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Published: August 11th 2008
Yani's Dog, Argos
It was HIS bread!The first half of my trip was spent in the capital of El Salvador which is called San Salvador. For a few days Marta and I went to the town of Santa Ana to visit a friend of hers. This section of the report contains pictures from there.
Day Seven - Monday September 25th
Before our trip to El Sal, Marta had found the phone number for a friend of hers that she'd had when she lived there. I'm currently her best friend, but before me (BC) there was Yani. She called and they reconnected. Yani invited us to stay with her family while we were there, so from Monday until Thursday we would be staying in a town called Santa Ana. Before going there, I'd hear M and Gaby talking about this down. Not knowing the name of it before Monday, I thought they were talking about the MUSICIAN named SANTANA. I was surprised that Santana was so popular in El Sal, esp considering that he hasn't released anything new in a while.
My ignorance was quickly erased when M's uncle came to pick us up at 9am to take us for the hour-long drive to Santa Ana.
Street
She led us down the streets that all looked like this. Choked with cars and very small sidewalks. You couldn't walk side-by-side on these sidewalks, and every time I tried to walk on the shoulder of the road I was pulled back onto the sidewalk. The drivers are crazy. Don't take any chances! We stopped for coffee at a gas station along the way and we bought some food for me to munch on and a smoothie. I was still feeling sick, although I couldn't put my finger on WHAT felt ill and WHY. I think I was nauseous that day. I ate what I could to get food in my empty, empty tummy.
Santa Ana is significantly more different than San Salvador. The streets are more narrow, there are lots of big, long buildings that mesh into one another rather than individual houses in San Sal with massive retainer walls and razor wire lining the roof. Oh, there was razor wire in Santa Ana, just not as much ^_^.
We got to Yani's house where her mother and father and dog Argos met us at the door. Yani is, umm, how do I say this without gushing? Attractive? Pretty? If she were to move to Canada she'd be a model. She's naturally slender and has a very pretty face. Her mother was very, very warm and welcoming and her father was jolly and truly excited to have us there. I was blown away by their house. It. Is. Gorgeous. I
Municipal Building
Yani took us downtown Santa Ana and the first stop was the municipal building. It is done up like a hacienda style house, with a massive garden at the centre and the building being a thin frame surrounding the garden. can't put into words. It's like something I'd expect to see in Europe. After walking in through a massive, iron door and being met by the dog, I see that there is a pleasant sitting area with some cast-iron chairs and a table. This is beside a window that is right beside the door. Further in on the left is a sitting area with couches, chairs, a tv and computer. On the right is an open-air garden. There is no roof and the sky is quite visible. In this area are dozens of potted plants sitting on a ceramic tiled floor. We sat on the couch for a bit, talked for a bit, sweated for a bit. Yani led us up to our room. Her father was kind and insisted on helping us carry our bags. Never mind that I'd carried all our bags up four flights of stairs in San Francisco when we stayed in that
shit hole hostel. THAT is hospitality for you. We dropped our bags off and then Yani wanted to show us around Santa Ana.
While we were waiting to get ready, Yani showed us a cute trick. Her dog, Argos, loves bread.
Oh NO!
Marta laments the cement on her shoe and the events that led up to it. She gave him a bun and it was then HIS bun, and he'd growl if you got anywhere near him and his "pan". He'd then drop it on the floor if he got distracted, but if you made to grab the bread, he'd barrel back to the bread and grab it from you. It was all a game to him, and his tail would always start wagging as soon as he got his bread. It was so cute!
While we were being led down to the town square we stayed pretty close together. The buildings were very close together and there were many people about. Iron gates on covering all the doors to businesses that weren't open yet and some razor wire lining the tops of some of the roofs. I was enjoying the sights, not really worried about where Yani was leading us because I knew she knew exactly where we were going (she'd written up an intinerary for the time we were there and was very organized and prepared for our visit. Anyways, while we were walking, my gaze wandered over across the street where I saw a man. He was old and rather dirty with
M&C @ municipal building
The Municipal building had a second level, so we, being the adventurous young women that we are, decided to go exploring. scraggliy hair, but the thing that caught my attention was the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt or underwear and his pants were falling down. I mean, if I hadn't turned away I would have been treated to an eyefull of nekkid! His pants obviously weren't fitting properly. Marta had missed it, but Yani had seen too. We later began bugging Marta that he was her boyfriend named Neto.
While walking around the garden and appreciating the view, a man started talking to Marta. She kept walking towards him, and he kept warning her of something. "Look out for the cement!" he said in Spanish. Marta decided she'd walk wherever the hell she pleased (in reality she just didn't realize what the guy meant until it was too late) and stepped right in a puddle of wet cement. She wiped her shoe off and screamed at the heavens (not really) at the injustice in the world. I laughed at her plight and took a picture.
Yani bought our tickets for us to go into the playhouse. I think they were $0.50 each. A perfect example of my OCD is to follow, although I didn't voice my
M&Yani @ municipal building
Awww, best friends from BC! Yani said that she was afraid of walking on the floor because it's old wood and cracked in spots (you could see through to the ground below). desires and avoided looking crazy. The ticket numbers went in sequence, Marta got xx7, Yani got xx8, and I got xx9. (They were three-digit numbers, but I only remember the end number). Now,
8 is my number. I thought we'd be keeping the tickets forever and I wanted the ticket that ended in 8 to go into my scrap book. I was tempted to ask Yani to trade with me, but knew that I'd look crazy. I decided that 9 wasn't that bad because it's like half-an 8 and was happy I didn't have 7 because 7 is distasteful to me. Heh, go me for restraint!
We stepped through the doors into the playhouse and then had to hand our tickets over to the guard. I wonder what the point in the tickets is at all! They could have saved money in printing them if they'd made the ticket agent and the guard sit beside each other or something so the guard would know who is permitted to go in.
I was then glad that I hadn't asked to trade tickets.
+++
Before the church we stopped off at this park. Some weird guys tried saying
Caro contemplating... soemthing
Going down the stairs again we found a window with a ledge we could easily climb to. I took some pictures out the window and Marta took a picture of me. I hammed it up for the camera a bit, not caring if I looked like a dork, and struck a pose. stuff to us, but we just walked in. I took a pic of Marta and Yani, and somehow it was revealed that it was MARTA's PARK! She owned it and was letting us in out of the goodness of her heart. She's truly a saint because she lets all those homeless people sleep there too.
We found a way into an art school for children. We climbed up to the second level and took a picture of the town square/park below. Notice the massive PEPSI advertising. I would have taken a picture from the street, but didn't want to advertise that I had a camera on me ^_^
After all that we went for ice cream! This was our reward for recognizing the superiority of that 2nd level in the playhouse.
Check out the pictures of the cute cones! I had chocolate (of course!) Yani bought a second cone after we were done these. I helped her finish it. I got the cone because I rock the casba!
After walking all over we took a break at this church by Yani's house. We climbed up the steps and sat on the ledge next to the grass. Not
Out a window
This is the picture I took from the window ledge of the playhouse. *in* the long grass because there were ants in there that would have bitten our bums raw!
We went back to Yani's house and it started raining HEAVILY shortly after we got back and we were thankful that we'd missed getting drenched.
We hung out in the room for a while, and slowly but surely Yani's sisters arrived home from work. She has two sisters, Janet and Amelia. Janet and Yani are taking English courses, so I could converse with them a bit. Unfortunately, Amelia and I relied on her sisters and Marta for translations. They all sleep in the SAME ROOM. It's pretty cool because they share everything. I'm just so used to being on my own that I don't know if I could handle my bro and I sharing a room.
That night M and I discovered that there is only one plumbing line in their house and the bathrooms and kitchen sink are all centralized around it. (It's a 100 year old house. What did we expect??) There is one bathroom upstairs practically IN Yani and her sisters' room. It's a little cubby off to the side with a door that doesn't close to
Playhouse - outside
The playhouse is where we went next. Notice the awesome aqua foam colour!! separate you from the other people in the room. Basically, you are sitting there, looking through the 2" gap between the door and the frame, OR looking through the open slats in the door at the people in the room. Hell, there is more privacy in a public bathroom ^_^, but we were all friends and nobody really looked at you while you were in there, so it was all good. The bathroom downstairs has no ceiling, so you can listen to people preparing lunch while you try to do your business. Being sick as I was, this was not a good sign. However, Marta and I adapted to the situation rather quickly, used the sink that was direclty *IN* the girls' room and then got ready for bed.
We did not wear our granny!gowns that night for fear of ridicule.
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