Ups and Downs in El Salvador

After leaving El Zonte, we drove inland towards San Salvador.  From what we have heard and read, there isn’t much to see in the city itself, so we thought we’d go in on Saturday, visit the LDS temple there and then move on.  The temple is almost the same age as the one that we visited in Xela and it is very similar in its construction.  It’s another stunningly beautiful building and we enjoyed our time there.  Again we got to know a few of the people working there.  One of the older missionaries walked past our car in the parking lot and did a double take when he saw the license plate.  He was so excited to see Wyoming that he took a picture (How often is someone stoked to see Wyoming??)  Then he waited for us at the entrance and asked to take a picture of “the most adventurous couple he’s met.”  We were flattered.  A few of the other workers said similar things and then one of the sisters asked us what has been the biggest surprise or challenging adjustment of the trip.  We thought about it for a minute and then I responded that the biggest surprise has been that it’s not nearly as much of an adventure as we thought it would be.  She kinda scoffed at that but it’s true.  That has been the biggest surprise.  The people are kinder and more helpful than I expected, the food is tastier that I expected, and the bathrooms are cleaner that I expected.  Of course there are some exceptions to those examples and overlanding comes with some specific challenges (border crossings, finding camping spots, living entirely out of a car, etc…) but we have found it to be an overwhelmingly positive experience. 

Saturday and Sunday we treated ourselves and stayed at a hotel that came highly recommended.  We heard it was clean and cheap, which we found to be mostly true.  But when we told someone where we had stayed and they said, “Oh yeah, that place is great.  It’s nice and how can you beat $10?!”  We actually paid $20 but we’ve gotten pretty used to the American Dis-discount so I wasn’t terribly surprised.  What did surprise us quite a bit was walking into church on Sunday and seeing about 1/3 of the chapel filled with white people.  It all became clear when they started introducing themselves.  Apparently we chose the church building closest to the US Embassy.  One of the families, Aaron and Janice Neilsen invited us over for dinner.  Actually they invited us to come stay in their spare bedroom, which we took them up on later in the week.    

Monday we drove back west, but this time we stuck to the highland route.  We read in a book about Lago de Coatempeque.  It's a large crater lake and supposedly the most beautiful in El Salvador, so we went that direction.  Right as the sun was getting ready to set, we got to the road overlooking the lake and started to search for a camping spot.  It didn’t take us long to find the perfect place.  There was a restaurant right on the edge of the crater.  It looked out over the lake and the towns surrounding the water.  We asked one of the employees about spending the night near the restaurant and he said, “Sure!  In fact, park right here next to our patio".  

This had the potential to be one of the nicest camping spots of the trip.

The patio where we spent the evening.

I was grateful he offered that because it was pretty much the only level spot and it had an excellent view.  We spent the evening on the patio, sipping on licuados and lemonade, reading our books and enjoying the view of all the lights around the lake.  Around 9pm Kaytie went to bed and about an hour later, as I got up to pay for our drinks, some music started.  The waiter informed me that it was a little birthday party for one of the employees.  When I got into bed Kaytie asked me what was going on.  I told her not to worry, I was sure it wouldn’t go too long.  I’m not sure why I thought that, considering our experience with Central America parties.  Around midnight, the music got a little louder and the karaoke got a little drunker.  I thought, ‘Okay, this has to be wrapping up soon.’  At 1am, Kaytie suggested we find a new spot but I assured her that they couldn’t go all night.  We may not get a full night of sleep but we will get 5 or 6 decent hours.  Then at 3am I started to get a little frustrated and at 4am I lost it.  I hucked all the crap that was sitting in the front seats back into the bed, hopped into the driver’s seat, and threw it into reverse.  The problem now was that it was 4am and we had no idea where to go.  I drove for about 15 minutes just looking for a spot to pull over that wasn’t directly in front of some house or store.  Finally, we found a scenic overlook with another great view of the lake.  “Scenic overlooks” down here could also be called “a shoulder.”  I pulled over on the shoulder with a view.  It seemed like a pretty quiet area and it was literally the only parking spot I had seen in the last 15 minutes.  I parked right up to the edge of the steep drop off so there wasn’t room to walk around on the passenger side.  I figured that, in conjunction with radiant barrier sheets on the drivers side windows ,it would keep any looky lou’s from checking us out in the morning.  I was wrong.  A little before six we woke up to people surrounding the car (on the edge of a cliff) to get a look inside.  (Never underestimate a small town latino’s curiosity.) I wanted to say “Screw it, let them look,” roll over and go back to sleep but I knew Kaytie wouldn’t go for it.  

