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Published: August 12th 2008
Tazumal - Pyramid
This is the sight of the pyramid shortly after we walked in and rounded the museum.Day Nine - Wednesday September 27th
Wednesday was the day we were going to Tazumal. We woke up early and had breakfast. Then I wanted to make a video that showed the inside of the house, so I made a video tour of Yani's house. It starts in the room that we're staying at and goes throughout the place until the front door and then outside. I say "beautiful" a lot because I wanted Yani's parents to know I was saying good things about their house (and because I really do think it's beautiful). If you click, you will be treated to my verbal explanation of what's going on, as well as my fumbling interaction with Yani's parents. They are TOTAL sweethearts and made such an effort to communicate with me, despite the language barrier. They did so much better than I did!
After my video we went to
Tazumal which is one of the larger archaeological sites in El Salvador. A pyramid was discovered under a large hill and it was excavated.
We parked the car in the street outside of the site and we had to walk in. Again, El Salvadorians only paid about $0.50 or so,
Group Shot
Amelia, Yani, Marta, Me, Janet, and their mother. while foreigners (aka. ME) had to pay more. How do you sneak me in and convince them that my pasty, non-Spanish-speaking ass is really from El Salvador and should only pay 50 cents? I stayed quiet as we approached, and Marta spoke to me in Spanish. Whenever she paused, I'd say "Si". I'm assuming that she was asking me questions or explaining stuff to me and I was acknowledging that I agreed with or understood her. We let Yani and her parents talk to the guy at the gate and pay for us to get in. At one point M said something very loud and jovial to them, and they all laughed. I laughed too and tried to act as natural as possible.
Magically... they let us all in ^_^
Marta, Me, Yani and her sisters Amelia and Janet, and their mother all posed for a picture in front of the pyramid. I'll point out that the reason I look like such a dork is because I was ready to toss my cookies at any moment. It was (surprise!) hot and therefore time for the shorts (despite the fact that I don't wear them b/c of my legs).
Pyramid steps o' doom
They were restoring a lot of the pyramids so there was only one section that we were able to climb up. It was along the left side. Aside from Saturday, this was the worst day for me. If I'd been *anywhere* else, or doing anything else I would have opted out. But, as I type this, I'm so glad that I went anyways. Now I have memories of the pyramid, and all I had to do was feel like total ass while visiting it!
After we climbed the malformed steps we found what looked like a slab. I think Yani or one of her sisters said that it was an alter where they did sacrifices. Somehow, I thought there would be more pomp and circumstance surrounding something that would be so important. I suppose after so long, even things as important as sacrificial altars turn into nothing more than flat, slightly rounded, stone slabs at the top of a semi-constructed pyramid.
On the way down the steps it was pretty steep. Now, anybody who knows me knows how fiercely independent I am and I really *loathe* taking help from anybody. It's just a little personal quirk that I have. I could be on fire and someone would ask, "Hey, you appear to be on fire. Would you like me to help you?" I would most
Sacrificial altar?
It was corded off so we couldn't get closer. It looked pretty clean for a sacrificial altar. surely reply, "No thanks, I'm fine." and proceed to try and roll on the ground and put myself out on my own.
Now, no matter now much I protested, Janet *insisted* on holding my hand and helping me climb down the steps. I had been super sick and sleeping a lot at their place, so I guess she was really worried about me. It was kinda sweet that she wanted to help me so much, so I let her hold my hand and we awkwardly walked down the steps.
After checking out the pyramid we went to the museum. Inside there were many artifacts that had been uncovered and they were all kept under glass. Many of my pictures kinda sucked because I had to keep my flash off.
In the museum there was a statue with a sign saying "No Tocar" under it. Now, I may not *speak* Spanish, but I'm not STUPID. I know that they didn't want me to touch the statue. They didn't want ANYBODY to touch it. Marta and Yani were joking and thinking of telling me that the NAME of the statue was No Tocar and that they wanted me to hug
Feet
The steps were difficult to navigate and I took a picture of my feet as I stood on the edge, wondering if I'd kill myself trying to get down. it. Pfaw! Phoey on them for taking advantage of my seeming ignorance! =P
On our way out of the park Janet directed my attention to a mound of dirt with flowers and a tree growing from it. She said that when the workers were planting the flowers there they discovered that there is something (a pyramid??) buried underneath. I think they're just looking for some more funds to excavate.
While visiting the pyramid I started to feel less-nauseous than I had before (I thought I was going to die on the way over). After the pyramid we went to a little souvenir store that was on the street and run by a local. The stuff in there was SUPER expensive. OMG, they wanted $75 for a bracelet of silver and jade. Alright, so it wasn't something *related* to the pyramid, but I love jade and wanted it. Buuuut, I'm still not stupid and not ready to pay that much for something like that. I didn't buy anything.
Yani's family bought pop for everyone. I had a coke (as per my usual) which came in a bottle. Before we left, however, we had to dump the pop into bags
Tazuma Museum
A shot of the museum taken from the top of the steps by the altar. for transport.
After we'd been driving for a bit, I think everyone was trying to decide what to eat. Now, as I'd mentioned before, I was feeling kinda sick, and I promised myself that if anybody even *breathed* the word 'pupusa' I'd scream. My stomach, which is usually so strong, was as weak as a kitten and could only endure plain CocaCola and various plain bread products. While I generally love pupusas, THEN was not the time. I was very happy when we pulled into the mall and nobody had given any inclination that we'd be eating pupusas that day.
