERIOUS mansions there. Which brings me to another observation: there is a very established upper class here in El Salvador, much richer than those we saw in Guatemala and Honduras. Anyways, this lake was seriously beautiful and we spent our time swimming, relaxing, playing cards, walking. And, we got to hike up the volcano that we missed earlier.

Volcano Izalco is El Salvador´s youngest volcano. For a period of about 180 years Izalco errupted many times per year; it was so active that the erruptions were visible from the Pacific ocean(about 50 km away) and it was known as ¨the lighthouse of the Pacific.¨ The activity slowed down dramatically in the 70´s though it is still active today. Our guided hike (guides and police accompaniment required) began from a nearby innactive volcano which we hiked down in order to reach the base of Izalco. The trek up Izalco proved to be very steep and challenging with sharp volcanic rocks and a gain of 2000 meters. It doesn´t sound like much, but there were no switchbacks, folks, instead we pretty much went straight up. And it was well worth it: the views from the top were incredible. We could see the other nearby lush mountains, volcanic peaks, and even the lake, all this while watching steam rise from the volcanic rocks and smelling that special sulfuric-volcano-smell. Super double bonus fun. Going down the volcano was even more mind-blowing: we surfed. Kind of. Without boards and water. After a few falls, we learned the technique: you lean back and dig your heals into the ash and glde down, a lot like snowboarding. And, yes, I took just as many nasty falls gliding down the volcano as I did when I tried snowboarding for the first time. Luckily my friend Liesl was kind enough to gift me some Curious George band-aids before I left for this trip. Curious George makes scrapes feel better.

Since I´m mentioning a beautiful part of Central America´s natural beauty, I must return to my promised topic. Skimming through my past blogs I realize I haven´t touched on the issue of the environment here. These three countries we´ve visited have all had amazing nature. Jaw-dropping, hit-you-in-the-face beauty. As stated earlier, there is not a knowledge of environmental preservation here. And that is an understatement. Guess where garbage goes? On the street. In the lakes. In the rivers. And I mean directly. It´s not just landfills and dumps. Everyone here throws their trash in the street. Riding the buses is the most extreme way to visually witness these actions. On average we take a bus every other day, and during let´s say a 2-hour ride, we normally observe 90 percent of the passengers throwing some sort of garbage directly out the window. These aren´t just poor people. Many bus passengers are wealthy, and they throw their pop bottles and chip bags out the window, too.

I really am a small fish in the pond. This I´ve always known, but travelling has really taught me the extent of this truth. I know it´s to lose idealism with age, but I think that travelling is another thing that contributes to losing idealism as well. I´m a small fish. I can´t do much, I can´t make an impact on the world. In Seattle I try to buy locally grown and produced food, use only reusable canvas grocery bags, minimize my gas, electricity, and water usage, and recycle, recycle, recycle...it now seems irrelevant when I see bus loads of 70 people throwing rubbish out the window.

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Before I rant any longer and you all stop reading this entry, I now wish to tell you about today in Juayua, about two hours west of Santa Ana. It´s another town surrounded by beautiful mountains, but these mountains look funny because they appear to have stripes from all of the rows of abundantly-growing coffee crops. Big time coffee country. Anyways, on the weekends Juayua has a food fair, similar to a Eugene or Portland Saturday market, I guess. Rows of food stands fill two blocks and craft vendors sell their goods as well. Today Chris and I decided, even though our hotel was within walking distance from the fair, to stay there all afternoon and just keep eating. We ate barbequed ribs, shrimp kabobs, chorizo, and chocolate covered strawberries and bananas. On the corner there was a woman behind a table of liquor stirring a big pot of what looked like boiling milk. She told us it was ¨puncha¨ and we decided to give it a try, so she poured us cups, added a bunch of cinnamon, and asked us what kind of liquor we wanted in our drinks. We actually got to choose. Rum, of course, is the best decision in Central America because it´s really, really good here. Our eyes widened with the first sips...it tasted like warm horchata with a little rum mixed in. Oh deliciousness of all deliciousness!

Tomorrow we will hike to a series of five waterfalls with three swimming pools. And maybe that woman will be out in the square selling more puncha...