Thursday, March 31, 2011

El Salvador vs. Honduras

Sorry for the long pause in posts.  We don't take ourselves too seriously as bloggers, but we do know that lapsing for several weeks to post something new is a no-no.  To be honest, perhaps our lack of enthusiasm for all things Honduran is due to our impending departure in 2 months.  We made the decision last fall to have this school year be our last in Honduras.  Our next stop will be Bogota, Colombia (more info later in another post).  We have loved the travel here, the new experiences as ex-pats, and figuring out a city that has minimal street names or directional suggestions.  To be honest, we feel that living in Tegucigalpa has added unmeasurable years to our mental faculties.  Since living here, we have had to incorporate new ways of thinking into our old schemata to simply drive from point A to point B.  You won't see us doing crossword puzzles at 80 or sudoku at 90 just to stave off Alzheimer's.  We've lived in Tegucigalpa!

But just because we're leaving, it doesn't mean that our curiosity for what lies beyond is gone.  We were lamenting that we haven't been to El Salvador yet, so we took advantage of a 3 day weekend in March to go.  We went to the beach town of El Cuco and stayed at a great place called Azul Surf Club.  To our surprise, the owner was a Southern California woman who went to U.C. Berkeley.  In fact, she had just returned from a short trip in California the same day we arrived.  Mind you, this was a day after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.  The news was warning of possible damage from large waves all along the Pacific coastline, but as it turned out, there was little change in the daily ebb and flow on this stretch of the Pacific.

Getting there was half the (not really) fun.  An hour after leaving the capital, we hit a snag.  Unbeknownst to us, there was a big rig that had overturned on the main highway and we sat in traffic for 3.5 hours.  Luckily some other friends who we also heading out of town were traveling in the same direction and just a little behind us, so we let them cut in front of us in line and we played frisbee to pass the time.



                                                                              We eventually were sent on a detour on a bumpy dirt                                                                                                     .                                                                                                                                                        road where we passed by this rural cemetery.




Finally, after 8 hours of car time (which should have taken only 4), we arrived at our destination.









We have a few new loves when it comes to El Salvador...

1.  Border Crossing
El Amatillo was a dream.  The Honduran's bid us farewell and the Salvadoran's welcomed us with cheery smiles and light chit-chat.  The crossing took 15 minutes, tops.  Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about our beloved Nicaragua.  We LOVE Nicaragua.  But truth be told, we're over the 1.5 to 2 hour border crossing where passports are scoured, superfluous papers are stamped and we wilt in the stifling heat of the midday sun.  We loved El Salvador within the first hundred meters... that border crossing was a dream.

2.  The Taxis
We actually didn't ride in any taxi's while we were there... once we parked the car, we were pedestrians.  But the taxi's are yellow with black and white checkerboard on the side... just like at home!

3.  American Dollars
Now, this was a little weird, but the currency in El Salvador is US dollars.  Did you know that?  We only found out when we moved to this part of the world.  Now, the funny part was ordering food at a restaurant, seeing that it cost $13, then converting that into lempiras (lps. 320!) and saying "That's too expensive!"

5 comments:

  1. Lived in Bogota for 6 months. LOVED IT!!! Travelled quite a bit. What a beautiful country! Plus it has a little more of the intrastructure Honduras is missing. I little piece of my heart will always be in Colombia...Let me know if I can answer any questions for you. I am by no means an expert, but if I can, I will.

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  2. I have been to El Salvador more than Honduras as far as number of trips and years. It has progressed well. The border crossing used to be a good place to get mugged. Much improved.

    Who would think that one day COLUMBIA would be safer than Honduras? I think that would be case today. If I had children, I think Honduras would be a hard place for me to stay awhile.

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  3. @ Live and Love~ We are excited to live in Bogota and have heard such great things about the city. We are looking forward to being able to WALK places! What a luxury. And Ciclovia sounds like it's right up our alley. The first thing we will buy when we get there are bikes!
    @ Laurie~ Honduras has been great for us, but as you said, it's hard for kids (and adults!) to have a fun, outdoor lifestyle here. About the safety in Colombia, my hope for Honduras is that the leaders can begin to clean house and create a safer, cleaner place for ALL Hondurans to enjoy, not just the wealthy ones. We have traveled and seen most of the country in our year and a half here and this place will always be special to us, but we are ready to say goodbye.

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  4. Los Lof....Great summary and glad you went to El Salvador, looks like a good time. My friend Catalina just posted on my wall to ask about you guys coming to Colombia. Make sure and reach out to her, she is ready to help. She can likely help you find just about anything you need - including the bikes you just mentioned. That puts a smile on my face :).

    It is a bit overcast here this am.....after weeks of torrential rain and cold, this past week was up to about 87 deg. There is an amazing field of mustard going off in Glen Ellen at Dunbar Road. I pass it every time i go to my jobsite and think of you Jennie. I will grab a picture before it is gone.

    Looking forward to having you here. JW

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  5. Jessie~ I'll send Catalina a message... I kind of forgot about it. We're getting more and more excited for the move. It's hot and smoky here now and I'm a bit envious of your fresh spring weather, although I know you paid dearly for it with a very wet winter. I miss the rain... never thought I'd say that while living in C America, but we have not had much rain at all in the last 6 months. Looking forward to this summer too! J

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