As I'd said before, Metro Centro is a chain of malls, so there was one in Santa Ana. After the pyramid we went there. We tried shopping for a bit, but it's a bit difficult to do so with 7 people, so we didn't get much done before we had to go.
We drove home and I proceeded to sleep for a bit. Marta wanted to go to the beauty parlour to get her hair done. I had been letting my nails grow for a bit and decided that maybe a manicure would be fun (they're only
Side-shot of the stop
I turned to my right and snapped a shot of the side of the pyramid, with more steps visible beyond the netting. It will be interesting to visit again once the excavations have progressed more. $5!) I walked with her, Yani, and Amelia to the beauty parlour that was just up the street. There was an iron gate closed over a regular iron door. We knocked and the girl opened both doors to let us in. It was a really cute place with a chair for hair styling and some seats in the back room for other various beauty procedures. Unfortunately, as I sat there, I realized that I was too sick to be there. Too uncomfortable to be in any other position than lying on my bed with my headphones on and sleeping.
Marta was a doll and walked me back to the house. I slept and slept and slept some more.
When I woke up Janet was lying on her bed. Apparently she'd been *very* concerned about me and had been staying with me while I slept. I know she was concerned about me, but I'm so not used to having someone stay by my side while I'm resting. She said she wanted me to go down to her mom's prayer meeting, so I went with her and she'd brought out a Spanish/English bible for me to read. I have to
Help getting down
Amelia gave me a hand getting down the steps o' doom. say, they are completely and 100% sweet for worrying and caring for me and Janet translated everything her mom said and then everyone prayed for my health.
I've never had anyone put their hands on me and ask God for good health for me before. I went with it and appreciated everything they did (although I'll admit to feeling a bit guilty for it too. I don't know why, but somehow I felt so unworthy of all the attention. If they'd left me to rot in a hole in the wall I'd have been just as happy.
After that I managed to call Mike on the cell phone. It was the first time I'd talked to him since the 18th and I was *so* happy to hear his voice. I'd had a bad dream the night before where he was sick and nobody on the starship Enterprise could cure the chaos that was hurting him. (Yes, I dream bizarre things!)
After all that it was time to go to the MOVIES! Marta, myself, Yani, and Janet were dropped off by their father at the movie theater (which was located in the mall). Everyone decided on "Just my
Museum pot
This pot caught my attention because of the strong, red colour. Luck" although after paying our $1.50 each for admission, we discovered that the movie had been DUBBED in Spanish.
I'll say that I'm not someone who shuns dubs and only insists on subtitled things. For all I know the dubbed version was decent, although it would have sucked for me to try and watch a movie in a language I didn't understand (and it would have sucked TWICE as hard if I'd asked Marta to translate the entire movie for me!)
After going back to the concession stand (and telling the guy there that neither I NOR Marta could speak Spanish) we asked for a movie that was subtitled so we all could understand. After much ado about nothing Yani and Janet stayed and watched Just my Luck and M and I went to watch The Breakup.
Sitting in the darkened theatre was heavenly and I was feeling much better by the time we got out.
Now, I usually would have called it a night after all of this. Even looking back on the day I can see now that it was very FULL. Forget dinner, I was ready for bed. The only thing was that this was
HUG ME
The statue I was nearly conned into touching. our LAST NIGHT in Santa Ana with them and we couldn't NOT have dinner together.
We went home and were picked up by Yani and Janet's cousin (who's name I forget ^^") and we went to a restaurant called LOVERS. It was SO cute inside. There was a garden at the centre with no roof. It was very open and airy and quite a nice place to spend our last night there. We just walked in, found a table, and chatted and watched the tv until it was time to order our drinks.
The tv was playing a DVD of Spanish pop stars. M had been a fan of them and so we were laughing at the cheese of 80s pop music videos. The second dvd that was played was of an artist called Mijares, and the videos were sooo bad, and yet not. It was like he ripped off the Phantom of the Opera for one video and we laughed and laughed, and then laughed some more!
Throughout our stay at Lovers, we kept bugging Marta about her boyfriend Neto. Since THEY are lovers, it only seemed fitting that he would show up at the Lovers
Game
I forget the name of this game, but it was a big one and usually played to the death. restaurant to hang with us. Marta was nearly crying (not really!) by the end of the evening. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she made fun of Mijares and/or waited for Neto.
On the car ride back home Yani took a picture of the three of us in the back seat. Shortly after the picture was taken I saw (I swear!) Neto out on the street. He was wearing a shirt this time, and his pants were (blessedly) NOT falling down. He looked like he was working or something, but all I saw him doing as the car drove by was on his hands and knees on the road and he was wiping something up.
Now that I think about it, he *could* have been gathering up rice. Apparently people lay their rice out on the pavement after harvesting it to make it dry out. Although, since Santa Ana has such SMALL (and kinda broken and dirty) streets, I really wonder if that is what he was doing. Oh well, I guess we'll never learn what Neto was up to that last night in Santa Ana.
Marta will never get over him, and I'll never let
Game Gear
These are parts used to play the game. her forget her boyfriend in El Salvador.
Needless to say, that night was spent sleeping very deeply with our granny!gowns safely packed away. (We never would have lived down the ridicule if we'd worn them where anybody other than each other could see them.)
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