Los Ausoles

Los Ausoles is located in the department of Ahuachapan, right outside the city of the same name by the geothermic plant La Geo. They're smoke-spewing fumaroles (vents?) that you can walk right up to, as well as boiling mud and hot springs. Smelled a bit like when the water softener at home in Ohio isn't working, but stronger. The best part was that it was just kinda there, free for anyone to walk right up to (or into if you weren't paying attention). Los Ausoles is defenitely on my list of cool things that I've seen in El Salvador that most people don't even know exist. Next stop is the Termales de Santa Teresa right down the road.





The vents make a hissing sound, just like a pressure cooker. Not a particulary comforting thought when you're walking over top of them.

Dia de la cruz

Dia de la cruz is celebrated May 3rd in El Salvador. It marks the beginning of the rainy season (winter) and dates back to prehispanic times when offerings were given to give thanks to the earth and what it provides. I just enjoy seeing all of the kinds of fruits that you don't see very often. These pictures are from Concepción de Ataco in the department of Ahuachapan. You can read more about this holiday in the Prensa Grafica's special from 2004.

What's Going On and What's Next

I have about two months left in my second term as an English Language Fellow at the Centro Cultural Salvadoreño Americano. Since I've been a not-so-good little ELF and haven't been writing my highlights (not true either, I've started to write them and just never finished them), this is my attempt to update the world on what I'm doing and to come out on top in google searches for "ccsa," just because it's fun.

Lots has changed in the past couple of months at CCSA, most noticeably the color of the buildings and the logo. They finally added the "americano" on for good (used to be just CCS). The paint part involved lots of fume-filled days, headaches, and the unfortunate deaths of many garden plants, but it looks good now that it's almost done. I also recently realized that I was in San Miguel this time last year, and had no idea how hot it would get in San Sal (even though this is an abnormal year). In San Miguel right now they're getting up to 110, but then you know you're never going to go outside unless it's dark. In San Sal, the heat comes in. Yuck.

I'm busy trying to finish up my curriculum project, teach my ILEA and admin classes, plan for July's national conference, and keep up with my Peace Corps outreach stuff, among many other little things. Our TESOL organization is finally on it's way to becoming legal and someday I'll publish it's first newsletter (once people send me things to publish). I'll head to Honduras for my birthday to present at IHCI's conference and enjoy "real" hot water in a nice hotel.

On the publicity side, the embassy wrote this nice article about me back in January and I'm making a little video about my time here.

Other than that, my kitten came back a couple of days after he ran after and I had my first car accident that was my fault (my fault for driving like I'm in Ohio and not El Salvador). I've got an interview on Monday, which is great if it works out. And then I can plan my wedding!

Gatito Gone Missing

My little gatito disappeared from my second floor apartment on Friday night. He was there when I went to sleep, not there when I got up. Salvadorans keep telling me that they don't like cats because all they do is escape (which is why they're not the most popular pet here) or that he's out chasing female cats and will come back when he's done (he's neutered, isn't this supposed to help keep him from doing this?). I find it odd, because there's no way to climb out of the one window that was open, unless he jumped down into one of the tree-shrub things below, and if he'd wanted out so bad, why hadn't he done it before? He could have fallen I suppose, since he likes to sleep on the window sill, but I doubt it. The vigilantes said they didn't hear or see anything, which is also strange, since Nico is a cry baby. Or, someone could have pulled him out of the window with a pole (apparently something that people do here). My neighbors (except for the one across the hall) are all unfriendly, but I don't think they would do that.

Anyways, I doubt he's coming back. I'm gone all day, there's no way for him to climb into the apartment, and I wouldn't be able to hear him crying at night if he does return. My first "real" pet of my own!

The circus

We went to the circus on Friday...first time I'd been in quite a while. Edwin had never been before. A couple of weeks ago four baby lions were born, and they let us take pictures with them (fun for us, I imagine not so much fun for the babies). It was fun, but sad at the same time (for the animals). And look, you can suggest names online for the babies here, and I suppose win something (unless you're a foreigner, and then you're not allowed to win anything).

Verano Feliz Verano Seguro

I love the one that says avoid an excess of passengers. The Salvadorans that were behind us on the Panamerican were given a ticket for having too many people in their mini van. There were 3 adults, 1 teenager, and 2 kids, and you know a mini van can safely hold more than that. They also did not stop all of the pickups with Nicaraguan plates full of people in the truck bed (not so safe). I also like the one that says drive with all of the doors closed. Why, may I ask, is this a problem?!

What You Should Know about Traveling to Nicaragua

1. Don't break any traffic laws, ever. Always have your fire extinguisher and triangle handy. Buy the stupid car insurance. If you have Salvadoran license plates, you will be stopped approximately every 15 minutes. Nicaraguans know how to drive like "normal" people. This is happy, even though donkey carts and horses are mixed in with cars.
   
2. Phone service sucks.
3. 70 sunblock does exist and is a worthwhile purchase.
4. You can spend cordoba or dollars. Why change, as long as you're good at doing conversion rates in your head?
   
5. Nicaraguans make good food. And they have international food. Yum, gyros and bibimbab.
6. Medicine is cheaper in Nicaragua than El Salvador.
7. Gas is more expensive (even though they're getting part of it from Venezuela?)
8. Malls are much more interesting. I actually found clothes I liked, even though they were outrageously expensive.
9. Buy the $1 map and don't get "lost" in the Selva Negra with the crazy howler monkeys.
10. You can't buy the isletas in the lake by Granada, even though there's signs saying you can.
11. Volcano fumes can make you feel really sick, or even pass out. A comforting thought for all of those who were tossed over the edge as sacrafices...they probably didn't get to the bottom before they were unconcious.
    
12. San Juan del Sur is nice, but nothing special unless you want to surf. The road to "one of the most touristed places in Nicaragua" especially during semana santa sucks.
    
13. Queso ahumado is awesome, as is Flor de Cana.

This was an excellent trip, and we got to see a lot. It was a good idea to come back on Friday, since we avoided traffic just about everywhere, and I got to see people making alfombras in Soyapango as we looked for a way that wasn't blocked to go to Edwin's house. Edwin went to the beach yesterday with his family, and said what is normally a 30 minute drive took 2 hours going and 3 hours coming. Glad I stayed at home with the cat!

What Salvadorans Put in the Back of Trucks

These people had a whole band in the back of their truck, with the cymbals hanging off the side.

Cavities? Go to El Salvador

I was just reading this interesting piece on Tim's El Salvador blog about the cheap cost of dental work in El Salvador. When I came to El Salvador after a year in Colombia of eating sugar filled/covered/drenched everything, and poor preventive care dentists (yes, I did go there, twice), my mouth was very unhappy. Fortunately, I now have a dentist in El Salvador, who coincidentally is my future sister-in-law, who gives me great prices. When I went two weeks ago, I only paid $20 for the filling of one nasty cavity. And that's without the help of insurance. I can't imagine how much that would cost back in Ohio, especially if I have no dental insurance!

What's New

This was my February:

1. I climbed half of a volcano (Izalco), so I half met my resolution to climb a volcano. I want to drive up the next one. Volcano rocks suck to walk on. On the same trip, I learned that when clouds move in scary sounding swarms of insects come are pushed along with the clouds because they don't like the cold. I have no idea if this is true or not, but could pass on seeing that again.
2. I got engaged. Yea! (note: picture was staged afterwards, the real thing took place on valentine's day when I came home from stressed and grumpy and half asleep).
   
3. I was thrown in a pool with all my clothes on by a bunch of drunk Colombians and Ecuadorans. But that's okay, because I got to dance salsa and vallenato all afternoon, and everyone else present was also thrown into the pool. Even after a year and a half in El Salvador, Colombians still win in my book!
4. Resolution that I need to do some extensive traveling in South America, and that before I die, I will make it to the Galapagos.
   
