Visits to Antigua

Buy the Ebook!

I know that I have posted this comment before but if you tell a Salvadoran that you are visiting the country and ask what you should go see, they will tell you Antigua. The funny thing about that is, Antigua is in neighbouring Guatemala.

Me and the famous author!

But Antigua is amazing and only 5 hours from San Salvador. The drive along the coast is nice and I heard the Hachadura bridge is open after the crazy rain storm hit and took it out. Last time I drover over that bridge, I recall the stream below it was a good 40 feet below ... well during the storm, the water was going over the bridge. That route is quite scenic and it avoids Guatemala City and the traffic there.

The high plains drifter.

Antigua has great little inns, great restaurants and bars. It is great having a friend of Michael there since he is an insider and local now and knows all the best places and the good gossip. And if you don't have a friend like Michael living there, you can buy his insider's guide book at https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=our+man+antigua for only $4.99. It downloads onto any E-reader (I put it on my iPad) and it will give you a lot of good information for your visit. Plus he is a very witty writer.

My favourite place is the Hotel Aurora - very central, just a few blocks from parque central, some lovely rooms, beautiful flowers in the courtyard, decent breakfast and one of the cheapest places in town. We like to eat at the Welton and Hector's and drink wherever there is a lot of noise and where Michael and I can sneak in a good cigar.

And come to think of it, if you are visiting the area and are going to download Michael's local insider's guide, you should download Paige Penland's excellent guidebook on El Salvador that became available recently on Kobo at http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Explorers-Guide-El-Salvador-Great/book-X5HCdmjsekOnQieRy_hApg/page1.html.

HAV and SAL again

Hanging out at a company end of year party in the country

I know that this is supposed to be about a blog about El Salvador but I was just in Havana and wanted to talk about the trip and some changes going on over there.

American Airlines plane leaving Cuba

At the airport, I saw an American Airlines plane taking off ... coincidence that they filed for bankruptcy protection and they are back in Cuba? Or a communist plot?

There has been a lot of talk about the new rights to purchase cars and homes. Of course it is just talk until someone actually buys a car or a house. I have friends looking to do both but, so far, I haven’t heard of anyone closing a deal.

Great art in Cuba: Jurgen Rodriguez - 'Sweet girl' 0.85cm x 1.00cm. acrilico/lienzo

Another big change has been the closures of the highschools and technical schools in the country. There were dozens and maybe hundreds of these spread out through the country. I asked a

Cuban friend what the reasoning was for their opening ... and he quoted Karl Marx and something about working the fields creates good socialists! Wowzer, what a reason. So the schools are closed (except for one or two), the kids get to stay in the cities with their families, and the government saves money on maintenance, food and transportation. Good one Raul!

Hey, you can buy cold Crystal in bottles at the liquor store at the side of the Melia Cohiba but good luck trying to buy ice anywhere! We checked 5 places in Vedado and no one had any to spare, even when we offered money.

Looking down the hallway at the new Chansonnier

Restaurants continue to be a new adventure in Havana.

Cool bar at Chansonnier.

Didn’t make it to Atelier this time but went to Hector’s revamped Chansonnier and saw the dude and his partner, the designer, Elizabeth? Beautiful place and nice drinks although they have a self imposed no smoking rule in the bar – there is one front room where you can smoke as well as the terrace.

Ruben singing his heart out at La Terraza - Prado esq a Virtudes 07 862-3626

Also ate at la Terraza at the top of Centro Cultural Astoriana again. Another great meal and Ruben was there playing the guitar. Unusually, there was a group of about 14American kids at the next table and they were so frickin loud! The Cubans, French, Spaniards and even the Italians eating there were disturbed by the level of noise. They have an art gallery now on the third floor and the curator, Hilda Barrio, has an exhibition called “Colorfull” with some amazing pieces. They are asking about a grand for each large piece which is a bit high for a young artist in Cuba but I hope to pick up some paintings the next time I am there.

Dayana, Fatima, Delia and a great photo bomb from Hector.

Also made it to Tien Tan and El Aljibe and both were quite good. Nice to see that some places have maintained their standards as other places (like El Palenque) have greatly diminished in terms of service and food quality – they just don’t seem to care anymore.

Ana Rosa and Grupo Ecos doing a tablada at the party.

Had a Christmas party and served tacos again. The usual suspects showed up and it was nice to see some old faces going back a decade or so dropping by. Grupo Ecos did a few flamenco numbers and that was nice but, as a sign of us getting old, I think the party folded at around 1:00 am!

Our typical dinner of tacos - a spicy corn and jalapeno topping and fresh pico de gallo.

On the flight back, Fatima took the direct 2 hour flight from HAV to SAL. I have turned into a frequent flier mile junkie and to make sure that I would hit elite gold, I booked my flight SAL SJO HAV LIM BOG SAL. So instead of 2 hours, my flight was 17! I did get upgraded all the way and the first few legs were okay. Flight left an hour late and had a few drinks on the way to Peru and a nap. Had to deplane onto a bus to get a ride to the terminal (even though there were a bunch of empty gates) but still, got to be outside in Peru for a few minutes! Cool and dry.

