Well, we are now in Antigua, Guatemala; just resting for a day after the last few nights of little sleep (Jordan will cover that in his next post on TIKAL). But my job is to tell you about the wonderful, beautiful, rustic, friendly country of El Salvador, even though we were only there for 2 nights.
It took a lot of pushing on my part to go to El Salvador as were very crunched for time on our way to Guatemala. I had always wanted to go because when I worked at Delfinos, all of the cooks were from El Salvador; it was really what sparked my interest in Latin America. Unfortunately, however, El Salvador is slightly out of the way when heading towards Guatemala; and out of all the Central American countries, it is the least touristy and the least visited. But my pushing won out and we hopped on an 11 hour bus in Managua that went straight to the capital, San Salvador.
San Salvador was a delight. The cab drivers didn’t try to rip us off (like in Nicaragua), a random man stopped and hugged us as we were trekking to our hotel (ok, he might have been drunk, not really sure), people didn’t hassle us for taxi rides, hotels, and tours, and people were always more than ready to help out with directions or information. I believe the friendliness of the people owes itself in part to the fact that El Salvador has not yet been jaded by tourism; therefore, people are always ready to help and show a genuine interest in you. Anyway, our hotel, Hotel Florida, was lovely and a great place to rest after so much travelling. That night, we set out for the mall where we enjoyed Pizza Hut and TCBY (we are such Westerners, I know!)
The following morning we set out for the small Colonial Town of Suchitoto. This town is where all of my old Delfinos coworkers were from so I had heard all these stories about how great it was. Suchitoto did not disapoint! Granted, there was not much in the way of tourist activities there, but I think that was part of the charm. When we checked into the hotel, the lady who owned it had her husband give us a ride to the lake (we didn’t even have to ask). As though that wasn’t enough kindness, she gave us a huge plastic bag with her family’s swim suits and towels for us to use (we had left most of our luggage in San Salvador). Later that night, this little boy tried to teach us how to spin a-top-on-a-string thing, and was cracking us up as he made fun of Jordan’s many unsuccesful tries. He would go around showing people (all that night and the next morning) how Jordan threw the top. It was HILARIOUS! Between interacting with him, eating in laid back restaurants, hanging out at the lake, and browsing in all of the Artesian shops, the best we can describe Suchitoto is TRANQUILO (we have agreed that there is no sufficient English equivalent to this word). Jordan also said that the town might win the “Friendliest Award” out of all the towns he’s been to on his entire trip!
So all and all, we were only able to spend 2 days in El Salvador. But it was enough to win me over to the county; I hope to go back some day and maybe do some volunteer/mission work of some kind. While El Salvador might not be a top tourist draw, its richest resource is definetly the people! Love it, love it!
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