Advertisement
Published: April 7th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Today we went to a colonial town about an hour outside of the city called Suchitoto. Mr. Iglesias drove us there and on the way told us about some of the buildings and history in San Salvador. When we met him on Thursday we were having a discussion with Dr. Iglesias about Dengue fever, so we hadn't talked much to Mr. Iglesias. He told us then that he didn't speak English very well. We found out today that he was being very modest. Although his English is certainly not perfect, he was able to talk with us about history, his family, his job, architecture, food, etc. He was such a great tour guide since he is a retired civil engineer and knows a great deal about the architecture of Suchitoto. Suchitoto is an old Spanish colonial town with cobblestone streets that was a "cultural capital" when indigo was an important trade in El Salvador. Mr. Iglesias took us to see where they use the indigo dye and make fabrics. We also saw a beautiful church, Iglesias Santa Lucia, that was unfortunately closed on the inside for renovations. He told us that every town in El Salvador has a town square bordered
by a church, the town hall, and shops or markets and that the church and the town hall are always the first buildings to be built in every town. There were a number of street vendors selling handicrafts so we got some sweet souvenirs and gifts. We also went to a few art and photography galleries. We didn't get a picture of it, but he also showed us women working with a machine that makes tortillas that was pretty crazy. The town overlooks a manmade lake, Lago de Suchitlan, so we went to lunch at La Fonda del Mirador which is a restaurant on a cliff overlooking the lake. It was a beautiful view with a nice breeze. The food was delicious and we both had fresh watermelon juice that was really awesome but very filling.
On the way home we had Mr. Iglesias take us to the grocery store so we could stock up on supplies and he took us to the HiperPais which is what Walmart calls itself in El Salvador. This was the craziest place we have ever been. I don't like to go to Walmart in the US because I think it is too hectic
and this was 10 times as crazy. There were people everywhere and they had people giving out samples of everything (seriously anything you can think of, tuna, beans, drinks, grilled cheese, chicken, fish) so there were crowds of people around the samples as well. It was really hard to maneuver your body much less a cart, so it was definitely a frustrating experience! Schools and government jobs have off this whole week so Mr Iglesias thinks it was probably more crowded than usual because people were stocking up for vacation. But we did get some interesting things including a bunch of vegetables we've never heard of (lets hope i can figure out how to cook them!), guava cookies, and tons of different kinds of cheese. They have this flower here, loroco, that they add to cheese that is really delicious but hard to describe.
We were really tired out after our big day of adventure so we went to a pizza place, Krisppy's, that is on our block and had the margherita pizza which was surprisingly delicious and more Suprema, the REAL champagne of beers. Then home to bed for sweet dreams of watermelon juice.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.215s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 62; dbt: 0.1827s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb