Our recent trip to El Salvador and Honduras was filled with all sorts of adventures and a few misadventures as well. We hit six stops along the way to see as much as we could in our short time. We enjoyed getting right back into using our Spanish and meeting the extremely friendly people of El Salvador. When we reached Honduras our comprehension was put to the test a lee bit as we tried to decipher a new form of Spanish which often tended to come out in one long continuous stream! We still managed it (after a day or so) and had some great conversations. At this rate, we'll be speaking lone Spanish in no time :)
We loved learning about the places we visited and will share our adventures with you in additional posts. For now, here's a brief preview, more to come: wandering the largest mall we've ever been in, hiking to waterfalls, horseback riding through guerilla war territory, climbing the tallest peak in El Salvador, looking back in the past at ancient hieroglyphs in Mayan ruins, resting on a hammock overlooking the sea, and eating some great pupusas, ice cream, and yes, American Fast Food...
First Stop: San Salvador, El Salvador
The trip began in El Salvador's capital city, San Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country size-wise in Central America, but has a population far greater than we have here in Belize (just in San Salvador it is more than double at over 850,000 and around 2 million in the entire metropolitan area; the entire country has around 6 million people - making it the most densely populated country in Central America). Not having been in a place with so many people and so much traffic in over a year, it was a bit overwhelming when we went exploring in the city center.
(To the left) The Catedral Metropolitina outside of the Plaza Barrios and is the center of the city's street grid. Archbishop Oscar Romero is buried in a tomb beneath the building. As archbishop, Romero witnessed ongoing violations of human rights and started a group which spoke out on behalf of the poor and victims of the country's civil war. In 1980, he was assassinated by a right-wing group headed by former major Roberto D'Aubuisson due to his political involvement with the opposing party as he held the consecrated host up during a Mass. This provoked international outcry for reform in El Salvador. In 1997, a cause for beatification and canonization into sainthood was opened for Romero, and Pope John Paul II bestowed upon him the title of Servant of God. (On the right) A statue in the center of Plaza Barrios dedicated to a former president and crusader for the separation of church and state.
A shot from inside the Metrocentro Mall, 4 floors of food and shops...Yikes!
After a morning of checking out some sites, we spent the afternoon at MetroCentro, a really big mall that covers a few city blocks. This is the first mall Ginnie's gotten lost in, and she has a pretty good navigational sense in malls. It was so big, we stumbled upon the food court for lunch, only to find an even bigger food court much later in the day, one with Papa John's Pizza no less. We did indulge in some fast food since we don't have access to it regularly and it was just fabulous to have some treats from home (despite the fact that we rarely eat them there). Our first meal was dinner from Wendy's when we arrived. We ate at Subway for lunch and Pizza Hut for dinner. The Pizza Huts in Central America are huge restaurants with fancy dining areas, much different from the little take out spaces back home, though there was a time when Pizza Hut had dining areas, but not as big as these! There was a birthday party going on when we went in for our two for one personal pizzas. The prices of things in El Salvador were so nice for us coming from Belize, which is pretty expensive. We really were able to eat quite well on so little! After a day of eating the fast food, we did turn to eating the local cuisine in the towns we visited and we definitely enjoyed that too.
As you can see, we got a little excited to have our fast food treats... so sad
We are thankful to all the extremely friendly Salvadorans who helped us navigate the city buses and find our way to the bus terminal where we were to leave for our next stop - Suchitoto, a small colonial town about 1.5 hours north of the capitol. All of the people we met in El Salvador were so nice and were happy to converse with us, and even help us to be sure our Spanish was correct. It was just a wonderful experience and makes us want to go back to El Salvador and see more of the beautiful country.
A few more pictures of sights around the city...
(Left) Palacio Nacional, formerly the headquarters of the government prior to the 1986 earthquake. (On the right) The inside of Iglesia El Rosario, an old church with a soaring arch of stain glass panels leading from the floor to ceiling. The church was quite unique as it contained many pieces of art and sculpture made solely from scrap metal. The father of Central American independence, Padre Delgado, is buried here.
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