Pisco Sour at the Lima airport.

Then went to a nice bar right beside my gate in Lima and stupidly asked the barman if I could have a Pisco Sour. He looked at me like I was a “tired Asian-Canadian tourist hungover and very sleepy on a 30 minute stopover” idiot and said yes. Delicious and deliciously over-priced at $9 but he liked the tip I left.

Back onto the plane for a shorter flight to Bogota. 136 people turned left and I turned right into the departure lounge – no one telling me which way to go at 1:00 am but I figured I was one of few stopping over. Turns out, in the entire airport, there were only 6 of us. 3 cops, 8 cleaners and about 5 people staffing and stocking the kiosks (including a Dunkin Donuts). The next 3 ½ hours before the lounge opened up was a bit challenging. Quite cool so I was lucky to have a warm sweater. A dozen departure gate lounges, maybe a few thousand seats but not a single one that didn’t have big steel arms to prevent you from lying down. One smart person parked themselves behind a bank of chairs in a distant lounge and fell asleep on the floor. When the lounge finally opened – hot coffee, juice, fresh fruit, little sandwiches and big soft couches!

Went into the washroom and a sign in Spanish said, please do not flush anything into the toilets but I figured that no way do they mean the toilet paper. I mean this is an international airport! I was terribly wrong.

Jurgen Rodriguez - How tall you are? 1.85m x 2.20m. acrilico/lienzo

Back on the plane, short fight to San Salvador, quiet airport and Fatima was back, 12 hours after her arrival, to pick me up. Had a few cigars with me from Cuba as well as a pile of books that I was muling up to Toronto for Monica so thought that I would have to open my bags but the guy, after asking if I had anything to declare, told me to go and told me not to push the button (which randomly flashes green or red which means you have to open your bags for inspection). Don’t know what that was about since everyone is supposed to push it and it is supposed to be random so he wasn’t trying to ding the guy behind me.

Okay, so after this ridiculous flight, how many points did I get? Total miles earned with bonuses was 18,676 which ain’t bad since a ticket from HAV to SAL return is as low as 14,000. So one night of discomfort and a free ticket for a Cuban friend to visit me in El Salvador. Only 7,763 qualifying miles for the elite class target so don’t think I’ll be hitting the 70,000 diamond level very easily.

Corn pie with two cups of parmesan cheese!

Back in San Salvador and Christmas is just a few days away. I have been away for the past two Christmases so it was nice to cook for the whole family. Made a brined roast turkey with a sausage, onion, leek, bacon, mushroom and zucchini sage stuffing, corn pie with two cups of parmeian cheese, maple glazed carrots, roast vegetables, fluffy mashed potatoes, two types of cranberry sauce, and about a gallon of pan gravy with some extra chicken stock/broth that I made. Also a brined, rubbed, roasted and wine/coke braised pork shoulder with cider vinegar cole slaw and a Jack Daniels bbq sauce.

Snow in San Salvador!

Then the usual dancing and fireworks. I smoked a couple of cigars and enjoyed all the noise! New years we changed the menu with Fatima making some of her amazing lasagne and a cousin made a delicious rolled and stuffed beef tendloin that he had marinated in beer for a few days to tenderize. Delicious. Then a nephew gave us a real treat with the fireworks. The guy is quite the pyro and has had a few accidents with bottle rockets and firecrackers since he has no fear and even less after several drinks. H e was lighting fairly large firecrackers and letting the fuse burn down before tossing them in the air. They would explode in the night sky and the shredded paper would waft down like … snow! It was actually quite beautiful and made me think of Canada.

So after a week in Cuba and a week in El Salvador, the differences became a lot more crystallized for me. They are almost the complete opposite of each other. Cuba is full of charm and culture with great friendly restaurants and bars and lots of musicians and everyone is in your face. You can walk anywhere safely, day or night, but the public transportation sucks as does having or renting a car or finding a taxi. It may take years to buy a car, cell service is extremely expensive, and internet is difficult to obtain and very expensive for crappy dial up service. You can’t buy shit and there are only a few stores and everything is a pain in the ass. Everything is falling apart but the city is still gorgeous with beautifully designed buildings and charming and very unique neighbourhoods.

A typical highschool girl in Havana - Jurgen Rodriguez: Natacha la Especilista. Acrilico-Lienzo. 150x125cm. 2010 1000cuc

El Salvador is more buttoned up, a lot less culture (unless you count the excellent and very cheap modern movie theatres), has a lot of charmless places, and people are very proper and polite. You can’t walk anywhere but public transportation is everywhere (but not generally for gringos), cars are cheap and easy to buy (I could walk out of my apartment and buy, plate and insure a car in about 90 minutes), and you can rent a car for $10 a day. And you can buy anything you want between the Costco (signed Pricesmart here), Walmart, several grocery chains, and many huge and modern shopping malls. Cell service is excellent and cheap (I can call Canada/US on my cell for between 5 and 10 cents a minute and my Blackberry service only costs $14 a month) and there is wifi (often free) everywhere including a public park (which would be an excellent place for muggers to hang out). San Salvador is not the prettiest city in Latin America and most nice houses can’t be seen because they are behind 10 foot walls and razor wire.

They both have their advantages and I guess that I am lucky to be able to travel freely between the two.

The Rainy Season

Nearing the end of the rainy season and it has been pretty dry ... until Tropical Depression 12-E formed off the coast of Guatemala. Then it meandered up into Mexico, then a bit south, and then into the Gulf of Mexico.

All that time, it continued to drop rain and more rain. We are on our fifth day of solid rain - not continuous but almost. Enough rain to cause 24 deaths, 14,000 persons displaced to shelters, a national state of emergency, and the destruction of 30% of the corn and bean harvest.

On the news, I saw a Government Minister asking people to bring donations of food to the CIFCO Convention Centre. There was a warehouse filling with foodstuffs, beds, water tanks. I asked a friend if he was going to donate and mentioned that I wanted to do something and he told me that most of those donations would be stolen or “lost” and sold at the side of the road in a few months.

The largest grocery chain publicized that they had made a large donation for disaster relief and asked people to drop off food at donation boxes in their stores. Hmm, so they want people to buy food at their stores with their regular mark-up to donate. Making money from a disaster.

Rivers that are normally low enough to wade through are now 20'+ high and overflowing their banks.

I ended up at Pricesmart with the intention of buying bulk bags of rice and beans with no idea of how it would end up with people who needed it the most. Luckily, a perky young Pricesmart saleswoman came up to me with a clipboard and asked if I was interested in donating needed goods. She mentioned that Pricesmart had reduced the cost of certain food products to encourage people to purchase and donate. I said I was very interested but I didn’t want to take it with me and asked if I could buy it and leave it with them to take care of. She said that she didn’t know about that but would ask her manager later and I asked if she could get an answer now. Then she came back with a young high-school volunteer who said I could buy the food and leave it with their organization. So we got another cart and loaded up two bulk bags of rice and two of beans. The red beans were $17 for the bag but the same amount of black beans were only $10. We got into a debate of which would be better and the woman said that Salvadorans much preferred red beans while the kid said that this was aid food so they would eat anything if they were hungry. We got the red beans. Then some bulk packs of pasta for the kids and then two large bags of candies.

Someone else had three shopping carts full of rice, beans and oil. Another woman who looked to be a concerned liberal American had dragged her less enthusiastic Salvadoran husband to the store to get aid food and was checking out the pallets of rice and beans.

The woman said that Pricesmart guaranteed that the food would get to people in need - which was nice since I would be pissed and they would burn in hell if the food ended up on their shelves to be sold again.

Paid for the stuff and brought it outside where it was still pouring rain and left it with a group of high school students who were with some aid group. So I feel better having done something. But I wonder what is happening out there. There are maybe 14,000 people in shelters who need to be fed. There are maybe a few hundred families who have lost their home. Thousands have had damage or loss of property. And many thousands have had their crops severely damaged and may only have food for part of next year.

This is what a mudslide looks like. Nice house beside a tree covered hill until the rains won't stop.

My sister-in-law came by this morning to visit. Her husband is a civil engineer and works for Fovial, the national road works department. As you can imagine, they are working 24 hours a day clearing hundreds of land slides and repairing many bridges that have come down. I asked her about how aid was distributed and if she knew if much was stolen. She said she didn’t and I asked how I could contribute in a way that the aid would get to where it was supposed to. And unfortunately, she didn’t know, probably because they were not in the position to give much to charity.

So I lamented on how tough it was that people were in shelters and lost their crops and how many people would go hungry. I asked her what was going to happen in 6 to 8 months as these families ran out of food, if the government or any organization would help them. She said no, that they would have to get additional jobs if they could find them and maybe turn their kids over to orphanages. I don’t understand how a country where an $80,000 Porsche Cayenne is a popular and not uncommon car can allow people to go hungry. And she looked at me and shook her head and gave me a smile like she was talking to a child and said that this is how it has always been in this country.

The road from San Salvador to the Libertad port and beach. Most of the main highways in the country are partially closed with landslides and fallen trees.

Ugh, it’s pouring again! My friend in Antigua is starting to get very depressed from all this rain and lack of sun. I’m lucky that I got 8 weeks in Toronto this summer and just had a week in Havana so I don’t have the weight of all this rain on my head. Another friend from Havana was on business in San Salvador for the week and flew back on Saturday. Havana has done quite well for not having hurricanes this season - they all seem to fling northward after getting as far as PR or Haiti - but now 12-E is following Richard back to Havana and Cuba may see their first hurricane of the year and from the opposite direction than normal!

Nice to see that Salvadorans are helping each other and there are more and more donation points for food and clothes and household items. It is day 6 and still raining and now it is blowing hard. Rain is almost constant switching from a light drizzle to a hard downpour to a gusty blowing diagonal rain.

Most of the schools were closed this week to keep kids off the somewhat dangerous roads and to reduce the level of traffic. I saw two unusual things happen on the roads this week, both times from the window from my gym at the top of Escalon at the Masferrer roundabout. A guy was driving up the street and seemed to stall his car in the left lane. I imagined that he would back up into one of the many parking lots on the right hand side of the road. Instead, he backed up about twenty feet and then turned sharply into the curb blocking both up-hill lanes. Then he got out of the car to try to push his vehicle (uphill with the wheels sharply turned) into a U-turn across all four lanes of traffic. Wow. Amazingly, an old Beetle stopped and two guys got out of the car and pushed the guy through his U-turn so that he could drive down hill and, I suppose, jump start his car (although he could have done this in reverse down the hill without doing a U-turn).

The tail security vehicle stopped by the fallen motorcycle cop. You can see the main convoy at the top of the circle.

The other strange thing happened when President Funes motorcade came blasting up Jerusalem from his office. They take several different routes from his office and usually have 4 - 5 motorcycle cops who drive ahead to block roads and 3 - 4 vehicles with security and the Presidente. So a motorcycle cop comes up into the roundabout, heads down hill in the circle to block the traffic coming up Escalon. This is a very badly designed roundabout and is the scene of much honking and many accidents. The main problem is that the ingress roads into the circle approach and then turn sharply right so people tend to stop and block traffic instead of entering the circle and then merging normally. Another entry point has really tight curbs so cars and trucks routinely collide causing complete traffic chaos as a main artery is blocked for up to an hour while the cops and insurance investigators work the scene. Okay, so yesterday during the rain, the motorcycle cop stops in front of the cars entering from Escalon, puts up his hand, and a woman nails him and drives over the motorcycle. The trailing motorcycle cops stop to check on him and then the first security vehicle. What looks like Funes SUV pulls up and they check out the guy and he looks okay and they can’t be sitting around like that so they take off to the residence. The last security vehicle stops and guys with very big guns get out of it. They secure the scene stopping all traffic and then pick up the guy who looks to have at least a broken leg and they load him into the back seat to take to the hospital.

The injured officer being loaded into the security truck.

Lots of different cops show up, some army guys take a look, traffic investigators arrive and the poor woman who hit the cop is in big trouble! A while later, some family members arrive and there is a lot of huddling in the rain. The bike is left there for more than an hour until Channel 2 arrives. The driver stops the car beside the crashed vehicles, gets out with a camera and starts shooting the scene. Of course this blocks all the traffic going through so the guy in the passenger seat jumps out and runs around to get into the car to move it. The camera man walks around the car and this is when the cops decide to pull the motorcycle from under the car. Lots of interviews ensue. Another day on San Salvador’s roads.

Over an hour after the accident, finally moving the motorcycle when the TV crew shows up - they are at the top left interviewing the investigators under the pink umbrella.

Hope this rain stops soon! And good luck to Cuba.

Driving in El Salvador

The last time traffic at the El Salvador del Mundo roundabout was light ... about 50 years ago.

I have been driving in El Salvador now for about four years and, knock on wood, no accidents yet. Some important pointers - make sure you have insurance with roadside assistance. If you do have an accident, be cautious of where you are and what time it is. If someone runs into you from behind, you may want to stay in your car and signal them to follow you to a place where there are lights and guards - a police station is ideal or otherwise a gas station or other business establishment with lots of light and traffic. On the other hand, it may be important to have the insurance guys look at the accident in situ but only do that during the day when there are lots of cars around.

Situational awareness is very important. Driving at night, stopping at a traffic light, keep a watch around your car. If someone comes up to you, don’t hesitate to drive away. The cops are pretty lenient about running reds at night. Windows up and doors locked in any dodgy areas.

You are pretty safe in most of El Salvador except for at night in certain bad areas such as Apopa, Soyapango, and maybe El Centro. Don’t go into these areas unless you have to and try not to go at night. The main thoroughfares usually have cops but avoid getting deep into these areas.

A GPS is a good idea - see http://www.elsalvadorgps.com/ES/index.html. You may want to buy a cheap Garmin Nuvi in the U.S. or Canada and then have Ben Quan put the El Salvador and Guatemala maps onto it (either directly or he can put it onto an SD chip). I think he charges $150 for the map program. The GPS is pretty good although when making a long trip, try to confirm the route with a map. On a recent post, I mentioned that we had it set on “shortest distance” and it took us through the mountains.

Driving in San Salvador may appear crazy to you (unless you are from Boston) but you’ll get used to it. In round-abouts, drivers in the left lane may try to cut right and drivers in the right lane routinely cut left. Expect the unexpected and a signal (or lack thereof) means nothing. Some of the crazier things I’ve seen is someone backing down the middle of a two lane highway because she missed her turn off to Sonsonate. There were two full lanes and a shoulder but she drove backwards between the two lanes. When I honked at her, she acted surprised.

Also, on the turn off to Santa Elena beside Multiplaza, there is a exit lane on the left. Cars will routinely drive along the adjacent lane and then cut in at the end. This is normal. What is bizarre is that cars will drive two lanes to the right and then cut in on the people trying to cut in.

