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Published: February 19th 2013
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Keen to see some ‘typical’ Central American towns we drove with Bessy (and Morena another teacher also living at Bessy’s) out to Suchitoto, a very pretty town with a gleaming white church, cobbled square and low rise houses. The sun was scorching hot and as we ambled around the small town we came across an unusual little museum full of a random collection of plates. We enjoyed lunch at a restaurant with gorgeous views over Suchitoto Lake and the surrounding mountains.
Having previously completed a walk around Boqueron volcano with dogs we thought we’d try it without the risk of being hauled over the edge. The scenery throughout El Salvador is dominated by volcanoes providing a dramatic back drop, with San Salvador nestled between a number it looks most impressive. On our walk we were lucky to see our first sight of hummingbirds flitting round flowers. On the way down we jumped off the bus half way to take in some more views across the city at the mirador viewing point and enjoy the cool breeze.
Deciding to have a change of scene that evening we thought about trying some bowling. On the way to
the alley was a Christmas market a very classy scene blue lights and nativity pieces. We wandered through the market and noticed a number of people gathering. Bessy had mentioned about a big firework display at the Stadium Custcatalan and although we were across town we had a fantastic view of the biggest firework display either of us had seen.
A staple Salvadorean food item is the Papusa. Basically a small maize or corn tortilla stuffed with any number of different fillings - mainly cheese, frijoles (refried beans), jalepenos (a favourite of ours) and many other local ingredients. We both enjoyed them but Mark was particularly taken with them, often eating them for 2 meals per day!
After a few weeks in San Salvador it was time to cover some of the main attractions so we plotted out a plan of attack taking in the Museum of Anthropology David J Guzman. This was a fine museum with a lot of ancient, social and political history incredibly well displayed. A short walk from it was the Museum of Modern Art and whilst not vast had an excellent collection of photography and art work.
This was followed by heading downtown this time to show Mark around the cathedral and for us both to explore the National Palace a beautiful colonial building with an array of interesting exhibitions and a display of the changing architecture of the city - mainly as the result of rebuilds after earthquakes. We walked back through Custcatalan Park and after a full day exploring grabbed a taxi back to Bessy’s with Mark suggesting another set of pupusas at our regular haunt.
As hoped although it was near the end of the season there was a big match taking place at the stadium, the final stages of their league involve play offs of the top four, FAS from Santa Ana (Away) were to play Alianza (Home). We arrived at the stadium a couple of hours before the game, there were already thousands of people hanging around sitting on the steps outside the various entrances drinking and eating, some early starters already in the ground. Fireworks - well really lound bangers are used almost daily in the city (and across the country) for no apparent reason and these were going off regularly outside the ground. The fun started
when the FAS fans turned up, there was virtually no fan management outside the ground. There was a good atmosphere pre-match with some jeering from the Alianza fans when FAS fans were hurried off their buses into their side of the ground. Inside the ground half of the ground was exposed to scorching heat the cheaper seats having no shade at all. The thousands of home fans didn’t seem to care bouncing up and down and chanting. The home team won and as the Away fans left there was some hanging out the back of their buses to throw stones at the police - fortunately it stopped fairly quickly.
We wanted to see more of the country so we decided on a few days in the west in the town of Santa Ana. The town square of Santa Ana was a real treat a striking church and exquisite theatre, art nouveau style. We were delighted to find some accommodation that was really nice and most importantly quiet – no 4.30 am buses revving their engines. Our Spanish teacher lived in Santa Ana so after a morning lesson we had a free afternoon and took a long bus
trip up to Ataco a small mountain village. It was a quaint little town which seemed to have been in preparation for a village fiesta. Their were lots of cobbled streets, brightly painted shops and lovely churches. The bus trip back was memorable too. We counted over 60 people crammed into our 18 seater bus, people were literally hanging out of the doors. Luckily Tina had a seat, while Mark tried to avoid crush injuries!
In the area were a couple of old Aztec sites. We visited both, Tazamul and Casa Blanca. At the latter we were shown how tye-dye clothing was made with natural dyes, it was very impressive not your usual 90s festival T-shirt quality - they were able to create really intricate designs. A memorable part of the day was on the buses. We'd been used to the odd salesperson with sweets/drinks boarding the local buses, but it was something else here. We think we could have done a whole weeks shopping without leaving our seats, being offered vegetables, bread, toothpaste, medicines, hair clips, DVD's, sweets and lots more.
Meanwhile, our Spanish lessons were still going well (ish) so we decided
on another day trip to some more ruins at Joya de Ceren a short distance outside the city. The early bus 6 am meant that we arrived hours before it opened and spent some time in a very basic eaterie with only a couple of locals, a couple of dogs & some papusas for company. Eventually we got into the site accompanied by Lizeth and it was worth the wait, some well preserved ruins (the towns people had fled before the site was submersed in ash hence the nickname little Pompeii) and an interesting museum. There wasn't any information in English so it was help to have Lizeth query the staff on our behalf our Spanish didn't go quite that far.
On the cricket front the coaching was still going well with the juniors, but the seniors didn't have the same enthusiasm and training was scarce! I still enjoyed a few matches with mixed fortunes, the pitch hindering batting but helping bowling, and I was looking forward to the big tournament coming up at the end of the year. We were invited to and enjoyed greatly the ex-pat Christmas Lunch at the school - it had been
a long time since we'd eaten roast dinners!
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