5. Looking for a new job is no fun. We'll see what happens, and I still have a while.
   
6. I don't think my cat is going to grow out of kneading my head. Not good.
   
7. I finally found someone who actually understands my tax situation, but that also means that my taxes have to be redone for the past two years. Expat fun never ends (if that's what I am).
   
8. Semana santa will be spent in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. Yea, nice beach and cheap(er) prices.
   

The new gatito

This is my new kitten who has had approximately six names so far, including Mr. Pickles, Pushka (before his previous gaurdians knew he was a boy and that the name means rifle in Russian), and Señor Huevon. His current name is Nico, although he's called Mish or Mishito most of the time, the salvadoreño way of saying kitty. He's a very needy gatito and likes to eat my plants and make messes. He also likes the hamaca.

NCTE Costa Rica and ELF mid-year Conference

This was the second conference I've been to in Costa Rica, and most definitely more fun than the first. It was great to see some of the other people that are in the ELF program in the region, share experiences, and eat Korean and Indian food. I also enjoy the chance to see some of what goes on at the other binational centers, as it helps me gather ideas for my projects in El Salvador and see how the different countries have developed their programs.

Cancún Christmas

So this was my Christmas and after...on the beach in Cancún. I love México, but Cancún does not in any way resemble the México that I love. It does have nice beaches, though, and I got to see one of the new wonders of the world, Chichen Itzá, along with its swarms of tourists. This reminds me of several points that I want to mention:

1. Flying in Central America sucks. On the trip there, I had a flight from San Salvador to Guate, Guate to Flores, then Flores to Cancún. Note distances on map. Seriously, I could have driven to Guate faster than the nasty process of flying let me. On the way back, the flight was 2.5 hours late and I had to run to catch my next flight, after having circled around the city several times. This was also the flight where we were served the "leftovers" from the last trip. They didn't have any water. Which sucks, when you're sitting on the plane in Cancún with all the doors open for over an hour. But the amusing German couple sitting across from me (there was only 5 of us, plus the flight attendant) made it worth it. And the flight was almost $600...uggggggh Taca.
   
2. I could not acquire Mexican food at the hotel. And anything in the hotel zone was expensive and not really what I was looking for. Is it too much to ask to have tortillas at every meal? I've been in Latin America too long, I think. But seriously, not even Christmas dinner was Mexican.
   
3. Tour guides should not joke about giving tourist iguana for lunch. It's not that bad, and really, anything's good when you put picante and tortillas with it.
   
4. It was still nice to see my parents!

When I go back to the Yucatán, I'd love to see all of the little places that a large tour bus would never take you to. Some day....


And this is the after part. I was in San Salvador for New Year's Eve. I'd been warned before that Salvadorans love to set off firecrackers and fireworks (cohetes), but did not really understand to what extent! My dislike for fireworks as a child has not changed...and here the fun part is that the dust and smoke in the aftermath makes it a little hard to breathe or see when you're driving your car. Just like a foggy morning in Northwest Ohio! And check out New Year's day sky...this is not a normal cloud!

My Christmas Cookies

I decided that in order to be more in the Christmas spirit this year I needed to make some cookies, cause it just doesn't feel like Christmas here when it's 85 degrees and sunny. Finding all the ingredients was a bit of a hassle, since according to what the grocery stores have, salvadoreños only cook things from a box. I had a hard time finding chocolate to bake with, a cookie sheet, and cookie cutter, among other things. But I had a fun time making them, and even more so giving them away!

Christmas 2007

This is the second year that I've gone with the Centro Cultural Salvadoreño Americano to deliver toys to various places. This year we went to the Hogar del Niño orphanage, Carcel de Mujeres, and to Centro Escolar Ochupse Arriba outside of Santa Ana. Toys, candy, and cookies are collected at CCS during the end of November and the beginning of December. It's been a lot of fun to dress up and go play with the kids, although a lot of them aren't sure what a M&M is. They like the big white hands, though! One of the teachers, Cecil, dresses up as Santa, and there's usually some clowns and other characters as well.