Another good rule is that you have to drive aggressively in San Salvador to get anywhere but you should always drive cautiously in the countryside to avoid accidents. I saw two nasty ones on two consecutive trips out to the golf course. The first one was on the new highway that goes from the road up from Lourdes/Santa Ana to Santa Tecla. They have opened a ramp going out to the roundabout in Merliot so you can take the great, empty 3 lane highway into the city. I was driving in with a friend when I saw a small white van in the middle of the road. We get out and the driver said that he was driving along when two racing cars cut in front of him. He hit the breaks and spun but then hit a dark speed bump (watch for those at the end of the road) and tipped over. We tried to lift the van up but couldn’t. Another driver stopped and the four of us managed to get it right side up ... and the driver started it and drove away.

The next night, we were driving down the hill from Santa Tecla towards Lourdes. About half a mile down as it was getting really twisty, the brakes on the truck seem to fail. They were locking up and the truck was sliding. Then we turned a corner and saw two people beside a dropped motorcycle waving at us. We pulled over and realized that the entire two lanes were covered in some kind of oil - we suspected used cooking oil being transported for recycling. We were on a bad spot on the road so we moved the bike and the people down the hill a ways. The truck was almost rammed by an oil tanker but he was able to slow down and get his truck under control. We ended up loading the bike into the truck bed and driving the couple back up to Santa Tecla to an ISS hospital. The driver seemed okay but his wife had taken some bad scrapes and started crying in the car, probably from the shock and the pain. On the way there, we first had to go down the hill (to the U-turn area) and two SUVs were approaching us, driving too fast. One slowed down and locked his wheels and the other almost rammed into him. We called the cops to report it but by the time we dropped the couple off and made it back to the spot, there were no cops and, luckily, no other accidents. Then we saw some cop cars with sirens on heading to the spot.

This brings up another point. Should you stop to assist accident victims? It depends on where and when. If it is at night, you should be careful because someone may rob you and steal your car. My friend is an armed ex-cop so he always stops. People will also fake accidents to get people to stop although I don’t think this is that common anymore.

I have received two tickets in my four years of driving. The first time, I was heading to the airport doing about 110 kms/hr. I was following a fast motorcycle and watching for radar traps. I slowed down after cresting a hill but he blew past the box factory and a cop jumped out and flagged me down. He said that I was driving way too fast (that spot had a 60 km limit) and my infraction was very serious. He asked me if it was okay for him to give me a $50 ticket. I didn’t realize he was asking if I wanted to make a discounted payment on the spot so I said I guess it was okay for him to give me the ticket. Still, in hindsight, I’d rather pay the ticket than to bribe a cop.

The second ticket I got was for crossing a double yellow line. Escalon has a double yellow line running up it and hundreds of cars cross that every hour. In my case, I was with my parents and we were lost and I crossed a three lane road and a cop was right there and chased me down. I said that I didn’t see any signs saying no left turns and he said that you can never cross a double yellow line. I think that I deserved that ticket and I realized that you can get away with a shit-load of bad, stupid, inconsiderate driving but not when what you do is dangerous - and crossing three lanes of heavy traffic was pretty stupid.

If this is freaking you out, try to restrict your driving to Saturday afternoons or all day Sunday. Very little traffic and a nice way to see the city!

More of what’s been going on.

Casa Garufina at Playa Azul

I watched a CBS Sunday Morning feature on the Blogisphere and they mentioned that the vast majority of blogs get dropped after a short period … and felt rather guilty about neglecting my little site. So here I am!

El Salvador has been pretty calm lately. The rainy season has started but it hasn’t been too bad. Enough rain to get the fields green but not so much that there is ground saturation and potential flooding. The Veraneras golf course is still in great shape and we may have good conditions through July (before it gets too wet and muddy to get a cart through).

I had 16 people come and visit (in 4 groups) and it was great to see my friends but a bit tiring – especially with some GI issues and the fact that 3 groups overlapped over the course of about a month. Will have to plan breaks next time.

Some of my friends have really fallen in love with El Salvador and we are looking at a way for them to work remotely from here for a month or two each winter. With great internet connections, very cheap calls to Canada, Skype and instant messaging, and decent (albeit expensive) courier service, it would be very easy to work from here if your type of job allows for it.

It was great to host people in our condo and do day trips to the beach for surfing, or golfing, or excursions like zip-lining or up to the coffee plantations. Also eating out can be very reasonable as well as hitting some nice bars and lounges.

And since most people flew down on Taca (which allows 2 x 50 lb bags), I was able to put in orders for lots of stuff to be brought down. Oh, I also packed 3 suitcases full of stuff from Ikea and donations of clothing which I left with friends to bring down.

Our first look at the beach house.

Another group came down and rented a fantastic beach house. Probably one of the nicest ones in the entire country. 6 bedrooms all with en suite washrooms, incredible outdoor deck, lovely staff, all the coconuts you could drink, and an amazing beach. The place is called Casa Garifuna and it is on Playa Azul just west of Acajutla on the coastal road heading to Guatemala.

They have a great beach that is close to the one used by the Decameron Resort so there are quite a few Canadians around during the winter as well as cops on ATVs going up and down watching out for tourists. There is a fishing camp nearby and lots of boats going in and out right in front of the beach house. We helped them carry their boat in one time – there were ten of them and my friend and I lended a hand and I almost put my back out with the incredible weight of the boat! But we were able to buy very fresh red snappers from them which we grilled on our charcoal bbq and it was delicious.

Fresh red snapper, grilled on charcoal

Their trip was great … except 7 out of 9 of them came down with severe stomach issues. I am not sure if it was something they brought down with them or if it was food poisoning but it was spreading from person to person. I tried to be very careful about the washing of fruits and vegetables but they still got very sick. I felt terrible about this especially since they were unable to do many of the things they had planned.

We also had an adventure … that bordered on the incredible/terrifying. We left the beach house in two vehicles (my Honda Pilot and a rented Jeep) with two GPS devices. We programmed in Tacuba where we were going to meet up with Manolo of Impossible Tours for a hike through Parque Impossible to the waterfalls. BTW, if you have Paige’s guide book “El Salvador, A Great Destination”, the telephone number for Manolo (and his parent’s cool hostel) is incorrect. The number in the book is of a competitor that may inform you that Manolo’s business is closed – the correct number is 2417-4268.

We speak to Manolo and agree that it will take us about 80 minutes to get there … and then we follow the GPS. We made two major mistakes on this trip. First, we had the GPS set to shortest route rather than fastest, and we embarked on our trip without cross checking the GPS route with a map. So as we hit the main road, we turned left instead of right. On the right was a perfectly paved road that would allow us to blast up to Jujutla, Ataco, Ahuachapan and then Tacuba. On the left was a road that was paved … and then went to dirt … and then back to pave. It looked like a plausible road to us until it went to dirt and cobblestones and then we hit the hills. Very steep with switchbacks and giant boulders and climbing over stones and under fallen trees. All other cars and buses disappeared and we were out there with some farmers, passed horses, passed a pig washing station (a guy with a hose spraying down two big hos), and passed a lot of people with surprised expressions on their faces.

Nearing the end of our drive through the mountain jungle.

For the longest time, we thought that we would hit the main road again and be on our way. Monolo kept calling us asking where we were and how far away. Finally he had to let the tour go (there were two impatient Germans waiting for us to arrive) and we agreed to do something else once we got to his place.

Manolo guiding us down to the hot springs - all the therapuetic mud you want!

So up and down mountains, squeezing between rocks, driving past precipices, hoping that we would hit civilization before we came to a dead end. We should have turned back but we didn’t and kept driving for about an hour until finally we hit a road, saw some other cars, then houses and then a town! We broke through the countryside at Ataco and finally made it to Tacuba. Manolo was very cool about us being late and asked why we were so late. We showed him the route and he was incredulous. He said that they sometimes take dirt bikes through there but never trucks. I would have taken some pictures if I wasn't so busy trying to keep us alive. So instead of hiking through Parque Impossible, we drove through it.

Manolo showing us coffee plants.

We decompressed with some beers and then Manolo organized a trip to the nearby hotsprings and coffee plantation. The hotsprings feed some giant pools and they also use the steam and geothermic energy to process the coffee. It was off season so we just walked through seeing some early buds and some people doing some weeding. We drove to Ahuachapan to see where the coffee was being roasted and processed. Very high quality organic beans with three sorting systems (mechanical, computer and then by hand). We bought several pounds of it to take home.

Green coffee beans being sorted for the European market.

Okay, that’s enough for now … will try to post again soon.

Explorer's Guides - El Salvador: A Great Destination

My friend Paige has published her new book "El Salvador: A Great Destination", available at Chapters.ca or Amazon. Ideal for anyone who wants to visit El Salvador.

Now who would want to visit El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America? Aren't there more interesting countries like Argentina, Chile, and Brazil? How about Columbia which is ascending, or Cuba, Guatemala or Costa Rica?

El Salvador has bits of those places but is very unique as well. It is not an established tourism destination so the people are still very friendly and interested in meeting foreigners. And that is a refreshing difference from being given a fake smile as they calculate how much they are going to rip you off for. The food is unique and interesting - lots of seafood, lots of fresh vegetables, and lots of strange but tasty fruit.

The beaches are gorgeous and often empty. Waves are great for trying out surfing. The roads are the best in the region and you can zip from one place to another at full speed.

The city is big and modern and has hundreds of options for going out, eating, clubbing, shopping, art & culture. With some common sense precautions, it is also as safe as Toronto. It is also a very inexpensive place to stay and for recreation. A bottle of Absolut vodka and mixes in a vip lounge will be about $50. Good hospitals and medical care. Get your teeth cleaned by a real dentist for $25. Want a keratin hair straightener? $500 in Toronto, $120 in San Salvador.

The weather from November to April is fantastic (and much better than Cuba in December and January) with lots of sunshine and little to no rain.

