Perquín

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¨That´s exactly why we had the war. For freedom of expression, for democracy, for the rights of the people, of the farmers and of the Earth.¨ He spoke passionately but I could tell it was not the first time he´d said the words. I was speaking with Don Miguel, the owner of our hostel who, along with most of the other citizens of Perquín and, indeed, the whole state of Morazán, had repopulated the abandoned mountainsides. The whole region had been a war zone little more than a decade earlier but already you can hardly tell. Looking around town there are only shy, smiling faces to be found. Its hard to believe that within many of these people´s lives, whole towns were massacred a few miles away.


As the night sets in so does the fog, the walls so porus that the candels cast giant spheres in throughout the large room - living in a cloud inside and out. I stepped outside to speak with Javier. We talked about the winters, did it get much colder? Not so much these days, he said. We've cut down all teh forrests and it's causing global warming he said, frankly. I mentioned the pine beetle in Canada, I guess to make him feel better. "Forests the size of your country decimated..." It didn't appear to work.

As we spoke, several trucks passed by up the sloppy road illuminating the moonless night and blinding the steady stream of passers-by. There was movement everywhere. What was going on? Were they mobilizing? Knowing the towns militant history, my capricious mind wanders, mingling with the unexpected and the mysterious.

I asked Javier. An much-loved local woman had died while travelling abroad to the US. Her body had just been brought back to Perquin and the whole town was about to pay their respects. She had been his school teacher - indeed had taught most of the young people in town. Yes, he had gone earlier. He didn't seem to be too emotional about it but I still couldn't bring myself to ask how it happened or why she wanted to leave Perquin. I, suppose I was worried I already knew the answers I'd be given.

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Photos

This was almost the last photo Marco ever took.
Luckily he managed to hit neither the cow nor myself.

What do you mean double yellow line?
This is El Salv, bro.

Asking directions in San Miguel
Not that I was lost.... I could just tell he really wanted to help.

Honduras here we come!
You can take your golpe de estado and stuff it!

I know...
What am I doing behind? Well, I've got to let Marco feel important sometimes...

Hostel hunting in Perqin...
We checked all three.

Driving rain
But certainly not Riding rain. We waited this one out in an improbable internet cafe in Perquin.

Checkers, estilo Perquin
Which, it would seem, translates to trounce the gringo... It's just a good thing the photo was taken early on in the game, or else you'd all know how badly I was beat.

Marco in a jam
A door jam. Don't worry, we got him out.

La Tijereta
It was about ten or twelve centemeters long and was about 10% teeth. They said it´s not dangerous but I find that hard to believe. Anything with that much bite is no friend of mine.

Butterfly or Moth?
In Spanish there´s no difference. With the brilliant colour on this little guy, you can see why.

I know what you´re thinking
Whats with all the bugs? Well, when the lights went out the bugs all came to our table to fling themselves into our candle or hump Marco´s computer.

Cerro Perquin
An FMLN stronghold and battleground. There were trenches and bomb craters all over the hillside.

¨We take care of the ecology and fauna¨
All throughout the town were indicators like this that the FMLN did not fight in vein.

It reminded me of the war museums in Vietnam
Except that Perquín leaves an impression of hope, rather than JUST anti-american anger.

Our tour guide
We also heard explanations from one of the Guerrillas himself but he had a crying child to tend to so he sent his daughters along with us.

Comments

[anonymous]

Yo Hesj!
I am sitting here with Joel in hothot france talking about you - I never knew you had a blog man!!! It's wicked you are having such a great time, I can't wait to have an afternoon to look through your entires. Good on you man - if we can swing it I'll rent a bike to do a leg with ya keep on discovering, good work buddy

[Harry]

the environment
Some of the wealthiest, most exclusive neighborhoods in California are in areas where there is an abundance of nature and open spaces, similar to Morazan.