Dias Numeros Cuatro y Cinco

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Saturday

Finally, Saturday was the day to get a late start. Caesar, our tour guide, picked us up for a ‘ruins and volcanoes’ tour. He was a very knowledgeable and friendly local who was very helpful in describing each site. First stop, we visited the Pompeii-style Mayan ruins of ‘Joya de Ceren’, which was buried under lava and ash after a volcanic eruption in 595 A.D. We continued our trek towards Cerro Verde about an hour away (uphill, both ways, winding roads). This road trip made me queasy and brought back nightmares of my trip to Pai. On the way up, we caught multiple great views of Coatepeque Lake, a volcanic crater lake nestled between three volcanoes. We captured numerous beautiful photos at several lookouts. Once we arrived to Cerro Verde, a national volcanic park, we marveled at the close-up views of volcanoes like “Izalco.” We took a brief hike around a volcanic crater overgrown with dense forest (the last eruption was approximately 25,000 years ago). The hike was long-overdue and welcomed exercise.

Apparently, I’ve been drawn to every third grader in El Salvador. We met one of these third graders named Mario (whom I freaking love) at the park, who insisted we climb up into his tree house which may or may not have been structurally sound. However, we took our chances because he was so adorable, and I didn’t have the heart to say no. I have made it my personal mission to enroll every little one in school. Their parents, however, are trying to get me deported.

That evening, we had dinner with Liz’s Salvadoran family. It was true cultural immersion, from the food to the conversation. Here, I learned about Salvadoran life, including children, schools, and gangs. Gangs have become my newfound obsession (and are completely ruining my aforementioned mission to enroll all Salvadoran children in school); Liz’s cousin and his wife are D.A.s in homicide units. Time with my new Salvadoran family made me feel a little better about our safety until our ride back home. On the way back, our vehicle inched by a body that was hit by a car (apparently a typical event in San Salvador - the locals are desensitized to this type of occurrence), which made me even queasier than the ride up the mountain. This resulted in another sleepless night with a lava lamp, a moon rock light, and one eye open.

Today (Sunday)

Although we anticipated a six hour day, we somehow managed to turn it into a 12 hour excursion. We did not realize that the canopy/zip line tour only departed three times in the day. We did, however, get to visit the food fest and market in Juayua. Our need to indulge in more food there made us late to our tour. In an effort to kill over two hours until the next tour, we explored the “Green Lagoon,” a crater lagoon with lily pads, lots of locals, a hilarious restroom, and fresh air (depending on where you stand). The most interesting part of the trip was the drive up: the narrow cliff-side roads were deadly and unpaved. This jarring voyage was made in a Toyota mini-van clearly not meant for off-roading. Forget dying at the hands of a gang lord, I thought this would be my demise.

After a few hours, we finally made it to our original destination, which was well worth the wait. We were herded like cattle into the back of a modified pick-up truck where another deadly ride awaited us. As I clenched the “safety” bars, I was mesmerized by a cow standing two feet from my face enjoying its lunch; this may have been my final hurrah. Luckily we made it to the starting point of the canopy tour despite our doubts. Somehow, flinging 375 feet above the forest was much easier than enduring the ride up to the starting point. Each of the 14 individual zip lines captured an incredible view of the Salvadoran landscape. It was well worth the wait. This concluded the day’s events. The two hour ride home was spent relaxing and reflecting (actually, mostly sleeping). Now we await dinner.

Stay tuned...

Howard Family (Apaneca Division).

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Photos

We look happy here...
just wait!

Comments

[meg]

hi
Hi, I love reading your blog.... enjoy your trip, see you in august,