Paige's book includes some great details about the history of this small country and the successes they have had in building a peaceful and more egalitarian society. She also includes lots of details on culture and interesting places to visit.

Lastly, she includes solid information on how to stay safe and where to watch out.

Paige is a very experienced traveller. She is also smart, observant and an excellent writer. Her personal observations fill the book and you woud do well to follow her opinions.

I have been fortunate to have had a bunch of friends visit from Canada. Every one of them wants to come back and I hope to build beach houses for them all.

Direct flights from Toronto, Montreal, L.A., Houston, Atlanta, Miami, and D.C. Connecting flights through hubs in those cities.

Come and visit!

What's been going on

Me and the Brahva beer girl at the market

Wow, this is the first entry in about 5 months. I wonder if people are still reading this. I know that I get ticked when I am following a blogger who never blogs.

So I haven’t posted much on El Salvador ... because I have been mostly stuck in Toronto for that time period.

I was in San Salvador for a few weeks but am now in Toronto for a few more months.

We entered the dry season but we were still getting the occasional rain. No surprise since this has been a very, very wet rainy season.

It has been a bit of a crazy summer with the gangs escalating the bus ransom violence. That was in reaction to new legislation going after the gangs and it seems that they have backed down a bit. Mauricio Funes, once thought to be a communist stooge to his party and the scourge of good capitalists everywhere, has been doing a good job, especially considering the poor global economy. His popularity ratings are extremely high and everyone seems to like him, even grumpy Americans. It is actually quite amazing, really, that he has done such a good job considering he has little money to work with. How did he do that? Mammoth IMF loans? His party is stealing less than the last one which means more money for actual programs? Better management? Who knows but I am hoping for the latter two.

Other news? My buddy left his job as manager of Nvy (night club) so I guess I won’t be going there very much anymore. I was introduced to the new guy (who probably won’t remember me) and the doorman likes saying no to me (even though I have given him a bunch of good Cuban cigars). The Cuban restaurant Tumbao has closed and a new lounge/tapas bar called Likwid has opened at Multiplaza. As I am not young, beautiful or rich, I wasn’t invited to the opening so I cannot give you a report.

Dan set a nice table for Thanksgiving dinner

We went out to Playa Dorado to celebrate American Thanksgiving. This made it three turkeys for me this year. Went well except a had a gas oven minor explosion at home when I was toasting the croutons and another one at the beach house when the gas went out unexpectedly and then relit as I was checking on the baking stuff.

A beer canned toikey

We cooked a beer can turkey on the gas bbq, mushroom and sausage stuffing, beer and cheddar corn pie, candied carrots, roast brussels sprouts, and a lovely can of cranberry jelly.

We had 3 Salvadorans, 2 Cubans, 1 Canadian, and an American!

Waiting patiently for drinks at Remala.

My friend Minh moved his great Vietnamese/Thai restaurant from way above Escalon down to the Zona Rosa. He is just down from Alo Nuestro and Republic in a great new property. He is also across the street from Remala which is this great lounge housed in a gorgeous huge mansion on a large property. Hmmm, how the wealthy live behind big stone walls. Remala is owned by a French dude who inherited the property from his mere. Nice bar, great couches and some very groovy house/chill music (although better on the nights with a DJ). The cocktail list is pretty good and the drinks may actually taste good when the bartenders learn how to make all of them properly. I had a good apple martini and then a complete joke of a Manhattan (whiskey and vermouth poured over crushed ice in a martini glass) but they came back strong with the chocolate martin. A buddy asked for a Daiquiri and was expecting a lime based drink but they gave him a strawberry one as a surprise. We also went with our friend Claudia who was visiting town to check on her NGO http://www.treeswaterpeople.org/.

Beer and free (loud) accordian music

Took Claudia to my favourite lunch spot at the Mercado Merliot where we got trapped by a 5 piece band. I ordered the sopa de patas but Claudia is so gringa'ized that she couldn't stomach the thought of eating tripe.

The girls bumpin' at 4

The economy in general seems to be improving. Remittances are up from last year. The empty businesses in the Zona Rosa are starting to fill in. Mario's is back at the Code nightclub building - they specialize in 80's music and it is a lot of fun. The King Crab restaurant closed (who on earth thought they could serve small portions of freezer burned crab and charge $20 ... ate their once and that was enough) and they opened up a club (called "4") and a British Pub called the Red Lion.

Smoking a stogie at the Red Lion ... great music - Thompson Twins,

Culture Club, Human League, Simple Minds

The Pub ... is decorated nicely and I did have a bottle of Bass Ale but nothing on tap. They play only British music which is a nice change from frickin' reggaeton.

Frank with a bottle of the good stuff.

Frank the bartender is recently here from LA and speaks perfect English. Then we went next door to "4" which has the same owner. There was a private party downstairs so we went to the upstairs karaoke lounge. Pretty cool place, especially since no one was singing, with a nice decor and a drum set and guitars on the karaoke stage - I guess if you want to do more than sing. The V-Jay was taking requests and the girls got up to bump to Beyonce. I was smoking a big cigar which prompted the bartenders to turn on a giant fan built into the wall beside the bar ... I got the signal and left soon after. I think I saw them serve a beer to a kid who looked to be about 14.

