Festival of Festivals

Arriving back in La Onion in the early morning hours of Friday the 8th. It was off to Suchitoto, the step back in time, the arts capitol of El Salvador, where every weekend in February people in droves head out of the city to experience the musical performances from global musicians...NOT.





Who writes this xxxx!!





We arrived to deadness, no signs of a festival except for a few posters around town. No thronging crowd, no step back in time, same old same old, with the garbage to boot.





After checking the first hostel which was full, and being told our second pick had closed down 6 months ago, we eventually stumbled upon Hostel De Laguna. One of the newer hostels in town, had only been opened for a couple of months. Still no lock on the outhouse out back, and while there was a pipe that hovered just under the sink, there were no pipes to the taps. Luckily there was a basin full of half clean water in the laundry room next to the outhouse.





The view of the lake however, somewhat offset the negatives.





On to the show. That night a german sitar player was playing at the theatre. The theatre in the art capital of El Salvador was an interesting piece of work. The outside had lovely walls, with beautiful wrought iron woven into perfectly stained wood. The inside had the feel of a school gym with the walls in a state of ill repute. A few rows of pillers coming out of the dirt floor amid the fold-up chairs reaching halfway to the cealing before releasing their tentacle like rebar. Some resident bats and birds flying around to add ambiance to the performance as dogs strolled around throughout the crowd. The exact location Beethoven imagined as a performance hall when he wrote Symphony No. 4 in B flat. The performance scheduled to start at 7 began at a quarter to 8 with 2 thirds of the seats still empty. A wonderful turnout for the world renowned weekend festivities.





If it wasn't for the friendly travellers staying at our hostel, we would have left the next day. As it was we stayed an extra day before heading to the coast, El Tunco.

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