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El Salvador is the next country on the itinerary for my friends and I while travelling through Central America. We are all pressed for time due to various reasons and need to get a wriggle on, so we hoofed it to the bus terminal at Santa Rosa in Honduras, and jumped on an international bus south to the border and on to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. While passing through border immigration we met a kind expat who is living in San Salvador, and he invited us to dinner at his Chinese restaurant on arrival. We jumped back on the bus and journeyed through beautiful countryside, as we headed off on another short commute to San Salvador.

We checked into the excellent Ximena's Guest House, dear reader , in a great part of town and decided to go for a stroll. I was surprised by the comparative wealth and cleanliness in this part of the capital. There is a huge expat community of Salvadorans living in the United States in the aftermath of the civil war in the 1980´s, which ensures a constant flow of US dollars into the economy to the great benefit of the people. El Salvador has the highest minimum wage of any Central American country, and the hard working Salvadorans have made enormous strides in their economy since the cessation of hostilities in 1991. The hostel had cool travellers staying there, and as it was saturday night I was distracted from taking up the kind dinner invitation with my friends. Instead I hooked up with the hostel crew and we partied on down at a local club. I had a fun night out with my travel friends, and also chatted to heaps of friendly Salvadorans.

The next day was spent relaxing and exploring the town. My friends told me the restaurant food was superb and plentiful, and the owner would not accept any payment. He even invited the three of us to dinner again the next night at his restaurant, and wouldn't hear of us shouting him a meal at a restaurant of his choice when he picked us up from the hostel. We had a great meal and good conversation over a few drinks at his restaurant again. I would like to say a special thankyou to Vincent for his kindness and hospitality, he is the owner of the scrumptuous Dragon Garden restaurant which features authentic pagodas in the garden which are imported from China. We even got to pose with his friendly security guard, and had turns taking happy snaps while holding his rather serious looking weapon. There are security guards and guns everywhere in San Salvador, and it seems like they're on just about every corner.

The following day one of our crew flew back to New York, another pushed on up the road for the time being to Guatemala, and I ventured out solo on a bus to the beautiful little colonial town of Suchitoto, which features cobblestone streets and friendly locals. It was great to stroll around another Latin American colonial town, and it's becoming apparent a traveller can never tire of them. These gorgeous old towns are so relaxing and picturesque, and walking around seems to take you back to an earlier time when life was not so frantic.

A travel mystery follows:
If you recall from the journal at the middle of the world museum in Ecuador, I visited the equator and the museum, which featured fascinating demonstrations of the coriolis effect draining water in opposite directions for the two respective hemispheres. Since then I've experienced three toilets flushing the wrong way for the northern hemisphere, even though I'm nowhere near the equator. The first time I thought I was imagining it, but when it happened again I went to the toilet next in the next stall, and flushed it while watching closely. Sure enough, the first one was flushing clockwise. This confirms there are rebellious toilets in the northern hemisphere; it's a truly bizarre phenomena and I have no idea how to explain it!

El Salvador has made great progress after fifteen years of peace. The people I've met during my visit have been wonderful; so open and friendly with good food and cheap prices, although the introduction of the US dollar as the official currency has dented the purchasing power of the Salvadorans. As bizarre as it may sound, it's often the countries who have suffered the most that are the most focussed on making a better future for themselves. From the depths of despair comes hope, and it's thrilling to bear witness to the dignified people of El Salvador as they strive towards a better future. It would be nice to have more time to explore this fascinating country but based on this brief visit the mail is, basically all of you should be here now!


As I continue my travels, until next time it´s signing off for now

Tom

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