El Salvador Trip

Route: NPH Rancho Santa Fe>Tegucigalpa, Honduras (night 1)>San Salvador, El Salvador (night 2)>La Libertad>El Trunco>La Libertad (night 3)>San Salvador>San Miguel>Jocoro (night 4)>Santa Rosa>El Salvador-Honduras border>San Miguel (night 5)>San Salvador>Santa Ana (night 6)>San Salvador>Tegucigalpa (night 7)>NPH Rancho Santa Fe

Once upon a time, two beautiful gringas decided to travel from Honduras to El Salvador…

Looking back, my trip to El Salvador was a great one and without a doubt the most educating of all of my travels thus far. We, Brooke and I, began our adventure with one night in Tegus in our usual hotel Granada. Nothing eventful occurred that night since we both committed the night to one bottle of wine, which we couldn’t even finish (Where did my tolerance go?), and unlimited TV watching. The next morning we took a very early bus out of Tegus that went directly to San Salvador. We were excited to see that there were not many passengers, allowing us our own pair of seats in which to lie down. Unfortunately, the bus ride was a bit turbulent (many winding roads at top speed) making it difficult to sleep. On the positive side, I got a great core workout just keeping my body in the chairs. Brooke actually fell asleep for a minute and was immediately thrown to the floor.

Surprisingly, we arrived in San Salvador safely. We questioned a very well fed woman (aka obese) if it was possible to walk to the center of the city and she told us that we were skinny enough to do it, so we walked the 5 min (!!!) to get to the center. We found our hotel and were told that we could take a bus to get to the very popular restaurant/bar area, Zona Rosa. About 3 blocks from where we boarded, we saw what looked like it should be Zona Rosa, but figured it couldn’t be that close if we were told to take the bus. Thirty minutes later and fully sweat soaked, we arrived back at the original stop having gotten the cheapest (20 cents) tour of the city of San Salvador. We went to one of the many roadside restaurants and refreshed ourselves with a bucket of beer. For dinner, we finally settled on “American” quesadillas (Does anyone else see the irony here?) because the waitress repeatedly told us that they did not have the ingredients to complete each menu item we attempted to order.

Brooke woke up the following morning with what seemed to be a bad case of pink eye. Because her eye was very swollen, I asked the hostel manager for ice. Without even questioning the reason, she handed me a very dirty plastic ice pack. (Don’t people usually ask for ice to put in their drink? Oh well, worked out in our favor.) After Brooke finally pried her eye open, we left the hostel to find medication and the bus to our next destination, La Libertad (the beach!)

When we arrived in La Libertad, we walked around the city looking for a place to stay. Of course we were attracted to the shady Hotel Surf. We thought we were getting a great deal when the owner told us we could have a room with air conditioning, private bathroom, 2 double beds, microwave and fridge for $15. Little did we know that the toilet didn’t flush because the handle was broken, the sink and shower didn’t work because the plumbing system couldn’t get the water up to the second floor and the foul smell was a result of the bathroom not being clean, which the owner promised she would clean while we were out (!?!?!) We took a walk down to the pier where the fisherman were selling raw fish and shrimp. This is where I had the best food of the trip. I paid $2 for a big bowl of fresh ceviche made on the pier! It was delicious. We met some guys from San Salvador in for the weekend to surf who told us that we should really be staying in El Trunco, which is the touristy beach town where all of the extranjeros go to surf. (We later learned that La Libertad is dangerous enough that the Peace Corps volunteers are prohibited from staying the night there.) We took a taxi to El Trunco and immediately fell in love with the small surf town. They even had a great coffee shop that had soy milk (unheard of!). We spent the rest of the evening drinking beers on the second level dock and watching the huge waves soak the dock below. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped into a small convenience store/home to buy one more beer. Inside, the family (mother, father and 2 small children) who owned the store were having a nice quiet dinner, which we very definitely interrupted. There was a time when I would have thought this odd, but it is the case in so many shops that I didn’t even blink.

The next morning we found that the only way to bathe in the hotel was by bucket, so I took my first bucket shower. I was relieved to see that the water in the bucket was crystal clear, which is more than I can say for the water we typically bathe in on the ranch. After the “shower”, we attempted to go to the beach, but found that there really wasn’t much of a beach as we know it, so we took the bus back to San Salvador. We traveled from San Salvador to a small pueblo near the Honduran boarder called Jocoro, where we had made arrangements to couch surf with Brian, a Peace Corp volunteer. Jocoro was great and Brian introduced us to many of the local people. It was here that we finally ate pupusas, the national food of El Salvador. It is a cheese filled tortilla that typically comes topped with a slaw of cabbage, onions and carrots. Delicious and perfect for the vegetarian diet. We spent the night in Brian’s room on a mattress. He lived in a single room with a back porch and outdoor bathroom and shower (again, by bucket, but thankfully not the same bucket used to flush the toilet). We were feeling very thankful for the “luxurious” living conditions we have on the ranch.