At C.E. Ochupse Arriba with Santa and Mr. Flamenco


With Santa


Beating up the piñata


At the orphanage


Playing games at Hogar del Niño

Miramundo

Even though it's almost vacation time here, Edwin and I decided to take a little trip to Miramundo, on the El Salvador / Honduras border in Chaletenango. It's one of the few places that actually gets cooooooldddd in El Salvador (3° C at night while we were there). I could see my breath, which I thought was kind of funny. Most tourists seem to drink to keep warm, since there's no heat and most restaurants and such are open-air, which isn't so pleasant when you can't feel your toes! But the views make up for the cold. You can see all the volcanoes in the western part of El Salvador, and neat things like trees, flowers, and birds, which you don't see much of in San Salvador! We got there Saturday afternoon and took what was supposed to be a little walk to see where they grow veggies and strawberries, but the person who told us this was a 15 minute walk apparently forgot that walking and driving do not require the same amount of time. Hostal Miramundo, where we stayed, was cute but way too cold. The shower did indeed have hot water, but I couldn't bare to put my feet on the tile floor. I liked how Christmas dinner was roaming around in the yard (guinea hens and turkies, which are called chompipes). I'm half-tempted to buy a chompipe, park my car in the street for a while, and tie up my chompipe in my parking space until he's ready for dinner. I'm sure the neighbors would love that!

Sunday we went to see Rio Sumpul and a little waterfall (which was actually in Honduras), along with a veggie plantation. Although I enjoyed the trip overall, the lack of infrastructure in touristic places sometimes bothers me, especially since there's such a big movement to start promoting ES as a tourist destination. When we went to the river, the mini bus left an hour and a half after they said it would. That I'm used to. Our tour guide, however, dumped her trash along the path at the waterfall (not even in her own country, mind you), and let people cut wildflowers and pull up plants to take with them. I can forgive lateness, but the rest really bothers me.

We also had some "little" tour guides at the river--three 7 or 8 year olds who followed us around everywhere and pulled up plants for me that I then proceeded to hide again. They were quite cute and helpful. Overall, quite a nice escape from the noise and craziness of San Salvador at Christmastime!

Freezing in Central America

Last week I attended the national teachers conference hosted by the Instituto Guatemalteco Americano (another binational center kind of like Centro Cultural Salvadoreño, where I'm at). Guatemala is FREEZING in November and December, which was a bit of a surprise to me. I no longer own any closed-toe dress shoes, and was seriously regretting this, but it also got me in the mood to do my Christmas shopping, which I'm proud to say I'm almost finished with. The Christmas cooking is more of a problem, since no grocery store seems to stock all of the baking goodies I need. Semisweet chocolate and canned pumpkin have alluded me so far, but I found cream of tartar in Antigua (yes, little things like that make me happy). Antigua also gave me lots of yummy chocolates, some of which were supposed to be gifts, but which ended up in my stomach.

Anyways, this was an excellent conference, and I came back motivated to try out some new ideas, and having gained some advice and observations on hosting a conference (ours at CCSA will be in July). I now know that you can make ice cream in ziploc bags with groups of over 250 teachers, that the number of Americans who adopt Guatemalan children and then stay at the Marriott hotel in Guatemala City is scary, and that there's lots of really neat people who travel around to present at these conferences. My sessions went well, and it was much easier having Internet access to talk about blogging.

I was also amazed that I could increase the amount of food that I ate, but lose weight at the same time. The difference between healthy food and food in El Salvador. Or maybe I frooze off the food. Guatemala is different in so many ways from El Salvador, even though Guate City is less than four hours away by bus, including the time that you get stopped at the border. When I got back, El Salvador was also a bit chilly, but not frigid!

