Advertisement
Published: December 4th 2008
Edit Blog Post
me
with a beautiful el salvadoran lake behind... Hola Todos,
I am now convinced that El Salvador has some of the best people in the world! The first day we arrived in the country, it was late and dark, and we had no idea where we were or if it was safe to be wandering around trying to find our hotel. Unfortunately, we were out of options, as I had attempted to ask the bus driver) at the terminal stop if we could walk to our hotel or if we should take a taxi for our safety. The fellow kindly informed me that there were no taxis at this hour....
So, we set off into the night, trying to get our barrings and work out a plan. As we wandered on, I saw group of three men, drinking and chatting on the side of the street, eyeing us out. I decided they would be harmless (or at least if they weren¨t that with the age of the one and the state of the others, I could take them....) so went up with a smile and a bit of desperation explaining our situation... after a few minutes of attempted direction-giving, the younger fellow jumped up and said he
me...
it had to be done! would escort us... and so he did, about a 15 minute walk (into the red light district), loads of conversations and smiles, he deposited us at the door of our budget hotel and disappeared into the night. The following morning we explored the town and made our way to a few other listed highlights, including an amazing local lake.
Landing a hotel on the lake and overlooking it (albeit on some questionably tilty legs) and the rolling, green hills. We splurged on pina coladas and ventured out to a local comdedor (eatery) for the evening. There we encountered the best family ever... a mother cooking fresh fish and chicken and all her children running around, helping out and getting in the way, as well as shyly trying to interact with us. As the evening progressed thee little girl and I were playing winding games (she would try to catch my attention, then I would wink at her in return and she would giggle like crazy and hide), the mother and a few other locals were exchanging the English and Spanish version of all our names on napkins, locals were chatting us up, and dogs were fighting in the alley,
the lake...
in el salvador... all set to blasting local music from an old CD player propped on top of a dead jup-box machine. It was fantastic. And by the end of the night, the little girl became more and more brave and decided that the new game was waiting until I wasn't looking and giving me a kiss on the cheek, then of course, running away and giggling like mad. Needless to say, by the end of the evening we had counted 66 kisses!
Sadly, we did have to end the evening, and we wandered back to our abode, where we were met with locked gates and a guard sporting a shotgun - somehow, something that has become a rather safe feeling for me.... A few days later we found ourselves in another small town, and yet again, upon asking a local where our hotel might be located we were walked all the way there and even had the local bargain the room and the price for us and then disappear into the day with a handshake. We spent the day in the little town and splurged on a nice dinner for American thanksgiving. This, however, required us to leave the town, as
apparently there were¨t any reasonable restaurants in the town. So, again, we had a few locals recommend the same place and we jumped on a bus and went out to a ranch just outside of town, with a little lake out back and amazing food. We even secured a table floating on the lake just at sunset. It would have been the perfect end to the day, but it was even better, as I asked for directions to the bus stop on the way out, some locals came running after us and asked to drive us to our hotel... again, we had loads of small talk and I even topped up my kisses with a few more as we were yet again, deposited at our hotel.
The stories go on and on, there were locals chatting me up on the bus, asking where I was from and offering me local fruit, helping me buy tidbits from the bus vendors - yes a unique occurrence here - on every bus you take there will be vendors of everything you can imagine; local fruit and vegetables, juice, water, batteries, pills, crazy glue, nuts, matches, anything really - but it is always
a great way to taste some of the local produce and fill a hole that often appears as our days slip away while we explore...
So, I am convinced that El Salvador does have some of the kindest people and they always go out of their way to help, especially if you ever pause on a street corner or look confused, someone will surely pop over to see where you are from, where you are going, and make sure you get there, often by walking you directly where you need to go. Such a novelty coming from a big city ;-)
More to come...
Trish xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0392s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb