La Palma & San Salvador

Our reception to El Salvador was wonderful: There are open borders among Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala so we had only to show our passports to one official who looked at our entry stamp to Nicaragua and said "¡Bienvenidos!" Transportation away from the frontier was by taxi only but the official found us places on the yellow schoolbus bringing back a Catholic missionary group from their retreat in Guatemala. They were delighted to have us on board and dropped us off in La Palma before continuing their journey to San Salvador.

La Palma is a beautiful little town where most of the whitewashed walls are decorated with primitivist murals inspired by Francisco Llort and the main square is full of mosaics. We stayed with Don Alfredo in Casa Hotel, decorated inside and out with the ubiquitous wall paintings and locally typical wrought iron designs. We had excellent pupusas (the Salvadoran answer to empanadas with fillings enclosed in corn tortillas), four for a dollar, and met Oscar, a sweet self-possessed 10-year-old having dinner with his aunt. In the course of our conversation we found out that he works in the vegetable market during school vacation and that he loves playing soccer but has no ball. We joked that rocks or melons don't work well on the field and before we left we tracked him down at his stand and handed over a soccer ball.















Inspired by Thomas whom we met in Celaque, Honduras, we walked up to El Pital, the highest point in El Salvador. Most of the way to the top is drivable road so it wasn't much of a trek, but we met many friendly people on the way, reinforcing our sense that El Salvador is one of the friendliest countries we have been to.





From La Palma we caught a bus to San Salvador and took a taxi from the terminal to Ximena's Guest House. The hostel is pretty dismal and we have finally learned to walk away when a place doesn't feel right. We found a gem in the Hotel Villa Florencia, a much nicer room for much cheaper, and stayed four nights. San Salvador is a big city and the hectic market scene with vendors grabbing at your clothes as you pass is overwhelming. We walked a lot, to the national parks office, the anthropology museum, the modern art museum, and the folkart museum.























The folk art museum has a lot of the traditional clay miniatures on display, some with hundreds of little figures, some the sorpresas where a figurative cover hides a miniature scene, everything from tortilla makers to Aerosmith.








In our meanderings through the city we stopped in at the cemetary, one of Mike's favorite places for photos. The cathedral facade is decorated with Francisco Llort mosaic.






















We had a fun night out at La Luna Casa, an art gallery and restaurant that hosts live music. (Annie & Michel, we definitely recommend this place for your Central American debut.) The night we went was their 18th anniversary, the music was eclectic-Latin ska. We said goodbye to Esmeralda, our favorite licuado lady and left San Salvador, headed for the dauntingly named Parque Nacional El Imposible. It turned out not to be, which is another story.