National Pupusa Day

Sunday, November 11, in addition to being Veteran's Day, a Salvadoran day of remembrance marking the day in 1989 the fighting moved into the city, the day that the FMLN formally announced their presidential candidate for the 2009 elections (which I know because I'm about a half block away from the stadium where all this was happening and got to hear all the fireworks), was also National Pupusa Day. And November is national pupusa month, even though people eat them constantly, all year round.

In a workshop I gave on Monday in Santa Ana, I had teachers brainstorm and categorize all of the things you can put in pupusas. Here's their list:

• Beans
• Cheese
• Chicharron
• A mix of any of the above
  
• Loroco (a flower)
  
• Mora (some kind of leaf)
  
• Chipilin (another kind of leaf)
  
• Chicken
• Ham
• Ayote (a kind of squash)
• Shrimp
• Fish
• Conchas
• Tuna
• Beef
• Spinach

I can add green onions, garlic, plantains, and green pepper to the list, which I've tasted and/or seen in San Miguel. Tasty bits of goodness, but I'm still not sure how people can eat so many of them here! Once a week is more than enough for me.

Happy Halloween

This was our new supervisor, for two days of Halloween fun. He will soon become my very own pumpkin pie, since he cost $13 at PriceSmart.

Marimba Guys in Juayua

Crazy Food

Garrobo bread...yum...and better than actually eating the real lizard!

Laguna de Olomega

This weekend we took a couple hours and went to see Laguna de Olomega, which is on the border between the departments of San Miguel and La Union. For $15, we got a tour around five of the islands and stopped at one of them to see some petroglyphs. To me, Olomega is much more worth seeing than Coatepeque and some of the other volcanic lakes, mostly because of the floating water plants and the birds. It also has pockets of boiling water, which is nifty as long as you don't have to get close to it. There was tasty lake tilapia for lunch, swimming pigs, friendly locals, and really adorable little kids, which makes all the difference!

NicaTESOL Trip

I just got back from yet another conference trip, this time to Managua, Nicaragua to NicaTESOL. It was a fun 8 or 9 hours in the car. Going down, there was supposed to be a lot of bad weather from hurricane Felix, none of which I ever saw. I also saw the actual end of a rainbow for the first time in my life. On an amusing note, we were stopped a good 7 times by the police in Honduras, and maybe another 3 times in Nicaragua, just on the way there. My personal favorite was when they threatened to take the driver's license away because he had no car insurance, which apparently really is a law in Nicaragua. I want to know how many Nicaraguans have car insurance, though, or if it's just for foreigners. I also saw lots of fun animal crossing signs: snake, cow, armadillo, iguana, small child, and best of all, a large unidentified rodent that kind of looked like a sloth.

I stayed in the Los Robles area with another friend from work, had some good Korean food, watched other people's faces as they tried sushi for the first time, and yes, went grocery shopping (every other Central American country has a better selection of international import food items than El Salvador, like Craisans). I also spent the whole time limping around UCA with my jellyfish wound, which was/is amusing and painful at the same time. People were soooooo nice there, though, and really helped a lot! Managua was hot, but not that bad, and once you get used to the fact that the streets don't have names (or if they do, they're not written on the streets), it's not so bad. On Saturday we went to Masaya, about 30 km south of the city, and with a much more pleasant climate, where I bought some nice painting and eyed the hamacas that I have no where to put at this point. Next time...

Bolas de fuego in Nejapa

This would have been fun to go to, had I known about it beforehand. Where else do people throw flames at each other and end up on fire?!

Read a more about it on this guy's blog.

The art of unlocking cell phones

Before I left for vacation, I'd already decided that it was time to upgrade to a better cell phone (not made of cheap plastic and that might actually have a signal while I'm at work). My dream was to have a gsm phone that I could have a US carrier SIM card for, and then just buy a chip in El Salvador. I went all over (Findlay, Detroit, Cincinnati, DC, if you can consider that "all over") and found that pretty much all phones are sold "locked" to a certain carrier. Everyone said to check e-Bay. Not enough time for that. I found one place in Cinti, a half hour before it closed, that said they could unlock a phone for me for a certain cost. Oh well. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to buy a phone in El Salvador.

