The End

I'm finally heading home and I have to say, it feels like Time. I exchanged contact information with the two other Spanish students, Megan (left) and Susanne (right), said goodbye to everyone in the house, and headed for the airport in Guatemala City. I was a little worried because I'd contracted a mild case of the ol' Montezuma's Revenge but I self medicated and the flights passed uneventfully.

Anyway, the trip is over and sadly it's time for the blog to end as well. I'll miss it though, I enjoyed it and I hope you did too. By the way, I'm curious as to how many people actually look at this, so if you don't mind me knowing, please leave me a comment.

Where Coffee Comes From

There's an organic fair trade coffee farm just a short drive from where I'm staying so I hopped on a shuttle bus and went to check it out. Turns out they're just like regular coffee farms except with slightly higher wages. Still though, coffee farms are interesting in general and the museum was well put together. There were tours but the place was almost empty so the guide ended up showing just me and two Italians around. Italian is apparently so similar to Spanish that they were able to understand the tour without a translator. Crazy.

So it turns out coffee plants are rather boring. I'm fairly certain I've seen similar looking plants in my backyard. However the manner in which they are processed was fairly interesting. Apparently it takes about 6.5 pounds of raw bean to produce a single pound of roast, and goes through four separate stages in between. The best part was definitely the free cup of espresso at the end.

Volcán Pacaya

I finally got to climb Volcán Pacaya, an active volcano that last erupted two years ago, which is so recent that the lava hasn't finished cooling and only the top layer is rock. Underneath, and not particularly far underneath, it is still molten and incredibly hot. Fortunately, thanks to a total absence of safety regulations in Guatemala, tourists are allowed to climb up and even roast marshmellows if they like in the crevices through which the lava is still accessible.

It felt like a scene out of the Lord of the Rings. Fog covered the summit and the alien landscape was made all the more surreal by the sharp contrast between the freezing mountain wind and the at times overpowering heat of the lava. I had met up with a few Spaniards in the bus on the way over and I could've sworn we were questing together. I even nicknamed a stray dog we spotted Golem. He was wet and shivering when we first saw him but he came with us to the summit and warmed up quickly against the black volcanic rock.

The number one sweetest part was discovering that if you spit on hot lava, it evaporates before landing. However, being that close long enough to aim through the solid rock to the liquid is quite a feat. If you rush yourself and miss, it evaporates on contact with the solid part, which is not nearly as epic. The fully cooled rock was pretty dope too; it had a strange, brittle texture and a lot of it broke easily. In places it retained the shape of a viscous but flowing liquid, layered like thick molasses.

Lago De Atitlán

I decided to take a trip to Atitlán. It's another lake with volcanoes and such things that everyone says is a must see, and it's located a convenient two hours from Antigua. I met up with a few other backpackers to cut down on boat fairs and headed out to the hot springs which were, unfortunately, rather disappointing.

The tide was in so the lake was choppy and all the warm water got carried out immediately. It was only still hot right up against the rocks, where it was scaldingly so. We did, however, manage to stumble upon a really interesting graveyard. It was by far the most cheerful graveyard I've ever encountered, brightly colored and decorated with ribbons. The tombs were large enough to accommodate entire families, like a big after-life party.

More Boring Classes

Classes continue to be long and boring. I eat breakfast at 7am, go to school for 4 hours and come back at noon for lunch. Then I go back to school for another 4 hours and come back at 6pm for dinner. Then I do homework go to bed early. Occasionally I go out with other students to bars but I'm always the first one home. I only recently got a chance to take some pictures of Antigua, which by the way is gorgeous.

I'm having a lot of fun though, and Yolanda, the lady who runs the pension, is super nice and easy to talk to. Talking to her has helped my Spanish a lot. Everything is winding down though, I'm leaving soon, the other American student is leaving soon, and all the girls in preparatoria are finishing up exams and graduating.

Música Latina

For some reason everywhere I go I hear the same song. It's in all the bars, all the clubs, even on people's cellphones. Not just as ringtones either, in the buses sometimes people will take out their cellphones and play entire songs, annd usually this is one of them.

