I left El Salvador days ago. Five buses, and two borders later, I arrived in Leon, Nicaragua with my thoughts still in El Salvador. I think it was the people, interested and curious, or the fact that, when there, you’re witness to the momentum of change occurring in a country many find too dangerous to visit. Definitely a policed country, mostly present to combat the issues between gangs of bordering towns, not because travelers are a target for anything more than petty theft. Nevertheless, while in their national parks, police officers escorted me, one in front and one behind the en [View Full Entry]

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My crazy family subscribes to the notion that salt water heals all, so naturally I headed directly for the ocean and stayed for a week. El Salvador’s coastlines certainly don’t receive the hype, which Costa Rica’s coasts do, so you get to a ponte like El Zonte and it’s just the fisherman, their families, the ocean, and you! Falling asleep (with only 4 walls separating you from the ocean) to the crashing of waves on the shoreline of your front yard, under a sky glowing with stars, and then bathing in the ocean with the rise of the sun every morning- [View Full Entry]

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2-hour bus ride south of Tacuba… Juayua is a cute, colorful, coffee-growing town. Cute to the point where the trees which line the street grids have been sculptured in the shape of blocks and balloons and the building rows behind them each are perfectly painted in bright, happy colors, accented with flowers. A popular weekend spot for Salvadorians, Sundays, the parque central fills with local restaurants serving their cuisine from vendors in the street. Oversized, double-decker buses, dwarfing the town center, wait to take (Salvadorian) tourists on a “rockin’” ni [View Full Entry]

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So I arrived in El Salvador, Tacuba 2.1.07...and wow, this place is amazing, and the country as whole! What a change a divide between neighboring countries can make. Walking over the border, that bridge, such a different feeling. I loved Guatemala, but El Salvador, the whole vibe feels so much more comfortable. Tacuba, far eastern El Salvador, an hour and a half from the most southern border of Guatemala, is located on the edge of Parque Nacional El Imposible (between 300m and 1450 above sea level). The impossible part was once the risk of mule and crew attempting to transport crop [View Full Entry]

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It´s just so hard to leave, say goodbye...Guatemala, so engaging and diverse, so yes, I made just one last stop before heading out. San Pedro, on beautiful Lago de Atitlan. "Welcome to Paradise," a neighboring village sign reads. While San Pedro has no such sign, having given all my senses illumination, a paradise it certainly felt. A shock of change. Where is this from there, that village just 8 hours north, in the chill of the mountians. Todos Santos, the village of simple rugged stillness, with the one comedora of four young women, sixteen years shaping and grilling tortillas, while k [View Full Entry]

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I write from the only computer here in the small mayan villge of Todos Santos, Guatemala, population 800, where the villagers still where the traditional dress and exist with little to no mordern influences. Overall, the people are gracious, slow, and friendly. had an amazing photo shoot today. just to ease your mind, never to worry about me down here- there is absolutely no shortage of male (fellow travelers) escorts. i traveled up here with an Isreali guy i met down in Xela, where i was studying the past couple weeks. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatimih/sets/72157594578122165/ http: [View Full Entry]

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I did make my way out of hiding in mute reminense, and met many travelers. A lot are here (in Guatemala) for volunteer work, or intense several month long study for masters degree requirements, and there are a cluster who, like me, pass on through, one of whom I plan on meeting up with in a month as an escort across the border into South America. I just finished my second week of classes, and have decided to take a break and travel on. It is however, going to be hard to leave this fantastic place I'm staying right now. I [View Full Entry]

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This country is amazing. I'm slipping into another zone. I arrived in Guatemala city, spent the night and another day. The poverty and the shock of walking through the streets of an unindustrialized city, hmm, what to say. It's the biggest city in Central America, yet it's so incredibly poor. I walked through hilled calles of adobe dwellings, peaked in doorways where mayan women mixed corn masa in barrels. In others, families would purchase baskets of dough, load them in taxis (not many can afford cars) to transport to family run restaurants or street food carts. Luckily I met a French [View Full Entry]

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