So, I went to Tigo, and found a phone I liked at a price I liked, but due to the confusing nature of my job and were I'm paid, I didn't have all the documents that they needed. Okay. Then a friend found a friend that he hadn't seen for a while that works at Digicel, another carrier here. I am now the proud owner of a Motorola PDA/phone, for a mere $40 a month, on only a 12 month contract.

How can this be??!! US carriers always wanted me to sign a 2-year plan, with a phone that I can't use with any other service. I remember those unhappy days of having a Sprint phone. And this Digicel phone, while locked, can be taken on a short trip to see unlocking "professionals" downtown, and can then be used with any carrier. So I can buy a $1 SIM card when I go to Nicaragua next week, if I go back to Colombia I can use my card from there, and wonder of all wonders, can get a chip the next time I'm back in Ohio and use a pre-paid service.

This article in the NY Times this morning talks about some teen that figured out a way to unlock the iPhone so that you don't have to have a contract with AT&T. Seems fair, being that maybe I'd rather stick with T-Mobile or Verizon. And for me, it's not that I don't want the Digicel plan. It's that roaming is expensive and I'm traveling enough to feel like I need a way to call if my car catches on fire in the middle-of-nowhere Honduras and I'm not brave enough to put it out with my handy fire extinguisher.

Back in San Sal

I've been back in San Salvador for a week now, starting my second tour as an English Language Fellow. Our pre-departure orientation in Washington DC was a bit tiring, but good. The airport bit was the most fun...the itinerary I had printed said Dulles, but the flight was actually out of Reagan. So, two taxi rides and $110 later (also discovered that in Virgina they're giving $3,000 speeding tickets and that many people have the same Dulles/Reagan problem), I find out that there's also an embargo on all flights on Delta inbound to San Salvador and Quito, Ecuador. At this point I'm very glad I hadn't bought more books! Note that the person at the check-in counter was very nice and understanding...told me that not even they knew there was an embargo until very recently.

You'd think that Delta would care enough to email you or something. I just searched on their website to see if there was any notices posted, but only found info from 2005. Why an embargo? Apparently everyone brings overweight baggage or an extra piece, so now no one is allowed to do either, even if you pay. Going out of San Sal is not so bad...the only extra baggage comes in the form of fried chicken (really).

But, I got back to San Sal only a little cranky, and with all my baggage, which made me happy. And I have my apartment back again, which was a relief after a long time feeling like I had no home. There were some nice additions made...I now have a toaster and a microwave and another tv, which has more than one fuzzy channel on it! And I found a rolling pin yesterday, which means I can now make pies...life is indeed good.

Rest areas of the eastern states

I miss rest areas, really. Driving from Ohio to DC, I saw many....one even had a nice museum connected to it, along with walking trails! My only regret is that I didn't take the free maps; they would have been useful for teaching. On another note, the day when GPS maps take road construction into account will be a happy one. My six hour trip turned into a nine hour one, but I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.

Parque Nacional El Imposible

I took a two day trip to El Imposible National Park before heading back to Ohio on vacation...it was a nice escape from San Salvador.



El Imposible is one of the few natural areas in the country, possessing the most species of plants and animals of any one place here. I didn't get to see any of the animals or birds this time around, other than lots of butterflies, mosquitos, and spiders, but it was truly a beautiful place. I also like Hostal El Imposible, the first eco-anything I've seen here.

Boquerón 1 & 2, and Cerro Verde

Finally, after almost a year of being here, I got to go up (at least part of the way) the volcano in San Salvador. Maybe halfway up is a town/area called El Boquerón, also the name of the crater at the top. I went to a going away party at Café El Volcan one day, then a couple of days later went to have lunch at Café Miranda and to see Café San Fernando. Too bad all of San Salvador can't be so nice!