It's called Dimelo, which literally means Say It To Me, although there's an English version of the song called Need To Know. The singer's name is Enrique Iglesias, a Latino superstar who apparently grew up in Miami although he was born in Madrid. The girls are all crazy for him and apparently his so famous he's getting cast in Hollywood movies now.

But the genre that seems most popular with the youth here is Reggaeton, a sort of Carribean sounding rap/hiphop genre but with a Latin twist. It's very danceable and reminds me of dancehall. If you've heard of Daddy Yankee, that's his genre. Another big name is Wisin y Yankel but if you don't like rap and hip hop I wouldn't bother with either of them, it's not a particularly gentle style of music.

La Barbita

Rather than shave and have to continue doing so daily I elected to get a trim at a local parlor next to my school. They did not seem to know what they were doing so I asked as politely as my Spanish would allow if I could just do it myself. I think it worked out quite nicely although the locals all seem to think the beard remains out of control and should be removed completely. I don't know why but Latinos just don't seem to like the rugged look. At least they have stopped calling me Barbuchín.

Another Festival

There was a festival with something to do with an important virgin in Antigua and tons of flowers were laid out prettily on the streets for the parade to walk across. They also used these horrible fireworks they have here that just make noises like gunshots and create a lot of smoke but don't actually look cool at all like fireworks are supposed to. I've seen them around before and I hate them. They are kind of scary and all the stray dogs completely flipped out.

The street was packed with people, many of them carrying signs or floats having something to do with a virgin saint. I thought it kind of sad they had to trample over all the carefully arranged flowers, which of course were a mess after the parade passed. However I do like the way everybody participates in the parade, not just the people in costume and whatnot. There are no bystanders except for a few gringos like me taking pictures.

La Barbota

As much as I value not having to shave during my vacation, the beard has gotten completely out of control. It itches, food gets caught in it, and everyone thinks I'm like 30. This picture was taken weeks ago, its even worse now. The family I'm staying with has nicknamed me el barbuchín after a famous Guatemalan children's book. It literally means small person with big beard.

Escuela

This is my Spanish teacher Magda and the school's assistant Lidia. Magda is the granddaughter of Guillermo Flores Avendaño, a former Guatemalan president who served for 6 months before being ousted. She's got 22 years of teaching experience but only makes 15 Quetzales an hour. That's about 2 dollars. We went on a trip to around the city today and we swung by the farmacy so she could pick up her medication but couldn't afford it because the owner is running late and hasn't paid her. I bought it for her, it only cost $5.

Antigua, Guatemala

There happened to be a cheap shuttle from my hotel to Antigua so I cut my time in El Salvador short and headed north. I sat up front and got my first taste of Guatemalan culture talking to the driver. They speak amazingly clearly here (possibly my favorite thing about the country) but they are always kidding around, so much so that frequently I can't tell when people are serious and when they're just joking. I've even heard they'll actually promise to meet you somewhere, expecting you to know they're not coming.

Anyway, it turns out that this town is one of the best places in the world to study Spanish, so in a last ditch effort to get fully fluent I'm taking classes. I'm staying just a few blocks away from Iglesia La Merced (pictured right) in a pensión run by a sweet little lady named Yolanda. It's mostly full of high school aged girls going to a fancy preparatoria on government scholarship but there are a couple other gringo students as well. I can feel the wanderlust starting to burble up as I hang around one town not really doing much traveling but I think it's worth it to spend my last few days here doing something constructive, especially since this town is world renowned for language and isn't bankbreakingly expensive either.

Salvadoran Surfing

El Salvador is famous for more than just bloody civil war and gang violence. Most notably the surfing here is legendary. La Punta Roca just outside La Libertad is often hailed as the best waves in Central America. And of course, with the mad skilz I picked up from my one attempt on a gentle beach break in Panama, I was there. Though I asked around to find the gentlest surf on the coast I still got my ass handed to me, pounded repeatedly by waves much taller than myself.

Luckily that night a big storm brought weaker surf and less crowds (though notably dirtier water), and the next day I was able to catch a single wave and a massive sunburn. I also chatted up a local with a delightfully clear accent who hacked open a fresh coconut with a machete for me---no idea how I avoided trying one sooner, having been in palm tree land so long.

Gang Problems

El Salvador has a huge problem with gang violence. You see, after the war a lot of Salvadorans started emigrating to other countries for work. Guatemalans often jest that there are Salvadoran prostitutes all over the world (Guatemala and El Salvador don't get along very well) although of course Salvadoran migrant workers do a lot more than that. They're remesas (money sent home from abroad) are also responsible for a booming economy. Unfortunately, they also sent home Los Angeles crime. The already established Mexican gangs kept harassing the Salvadoran migrant workers, that is until they formed the MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha.

Now possibly the most brutal gang in the United States, Mara is allegedly composed of 10,000 members, primarily from the CA-4 region. The Salvadoran government campaigns against them---in fact the current president was elected on the campain slogan "Super Mano Dura", or super hard hand, a follow up to the failed "Mano Dura" campaign. However the legal system is still very third world here and convictions are rare. This frustrates the public and now police arrest people just for having tattoos and baggy pants. They don't stay locked up for long though, and the cycle leads to more people interested in joining the MS.

King Lear in Spanish

My favorite thing about Central American capitals is that they've got some culture. I never see proper theaters anywhere else. So of couse I was stoked to find a production of King Lear, and in Spanish no less, conveniently located in a mall (why would you put a theater in a mall?) just a five minute walk outside my guesthouse and in a non-sketchy area I could actually walk safely to and from at night---there aren't many such places in San Salvador, this is MS-13 home turf. Unfortunately my Spanish is worse than my Middle English so I didn't get a lot of the dialogue but I was still able to tell that there is definitely some talent in this country.

Feria Internacional

San Salvador's international fair is nothing to shake a stick at. I was surprised but they've got the works, from fantastic and overpriced fair food to terrible cheesy looking rides. They even had a marching band accompanied by baton twirling models which navigated its way throughout the entire fairground.

However there were definitely some notable differences between this and the fairs I've been to back home, and not just because they've got delicious churros instead of that funnel cake cardboard I'm used to. For example, why are these people dressed up as crazy monsters and dancing terribly? They weren't even that bad compared to the marauding clowns who appeared to be random strangers with no apparent clown training, trying to hustle people into artisan shops. Also, why is there a boxing ring in the middle of a furniture store with a singer accompanied by two scantily clad women and a giant inflatable-chicken-suited man?

Dope Architecture

I'm actually rather surprised but I'm still not sick of cool looking churches, but I'm not. San Salvador has some really big ones, too. Unfortunately my favorite, Iglesia El Rosario, is really ugly on the outside, and you can't take pictures from inside. Well, maybe you can but I was getting too many where-did-this-gringo-come-from stares to do it discretely and I didn't want to offend. Anyway, it's got huge stained glass walls and lots of scrap metal in a very non-churchy way. It also had these cool statues hiding out front behind the trees.

Cipitio

The museums in San Salvador once again demonstrate that there is talent here. I have no idea what is supposed to be going on in this picture but I saw it from afar on the hike up the hill to the modern art museum and immediately knew it was gonna have some kickin' exhibits. It also made the place a lot easier to find, which was very helpful since the building was hidden behind a gigantic Shariton hotel complete with helipad. I don't know why but I feel a little bitter that they had a helipad.

Here's one of my favorite paintings from the modern art displays. You see, in Salvadoran legend there is a woman named Sihuanaba who appears to men in remote areas as a beautiful woman, luring them in and then revealing her actual hideous appearance, at which point the man goes mad from the sight of her. This is her ten year old son Cipitio, who never grows older and has a big potbelly under his shirt but no pants. His feet are on backwards and he passes his time launching rocks at women washing clothing in rivers. However, as we can see here, Cipitio is actually not a boy, but a tiny man. Mythology kicks ass.