The next morning we hopped on a bus that took us to the border. When we handed our passports and residency cards to the immigration official he asked us if we were aware of the political state of Honduras. We quickly assured him that we were aware and that we lived in Tegus. He confirmed that we knew that the previously exiled President Zelaya had returned to the country and that there was an indefinite curfew throughout the whole country prohibiting any kind of travel, including the buses across the border. I am sure our shocked faces were somewhat comical. We had heard nothing of the sort. As we debated our next move, he processed our return to Honduras. When we decided it would be better to stay in El Salvador, we had to walk around the building and enter the country all over again. I had noticed a nice looking hotel when passing through San Miguel, about 2 hours away, and we decided to go back there and wait for news. It was a bit expensive, but had a pool, so we were finally able to get the sun that we had been deprived at the beach. We constantly checked the TV news and internet for any information we could find about what had occurred and what was happening in Tegus as a result. Of course, the news made it sound like Tegus was being burned to the ground.

The next morning we decided that we couldn’t stay in San Miguel another night because it was expensive and we weren’t feeling very safe walking around the small and boring city. Since we had no idea how long the curfew would go on and when we would be able to return, I decided that it would be a good idea to try to find the NPH El Salvador house where we could sleep and eat for free. We took a bus to San Salvador then another on to Santa Ana, which was the city address of the NPH house. When we arrived in Santa Ana, we learned that, like NPH Honduras, the El Salvador house was in fact about 1 hour outside the city. Nobody knew where the house was located and there didn’t seem to be buses that passed the house. It was getting late and we decided to find a place to stay in Santa Ana. Luckily, we decided on a hostel that was nearby the mall where we were doing our hotel research via internet. The hostel was, in fact, a large, beautiful home owned by a single man, Javier. There were 2 large rooms with single beds (usually they are bunk beds) and because there was only one other girl staying there, Brooke and I were able to have our own room and bathroom. The house was decorated very well with objects from all over the world. It was very clean and I was even able to take a hot shower without my shoes! (Most people know that this is unheard of in a hostel.) We spent the evening talking with Javier and catching up on the news. I think that he was disappointed when we all decided to go to bed early.

The next morning, we learned that the curfew had been lifted and the bus would be running between San Salvador and Tegus. We quickly packed up and headed back to the city. The bus ride back to Tegus was uneventful until I got a call saying that they had just announced a curfew beginning at 7 pm. This was the exact time we were supposed to arrive and there was no way we would be able to travel the 45 min back to the ranch. I was even worried that we would not be able to find a taxi to take us to a hotel and the bus station is in one of the worst areas of Tegus. Luckily, a friend offered to pick us up and we spent the night back in the Granada right where we had started.

Mom and Dad Visit Honduras

I had been looking forward to my parents visit since before it was even planned. It is so difficult to describe Honduras and The Ranch over the phone. I was so excited for them to finally see the things I talked about and meet the people I described to them each time we talked.

As we drove from the airport to The Ranch, Uli and I pointed out notable places in the city and Uli gave us some great history of Tegucigalpa that even I didn't know. As we pulled into the ranch, I pointed out the various buildings (clinic, school, tallere, etc.) that they had heard so much about. I think they were surprised that I have been able to live so far outside the city and in the woods for the past 8 months.

As is typical of Honduras and the ranch, we were celebrating dia del nino (day of the child), which required a full day of planning and full day of celebration, which meant I wouldn't be doing any therapy while my parents were here. It was a little disappointing because they didn't get to see what a typical day was like, but also fun because we played games and interacted with the kids. However, as is also typical, the day was very chaotic and tiring. I think that it was a little overwhelming for them and made worse by the face that they didn't understand what anyone was saying. I also didn't really realize how much we have to walk to get around the ranch until they pointed it out and looked haggered by the end of each day.

For me, one of the most important things to show them was the hogar where I spend my nights with my 14-16 year old girls and their tias (caregivers). We spent 2 nights in hogar with the girls and again I think they were a little overwhelmed, but the girls loved meeting them and tried hard to communicate with them. One night the tias cooked tajaditas (fried plantian chips) for them, so that they could try a homemade traditional food. I love tajaditas, but I am not sure they were very impressed. Also, this was after we had just finished a dinner with a small group of girls from my hogar. We cooked Baleadas for them, which is another traditional Honduran food that consists of a flour tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, beans and a cream called mantequilla. This event was really fun for me and I was so proud of how well behaved the girls were around my parents.

After 3 days on the ranch, my parents were ready to move on the Roatan for a short beach vacation. I think they had eaten enough traditional Honduran food and were ready to get to a location where they could communicate with people. We arrived at our hotel in Roatan and were a little disappointed to find that it wasn't exactly on the beach and wasn't the fancy resort style we had been looking forward to. We stayed in a cabin situated on the rocks at the end of the West Bay beach. However, it didn't take us long to appreciate the small community of the hotel and enjoy waking up to the same faces every morning. Every employee of the hotel knew who we were and greeted us by name throughout the day. The hotel had its own dive shop and I was able to scuba dive privately with the dive master for one day and with only 4 of us the second day. This was much better than the large dive groups we saw leaving from the other hotels. The weather in Roatan was not ideal because it was extremely hot and we spent a lot of time laying in the air conditioned room or floating in the ocean. It was a vacation full of rest:) Another downer was the presence of sand fleas who covered us in bites the first day that just got worse as time passed. We had been warned of these, but never could have imagined the damage they could do without being seen or felt. On the upside, mom and dad totally spoiled me by feeding me very well and surrounding me with the things that we don't have on the ranch. I soaked up the air conditioning at every oportunity, ate a lot of fresh sea food and vegetables and the best was watching college and pro football while sipping on cold beers.

It was great to see them and finally I can tell stories about the ranch and they will be able to visualize the places and people. I also think it opened their eyes to the life and situations of the kids.