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Published: March 7th 2007
So I arrived in El Salvador, Tacuba 2.1.07...and wow, this place is amazing,
and the country as whole! What a change a divide between neighboring countries can make.
Walking over the border, that bridge, such a different feeling.
I loved Guatemala, but El Salvador, the whole vibe feels so much more comfortable.
Tacuba, far eastern El Salvador, an hour and a half from the most southern border of Guatemala, is located on the edge of Parque Nacional El Imposible (between 300m and 1450 above sea level). The impossible part was once the risk of mule and crew attempting to transport crop (of coffee growers) over makeshift tree-trunk bridges from the northern fincas to the port of Acajutla. Not until 1968 was there a bridge built over the gorge, and death no longer a risk.
Between buses, walking with load on back, over the bridge which separates Guatemala from El Salvador, I crossed my first border in Central America. A bus, some waiting, un pan de dulce, and another bus later I pulled into the small town of Tacuba after sunset. At sunrise I awoke to
the overwhelming sounds of wild animals...
Within a couple hours I was out on a trek through El Bosque de Impossible, off the beaten path. I went with a group of other travelers staying at casa de mama y papa Gonzalez, and a guide who used his machette to improvise a path for us as we went. Found myself swinging from intertwined tree branches, using them mostly as a grip to propel myself onward!! Cannot believe the beauty, diversity of trees, butterflies, waterfalls, a que rico!
A day later I took a hike out to a finca cooperative in Gusamault where a friend from Holland was working as an NGO economic adviser to the cooperative.
Approximately 25 families work together throughout 3 fincas within the region. Those who don’t live on the finca travel 2 hours each way by foot, and not just a walk down a road, but a hike cut through coffee fields, straight up steep hills. I should know, I took this hike commuting to the finca and thought about how much less painful my commute by bike in nyc is. Sure there’s the constant fear of getting plowed down by taxi’s or the (not so) occasional pedestrian jumping out in front of you, feeling that the “bike lane” is a myth and there to give them time before deciding their next move, while I’m thinking that they’re soon to discover just what my “next move” may be (and it’s not steering out of my lane and to my death into traffic). So, in a nutshell, the commute to a Finca in a small village in El Salvador is quite a different challenge then the one I’ve become so familiar with in my city.
The US dollar being the currency in El Salvador, put a real perspective on MY cost of living in this part of Central America. After about a week or two living in Guatemala, I stopped converting Quetzales (Guatemalan currency) to dollars (7.5Q to $1) and refused to pay any more than 25Q for a room. Not to mention the fresh sweezed orange juice available anywhere in the streets of 3.5 Q, or the liquados (fresh blended juices) for 7Q.
Taking breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the outdoor comedoras, eating only pupusas (corn or rice tortilla patties filled with queso and frijoles), made to order on the fire lit griddle, adjacent to the family-style table where we ate. 3 pupusas for 80 cents was my expensive dinner. At breakfast I might ask for a 2 pupusas, chocolate caliente, and platanos, and pay 60 cents. Pupusa eating can be a dangerous habit, one starts seeking out pupusas of beef, pollo or vegetables, until eventually you ask for all 3 in one, and trying to convince the cooks that chocolate, banana, or dulce de leche pupusas could be innovative. Call it the “gringo pupusa”, maybe even make a profit! Maybe one day when international tourism in this country becomes more common they’ll name a pupusa after me. But for now, I love it just as it is- the country and the pupusa.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatimih/sets/72157594578068210/
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MMMM
I LIKE THE PUPUSAS TOO!