PDXDIASan Jose, Costa RicaReflections on San JoseSanta Elena, Costa RicaLiberia and BeyondBorder Crossing: Penas BlancasGranada, NicaraguaMia NicaraguaNica CultureLeonSan Miguel, El SalvadorJutiapa, GuatemalaXela (Quetzaltenango), GuatemalaCasa VSuenos AmericanosUna semana mas en XelaZugunruheLago de AtitlanAntiguaSemuc ChampeyTikal, GuatemalaSan Salvador, El SalvadorSuchitoto, El SalvadorSanta Rosa de Lima, El SalvadorMore on BusesGranada, againPanama City, PanamaBocas del Toro, PanamaSan Jose, la ultima vez
 | brendandroz |  | Central American Tour |  | San Miguel, El Salvador |
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Jan 19 2010, 10:19 AM
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San Miguel, El Salvador
Las Penitas did not turn out to be quite the beach we were expecting. It was strange to visit a beautiful beach that no-one was yet exploiting for tourist dollars. There were few people and fewer amenities. But we did find a small bar/hotel with beach access where we parked ourselves for the afternoon. It was pleasant and it is just as well that there weren't many other people because I am not a Spartan and I returned not tan and hard, but rather pink and flabby. Perhaps next time.
We went out to the movies to finish the evening. It turns out, when you try to attend a movie dubbed in a foreign language, people expect you to speak that language. It took us a while to convince the staff that “Yes. We want. In Spanish. It's okay. Very much thanks.” Eventually, we were privately escorted by the security guard to the correct line and we did get to watch Sherlock Holmes, in Spanish, on the not-terribly-big-screen.
The following day we went north. Our goal: to get as far north as possible. Or, alternatively, in one day, to use as many currencies as possible. Two buses (paid for in Cordobas) got us from Leon, through Chinandega, with volcanoes on our right and the Pacific Ocean on our left, to the border town of Guasale. We fended off bike-taxis while we walked the approximately 300 meters over the border, and found a mini-van on the other side going straight through Honduras from one border to the other at El Amatillo. So we payed the man (in Lempiras) and took our three-hour tour of the country. The border with El Salvador was quick and easy and there was a bus waiting to take us to San Miguel for $2US. Unfortunately, El Salvador's currency is apparently useless in El Salvador, so we had to use dollars.
I don't know how a city can both give you a “good-feeling” while at the same time being obviously dangerous, dirty, and uninteresting. But this is pretty much the sensation that you experience in San Miguel. We met a lot of people that tried to help us find a hotel that doesn't exist. At first we were cautious. In our experience, it is a general rule in Central America that when people “help you” they are usually helping themselves to your money. However, for some reason everyone we met in El Salvador just wanted to help. It was nice. (Of course, we were only there for a day and the helpfulness ended as soon as we crossed the border.) We eventually checked in to a hotel by the bus-station because we were afraid of everything else we had seen.
It was similar in many respects to a motel six. We were attracted by the air-conditioning and private bathroom. Not to mention the TV with cable. And our expectations were met, for the most part. You can't expect every shower to have a shower head, just as you shouldn't expect every toilet to have a toilet seat and shouldn't expect shower-retaining walls to retain water. And you definitely shouldn't expect third-world air-conditioners to have reasonable settings. Ours had three unreasonable settings: (1) blow hot air; (2) reduce the room to 10 below within 15 minutes; (3) reduce the room to 10 below immediately. We went with (3), to start. After we had each flooded the bathroom by standing under the wall-hose for a few minutes, we decided to head out for dinner. It had just gotten dark and the street lights were on. They were strategically placed at such distances so that, instead of illuminating the street, they just served to emphasize the more pervasive obscurity. We walked a few blocks before duly noting that all shops were closed and the residents who braved the night carried night-sticks or machetes. So we heading back by way of the grocery store thinking it best to eat in. The grocery store was just closing but we managed to sneak in before they shut the doors, at 7:00 PM. Roz had the brilliant idea to have a cena of milk and cereal. Now, as an interlude, let me just note that I have only invented two things that I think are truly marketable. First was infinite coffee—I'm still working out the kinks in that one. Second was despues-de-cereal milk. After trying Roz's horchata one evening in Liberia, and noting that it tasted exactly like the residual milk after a nutritional bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I determined to market the product despues-de-cereal milk upon my return to the states. It seemed the perfect idea—I would just eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch for every meal, save the residual milk, package it, and sell it as a desert drink of, perhaps, Mexican origination. Yet, to my great chagrin, El Salvador was one step ahead of me. When we entered the milk aisle, lo and behold, we discovered “Milk with Oat and Cinnamon.” Fearing the worst (or the best) we bought a quart. Sure enough, they beat me to the punch. El Salvador: 1; Brendan: 0. We couldn't let this liquid gold go to waste, so we had it on our cereal and chugged the last pint. We spent the rest of the night nursing our stomach aches while I switched the air-conditioning unit back and forth between settings (1) and (2) at 15-minute intervals for the rest of the night.
(B)
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Running
Written by mbucy 41 months ago
That looks like a great running beach. Perhaps the missing Spartan physique is because you pass up such opportunities?