El Gringo

After I signed off that last post, we were talking to the owners of the Artex Cafe where I was using internet. He found out we lived in Puerto Viejo and started asking about people there. Turns out he lived in Costa Rica during El Salvador's civil war and he knew my dad. Mel, do you remember Chambo?

They recommended a Mexican restaurant run by a guy known locally as "El Gringo". He's a nice guy, very talkative. He was born in the States but has Salvadoran parents so he gets automatic citizenship. The food and beer were great. It was the first really big meal we've had since we've been on the road.

We hung out at our hotel with a the British couple and ended up staying up with them until midnight, drinking Flor de Caña and sharing travel stories. They tried to convince us to go to Cuba before everything changes now that Fidel is out of power.

We're in Antigua now, but getting here was another story in itself, which I will try to get to later today if I can. Tomorrow we'll be moving on, probably to a place near Quetzaltenango that has hot springs and little cabinas.

Expenses:

	Since last entry	Total
Transportation	$0	$129
Food	$13	$67
Lodging	$0	$64
Beer (and other spirits)	$14	$61
Activities	$0	$6
Souvenirs/Gifts	$0	$55
Misc.	$0	$12
Total	$27	$394

Suchitoto

The bus ride to Suchitoto, about 47km from San Salvador, took an hour and a half. Lots of stops and driving through narrow, congested streets of small towns. We learned a new word: cora (quarter), for a 25 cents US. They use US dollars as the currency here. We bought two little bags of sweet peanuts por una corita.

Armed guard at a shop

We arrived with the idea of staying in Villa Balanza. We asked a few people and dragged our broken-wheeled suitcase there. Rooms are $20 instead of the $11 it says in the book, but they are quite nice, although with a shared bath. The other people in the hotel have been really nice too-- An older American couple and young British couple. We had to carry our poor suitcase down a very steep hill with cobblestones to get to the actual rooms. I don't know if we'll make it back up. We have a beautiful view of Lake Suchitlan.

View from our hotel

After settling in we took a walk back up the hill, which was hard even without the suitcase, and wandered into town. We had pupusas for dinner. Several people had told us about a Canadian Classical guitarist, Ed Honeywell, who was playing as part of the February Arts and Culture Festival of Suchitoto. We stopped in and heard him play a few songs. It was excellent. I was feeling a little ill from the pollution in San Salvador so we left early from that event, went home and played a game of Skip-Bo (I beat Alaine), took a shower and went to bed.

Today we slept in a bit; well, I woke up at 6:30 and got Alaine up at 7:45 because we were wasting the day. We went to a little cafe and had coffee and bagels with scrambled eggs, plus wireless internet, which is where I posted the last entry and where I am again now, drinking beer.

Havin' a beer

The American couple from our hotel had recommended we walk down to the lake by a back road. It was quite interesting. There were a lot of pigs and ducks in the road. We didn't see a single car. There was quite a lot of trash. It was a steep walk down, but we took a bus back. At the lake there is a Turicentro. A bit disappointing, but we bought some chicha and some sweets. We shopped a little in the square by the church. Alaine bought a cool tank-top and scarf dyed with indigo, and I bought an FMLN headband and bracelet.

Tomorrow we are headed to Antigua.

Expenses:

	Since last entry	Total
Transportation	$1	$129
Food	$21	$54
Lodging	$40	$64
Beer (and other spirits)	$14	$47
Activities	$6	$6
Souvenirs/Gifts	$19	$55
Misc.	$2	$12
Total	$103	$367

Itinerary

I realized I haven't mentioned what our plans are for the trip other than to put up a map. The basic idea is to go up the pacific coast of Mexico as far as Los Mochis, where we'll catch the train though Copper Canyon to Chihuahua City. On the way we'll be visiting a few other spots. We had to scrap going to Granada, Nicaragua because the bus doesn't stop there as I thought it did.

We have to overnight in San Salvador anyway but we decided to spend an extra night and take a day trip to Suchitoto, El Salvador which we've heard and read is a nice little colonial town. Lonely Planet says it is like Antigua, Guatemala was before it filled up with tourists. After that we'll go on to Antigua so we can compare. We'll probably stay at least two nights in Antigua so we can rest from our travels. After that we may travel to other spots in Guatemala and finally stop in San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, a beautiful little town that we didn't have enough time in last year. Then we'll go to Oaxaca, which we skipped last year because there was some unrest there. From there south to the beach at Zipolite, which several people have recommended to us, then up the coast and play it by ear.

When is all this going to occur? We have reserved our tickets for this Wednesday, the 20th. We'll go to San José on Tuesday and get on the bus for San Salvador at 3 am Wednesday morning. We should arrive in San Salvador around 10-11 pm.