San Salvador

We left Suchitoto this morning. Sad. We had made friends with some of the locals. The transportation was a Blue Bird school bus from Brampton, Ontario. When their life span is over in Canada they are sold to Latin America! The seat was not wide enough for both of us so half of my bum was over air. We were supposed to continue traveling west to the highlands and probably cold weather but I suggested as we neared San Salvador than we could stay in the big, bad city for a night. So taxi to the Zona Rosa area (upscale) and a small boutique hotel for more money than we have paid on this trip.

I have to go to the bathroom now so Nigel will continue.

San Salvador is described as dangerous, but the Zona Rosa seems safe enough. The fact that every business seems to have an armed guard may explain that. Our hotel has a guy with a shotgun, but he also does the sweeping out front and opens the door for us. Might as well be useful. After we arrived we were a little peckish so went across the street to an Argentinian place for an empanada which was delicioso. The door had to be unlocked by the armed guard of course, so we felt quite safe there too.

The main reason we chose this hotel is because it is so near the important museums. After we arrived we walked uphill past the Sheraton to the Museum of Modern Art which is very large and displays in its four salas, a retrospective of Salvadorean art from the early 20th century to very recent times. I can´t remember the names of any of the artists, but there was some fine work which I would be glad to see hanging on the walls of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Of course we didn´t stay that long - it´s not so hard to go through four rooms of art if you´re just looking.

We had lunch after our art foray at a little French bakery (we´re going international here), and supper tonight was at a place called Baselia (after the city of Basel in Switzerland) where Geordie had Italian pizza. I had fish - a little more local.

After lunch we went directly to the Museum of Anthropology which has much the same stuff as any good Latin American museum - lots of precolumbian art and pottery, displays on pyramids and other ruins, a display of artisanal work, and a religious section which included precolumbian, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish artifacts. It was worth the $3.00 price -glad it wasn´t expensive like the museum at Copan Ruinas, which cost $15.00 per person.

Tomorrow we are off to the highlands where we will probably be too cold again. We are going to stay in Ataco for one night and then two nights in Juayua (Why-you-Ah) which is famous for it´s food fair on weekends. And we will be there for Saturday and Sunday nights. Then it´s off to the beach and too much heat there I think. It´s been quite windy the last few days, in Suchitoto and here.
Apparently it was even more windyon the Pacific coast. We met a group of four women who were sitting at a table near us in Suchitoto who sounded awfully Canadian. When we talked to them, it turned out they were all from Qualicum Beach, and one of them owned a hotel on one of the beaches down there and had heard about the winds.