Dan blasting out of the rough on the par 5 7th hole at the empty Veraneras course

The Veraneras golf course seemed to have survived the rainy season quite well. They added some drainage channels that helped with the heavy rains. One thing they don’t have is ... golfers! They seem to have reacted to this by raising their prices but I am doubtful that this strategy is going to work. On the helpful side, they have reduced the prices of their drinks and they let me suspend my membership while I was stuck in Canada. I was out golfing with my buddy Dan last Sunday and there were only two golfers in front of us and two behind us ... that is a total of 6 golfers for the entire day. The Canadian tourists coming down on Nolitours and staying at the Royal Decameron aren’t coming soon enough! We like having the course to our selves but don’t want the place going bankrupt.

I heard that a new new course is being built in the Libertad area by the guys who built the nice course in neighbouring Antigua, Guatemala (La Reunion Course?). They are going to charge $25,000 to join but that will be waived if you buy property in the club. I hear they are going after the wealthy Arab/Salvadoran market that is currently being shut out of the Campestre course (which is only 9 holes and costs $50,000 to join). This is a shock to me since there are already 4 courses in San Salvador and apparently only about 400 golfers. Plus another course or two are being planned. So either people really like owning golf courses (even if they are losing a ton of money) or they think they can grow the number of golfers (like has happened in North America) ... but good luck doing that since there are so few pros in the country and the courses don’t seem to like having middle class people showing up.

So far, I have a group of 9 coming down to visit me and a lot of people who came last year want to come again. I have been looking on the Internet for some rental properties and there are quite a few in the popular Costa del Sol area. They run from about $100 to $200 per night - the higher range includes places with 4-5 bedrooms, usually sleep over a dozen, a/c, a pool, and on the ocean.

Ooh, I can see the ocean from here

We did find one beautiful place out at Costa Azul (which is in the far west of the country, between Acajutla and Barra de Santiago, accessed along the coastal road that goes to the Guatemalan border). Very unique in that all the walls, floors, siding and terrace are all wood. The living room and dining room are completely open with just a big roof covering the whole area. It has been decorated very well by someone who had both taste and money (a happy convergence). All wood paneling and floors and a kick ass wooden deck. More than twice the price of anything else I have seen but may be worth it.

I think I am going to base my first beach house on this design. I want to have the property abutting the beach end of the property with a big deck and an infinity pool on the end. I think I’ll want to enclose the living area but maybe two garage doors (3 cars wide) can be put on the end so you can just open up the wall facing the ocean.

I have not had any luck finding a reliable contractor and I’ll think I’ll stop looking. I’ll hire an architect/engineer to do the plans, then my friend Dan (who has been a GC before) can do the construction planning, and I’ll get my brother-in-law (who is a civil engineer) to be the site manager. I’ve got the land picked out already ... just need to get some money!

The Emerald is ready for guests

A woman from Canada has just finished her property and is ready to rent it out. On Playa Dorado in front of a decent surf beach break, it has 5 bedrooms and the biggest pool I’ve seen on the coast.

Another interesting bit of law and order in San Salvador. The city centre (El Centro), where the National Theatre and some of the big cathedrals are located, has become more and more dangerous over the years. The streets have also become choked with sidewalk vendors who have built wooden kiosks on most of the major streets. They sell everything from fruits and vegetables to shoes and clothes to kitchen goods, cell phones, bootleg DVDs (including porn), and also drugs.

The nuisance is that you’ll have a three lane road that is effectively shrunk down to 1 ½ because of businesses on either side. This is despite the fact that there are numerous large (and often half vacant) purpose built indoor markets where people can set up their kiosks and be protected from the elements and be able to secure the goods overnight. Also, the street markets harbour a greater criminal element and contributes to a general lack of police supervision and control.

I have heard that the license fee on the street is about 50 cents a day while it is about $1.50 inside. So why don’t they all move into these nicer buildings? I have heard that there is more traffic outside so the vendors prefer to be there. I have also heard that the maras (gangs) control and extort from the people outside and have made sure that the vendors challenge the government when they talk about cleaning up the streets.

But the mayor of San Salvador, Quijano, decided to go in with a huge force of riot cops who started cleaning up the area street by street. They encountered some resistance in the form of rocks and fire barricades but they were able to reclaim the area. I just hope it lasts. I have been in the market a few times but generally with a Salvadoran friend. We park the car (in a very modern and guarded parking lot with a ticket machine and cashier), then walk very fast through the streets to one of the markets, we buy what we came for (usually polo shirts), and then walk out fast. No loitering, no eye contact, and nothing valuable on us. I have also been to the National Theatre to see Fatima dance but there was no security problem with that so it isn’t all bad. It will be nice to go there more often - I hear that there is a good market that sells artisanal souvenirs.

Okay, I am going to post this before I delay any longer. Cheers all.