San Salvador

I got on a northbound bus through the border crossing from Nicaragua through Honduras into El Salvador but the bus driver forgot to drop me off in San Miguel. Instead I got let out in a random city about two hours from San Salvador, the capital city, on completely the wrong side of the country. Luckily it turns out San Salvador is a really cool city and is also in the middle of the most important festival El Salvador has. The first week of August here is the week of San Salvador del Mundo, the country's patron saint.

What's more, pretty much every single person I met since getting into the county has been insanely nice. I asked a groundskeeper where the bus stop was and he hunted down someone to hold his machete (everybody has a machete here so that's actually not weird) while he escorted me to the bus stop and made sure I got on the right bus. People on the bus offered me their seats so I didn't have to stand with my heavy backpack. An illiterate hamburger stand employee even offered to take me to the big fair for the festival. I've never encountered a more kindhearted people. It's such a refreshing change to not have people constantly trying to rip you off for being a foreigner.

Women's Rights

In a Catholic country full of machismo I was surprised to find highly active women's rights groups campaigning hard, but they're here. I think it has something to do with the radical liberalism that came with the Sandinistas. There are notable female Sandinista heroes and martyrs from the civil war. I should add, however, there is still a blanket ban on abortion in Nicaragua, even when the mother's life is at stake. The banner below reads: Women of Estelí united, fighting in defense of our rights.

Reagan's Role

I was curious about the U.S.'s role in the rest of Nicaraguan history, and here's how things played out after the revolution. The country was a complete wreck and President Carter authorized big bucks in emergency aid, which President Reagan promptly axed because of Nicaragua's communist leanings. Instead he decided to pump military aid into counterrevolutionary groups called Contras, first legally, then with money made from illegal arms sales to Iran after Congress vetoed additional legitimate funding (thus, the Iran-Contra Scandal). These groups were disgustingly cruel, real big on rape, torture, and mutilation. Here's a quote from a Sandinista describing the brutality.

Rosa had her breasts cut off. Then they cut into her chest and took out her heart. The men had their arms broken, their testicles cut off. They were killed by slitting their throats and pulling the tongue out through the slit.

As if he hadn't fucked Nicaragua up enough already, upon reelection Reagan enacted an embargo effectively destroying the remnants of the Nicaraguan economy. To this day it appears to me that Nicaragua is the poorest of the Central American countries. Why is this man the hero of the Republican party again?

Sandino

So I had no idea this happened but apparently the U.S. government invaded and occupied Nicaragua for about 20 years in the early 1900s because we wanted to build a canal there. A Nicaraguan General named Augusto Sandino led a guerilla war against us, and when we left, we put a close friend of the U.S. named Somoza in charge of the army. He was supposed to lead the Nicaraguan government along with Sandino and the newly elected (and largely powerless) President Sacasa. Somoza promptly had Sandino assassinated and began a 40 year dynasty of corruption and brutality (we sure know how to pick 'em).

Anyway, Sandino became a big deal national hero and the party that bears his namesake (the Sandinistas) were the ones who eventually overthrew the Somoza regime in 1979 after a bloody civil war. I checked out a museum in memory of the Estelí people who died. Here's a photo of Juan Carlos, the brother of one of the museum staff members, who died fighting the Somoza army at age 15.

Estelí

Estelí is a cool little town right along the Pan-American Highway near the border with Honduras. Though the capital of the region by the same name, Estelí has a sleepy small town vibe and also not that much to see. It is, however, very much a Sandindista town and it was interesting to see the revolutionary populist party's influence on the people. More on that later.

Monuments

Despite not being my favorite city this trip, Managua does have some of my favorite monuments. In Parque De La Paz they have old military equipment symbolically cemented into the ground. It is the site where weapons were gathered to be destroyed after the Contras turned in their arms. You can see twisted gun barrels poking out in places.

Also, this statue of an almost comically muscled worker stands holding a pickaxe and a rifle with the Sandinista flag hanging off of it. A passing Nica woman called out in Spanish, "don't take photos, it's very ugly." The plaque below reads: only the workmen and farmers will go until the end --National Worker's Front.