And then, last weekend I went to Cerro Verde, part of Parque Nacional Los Volcanes, with a friend. Beautiful, but unfortunate, since pretty much everything I wanted to see was covered in fog. It's actually an old volcano (last errupted some 25,000 years ago), even though cerro means hill in Spanish. The park also includes the Santa Ana volcano, called Ilamatepec, which is active now, and a very nice conical-shaped volcano called Izcalco.

Here's my pictures...enjoy!

El Boquerón and Cerro Verde

Guatemala Trip

I’ve been out and about a lot lately. From June 28 to July 8, I took a work/fun trip to Guatemala. I was traveling with one of the other ELFs, her husband, and another one of the presenters from the conference that I went to. In all, Guatemala was a little bit disappointing, after having heard so much about it for so long. Yes, the places were naturally beautiful, but the vendors in the street were just as bad as Colombia, which was unexpected and certainly unwanted after a year in El Salvador, where the only time people try to get me to buy something is when I’m in my car stopped at a red light. I was also surprised at how beautiful parts of Guatemala City are, after having heard it was a bit ugly. Ten times better than San Salvador (sorry El Salvador, but really, you could plant some more trees and flowers). Maybe that’s because there’s still trees left there.

The bus only took about 4 hours from San Sal to Guate (yea, Pullmantur, with its first-class leather seats and champagne), and had a very tasty Thai-fusion lunch at a place called Tamarindo’s. I think the real highlight of the whole trip was the food...we ate at a large quantity of yummy restaurants. In a whole year in El Salvador, I’ve only once had food at a place that I knew I’d really want to go back to again (Bahia de Juiquilisco, Puerto El Triunfo). San Salvador, why do you not have tasty food? You have good food, but not mouth-watering, ever. In Antigua, we had dinner at a place called El Mesón Panza Verde, which was excellent, and some very yummy chocolate from Chocotenango. I’d go back to Antigua in a minute, more for the food than anything else. In Panajachel, Lake Atitlán was as beautiful as they say it is. We went on a boat trip to three of the towns on the banks of the lake: San Marcos La Laguna, San Pedro La Laguna, and San Antonio Palopó . In Xela, there was a good tapas place that I don’t remember the name of now.

Most of the time I was in Guatemala I was in Xela, where I presented on using drama in the language classroom at the Regional Conference for Teachers of English at the Instituto Guatemalteco Americano (IGA). Overall, a good trip, and yes, I would go back.

Questions that linger in my mind...is Guatemala as dangerous as Salvadorans make it out to be? Don’t know. By the end of my stay, I felt like I could have driven to Xela without problems, but maybe that’s my innocent self. The roads don’t even compare to the quality of those in El Salvador, so I think my biggest fear would be having some mechanical problem out in the middle of nowhere (there’s a lot more out in the middle of nowhere than in El Salvador).

Another Nice Volcano View, and My Rant on Maps

I'm not really sure which volcano this is...it could be the backside of San Miguel's, or it could be Usulutan's, or it could be some other random one that doesn't show up on any of my crappy maps.

Speaking of that, I think that I should draw my own map of El Salvador, since none of them seem to have all the roads on them, and since people are particularly great at giving directions. For example, last Friday I was in Gotera with Jose, just driving through on the way to Perquin. Only that driving through didn't turn out to be that easy, since nothing is marked. We asked at least five people, which left us going the wrong way on a one-way street by the market. And then a police officer sees us going the wrong way on this one-way street, but he turns out to be one of my former students whose name I could never pronounce right, and just laughs and gives us actual directions. Then, later on, we were asking people how long it takes to get from Gotera to Cacaopera (which we knew was only about 9 kms away), and we heard everything from 30 minutes to 2 hours. It took about 15 minutes. Hmmmmm.....