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Published: March 18th 2008
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So, after leaving San Marcos we spent a busy day in Panajachel sorting out various things and doing some shopping. We were delighted to discover that our television had BBC World - the first time we´d seen it for a good few weeks and interestingly there was a program about organic coffee farming and other environmental issues in Guatemala. Of course we also caught up on some real news rather than CNN 'news'!
Early the next morning we set off on a long day of travelling. The first bus took us to Antigua where we had breakfast in our favourite cafe. The next one took us to Guatemala City where we had to hang around for a couple of hours for to San Salvador in a large shopping mall which felt very like being in the US. The bus to San Salvador arrived a bit late and took a while to board so we left half an hour late and got stuck in pretty bad traffic in the city for a while so we were pretty fed up. However, we managed to listen to a bit of downloaded News Quiz on the way which was very funny even though we´ve
probably missed some of the news that it covered!
The bus itself was reasonably comfortable and getting through both borders was fine although the El Salvadoreans seemed to want to search quite a lot of luggage. Luckily ours weren´t included - it´s an art packing our bags!
We´d booked into a small hotel in the suburbs of San Salvador as the centre is not supposed to be safe at night. We went straight out for dinner as it was getting late and ended up with a choice of various sports bars all of which were busy. The one we picked turned out to be quite entertaining and served huge plates of food, much more than I could possibly eat.
The next morning we walked a little further to the nearby shopping mall which could have been in the suburbs of any American town. El Salvador does not have a big tourist industry at the moment and this was clear from the lack of information, so we spent some time trying to find out details in a couple of places and trying to book our return bus. In the afternoon I decided to make the most of the
shopping mall and got my hair cut though it turned out to not be quite like any place in the US as they washed my hair in cold water and only charged $9....
The following day we organised a taxi to take us to Suchitoto, a small colonial town to the north of San Salvador close to a large reservoir. We´d booked into a lovely hotel (in celebration of the years Partnership Bonus). It was right on the central square with a balcony overlooking the church and beautiful furnishings - strangely we were almost the only people there for the time we stayed. Suchitoto was badly affected by the civil war and the town was almost deserted when peace came in the early 90s but many people have moved back and it is now a popular place for local tourists to visit. However, this probably explains why it was so quiet as most local visitors will come at weekends.
It turned out to be very hot in the town so we took things pretty slowly. The town itself is small and quiet with few people around, particular in the middle of the day but in the evening more
come out into the central square. It´s become quite a cultural centre for El Salvador and there´s lots of art both in the street and in galleries. The church in the main square looks beautiful from the outside but inside it is mostly wooden with simple painted frescoes all of which are rather faded and in some places there are clearly problems with woodworm. For all that it is rather lovely inside and I can´t recall having seen a church that size with the interior all made of wood.
One afternoon we took a bus down to the lake where we first had a swim in a pool we´d seen the day before. We caused a bit of a stir when we arrived with the people already there all watching us as we walked along the side of the pool and got in. People huddled in small groups, giggling a little and I felt very self-concious. However, it was lovely to cool down in the water.
After the swim, we walked down to the lake and hired a small boat to go out to some of the islands. The setting is beautiful with the lake surrounded by mountains,
though somewhat smaller than Lago Atitlan. However, the main attraction is the number of small islands, one of which, Isla de los Pajaros (Island of Birds!) is a protected area. We had already seen quite a lot of birds around the edge of the lake but further out the water was full of cormorants popping up and down in the water and filling the trees on the islands. When the boat engine was turned off we could hear the noise they make which gives them a name in Spanish that means small pigs - weird that birds that size could make such deep grunting noises. There were also lots of herons of different kinds, various ducks, swallows, a pair of pelicans and a few rather ugly vulture types. It was fantastic to see and hear so many birds and Hugh got some excellent pictures.
The other highlight in Suchitoto was a horse riding trip into one of the areas with a local guide who told us a bit about the civil war. We took a local bus to meet our guide, Jose, in a small community called La Mora. The horses seemed to be pretty well cared for although
Hugh´s was rather slow. We followed a path away from the road up towards a nearby dormant volcano through an area that had once been inhabited but was now pretty overgrown with trees. Jose showed us a couple of bomb craters where houses had been destroyed by bombs dropped by army planes and explained that the people in the area had all eventually left, either moving further up into the mountains or some moving to Costa Rica. Jose showed us a ´bomb-shelter´- a hole dug into the ground in which people hid when planes came over which could hold 4-5 people. Looking inside I think I would probably have taken a risk with the planes....
He also showed us the remains (not much at all) of the community church which used to be there which had clearly been an important center for the community but was now full of trees.
The ride itself was hot and sticky but with some beautiful scenery and lots of birds and butterflies including some huge blue ones which we think were morpho butterflies (but I need to check this!).
The return journey on the bus took ages as the bus went
through a number of small communities including picking up what appeared to be a whole year of tiny school children to take them home. The bus just seemed to be crawling with children all rather fascinated by us and squeezed in 4 to a seat all around us. It really did feel like we were aliens from another planet!
After 3 days in Suchitoto we unfortunately had to return to San Salvador leaving behind our beautiful hotel room (and probably an empty hotel!). But more of that later....
Hope that none of you were too badly hit by the recent storms (apparently our back garden fence came down!) and that all are well.
Lots of love
S + H xx
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