Camping spot #2 of the night.  We came back for a photo on the way out of town.

Back to the drivers seat I went.  In the early morning hours of daylight we found an abandoned housing development and pulled into an overgrown cul-de-sac and slept for another couple hours.  Probably the worst night’s sleep of the trip but I felt much better after we made it down to another restaurant on the lake and convinced the kitchen staff to make us breakfast at 12pm.   

The restaurant on the lake that subdued the pain of the previous night.

We watched these kids all during breakfast.  They turned the underside of a fiberglass boat into a water park by stripping to their undies and splashing a little water.  Pretty clever.

The lake itself was very beautiful but we couldn’t help thinking of it as a mini-Atitlan so we moved on pretty quick.  We wanted to check out La Routa de Flores (Flower Route) that was close by.  We drove along the route admiring the biggest wild flowers we have ever seen and stopped in some towns known for their unique folk art.    

This was our favorite artisan shop.

Another of the many unique and local artisan shops.

It seems like every town in Central America has an impressive church but the Cathedrals along the Routa de Flores were especially impressive.

In one of the towns, we found some free wifi and took a break from Christmas shopping (Cat’s out of the bag, family.  You’re getting stuff from Central America).  Kaytie had some work and I had some important interneting to do so we chilled there for a little while.  Another guy that was using the wifi asked what we were doing and I explained the whole, we-sold-all-our-stuff-and-now-we-live-in-our-car thing.  He was impressed and gave us an awesome camping spot tip.  Apparently there was a small lake just 5 km or so from the town.  When we arrived we found a beautiful mountain lake with a spectacular little camping spot and tons of privacy.  As the sun set, it got downright cold.  We cozied up with the down comforter we have lugged all across the continent never using and slept like babies. 

This lake wasn't in a guidebook and it ended up being one of the nicest camping spots of the entire journey.

In the morning it was still chilly so we cooked up some fruit and cinnamon oatmeal as the sun came over the ridgeline.  Idyllic was the word of the moment.  Then we headed off on a walk around the lake.  As we were coming back towards the car we came across a small man carrying a pretty decent sized log over his shoulder.  We chatted for a minute or two and he offered to show us the Mirador he had been building.  Never ones to turn down shoddily constructed platforms at great heights, we said “Vamanos!”  The view was probably better from up there but we were looking at the wood planks shifting and bending under our weight.  The whole thing swayed if you turned your head too much anyway, so looking around wasn’t really an option.  After we resigned to our fate, whatever it might be, we were actually quite impressed.  We spent a fair amount of time up there chatting.  He told us about how he couldn’t work due to an injury from a fall up in the mountains.  Then just to be sure we believed him, he took off his pants to show us the scars on his thigh and knee.  (If I had scars like that, I’d probably want to show them off too.)

Turning for the photo op was an exciting experience.

This is the architect/engineer/constructor of the viewing platform.  Super nice guy! He even blessed us as we parted ways.

Apparently it's a popular place to gather wood...

The rest of the Routa de Flores was equally as beautiful as the first stretch.  Unfortunately it was tainted by one of the only fights Kaytie and I have ever been in.  I’m not even going to go into it because it was so ridiculous.  But it was an uncomfortable 20 minutes of silence followed by an uncomfortable 2 hours of both of us trying to speak civilly without admitting any guilt.  Even the next couple of days were a little touchy seeing as we have very little experience with conflict resolution.  I guess that’s what happens when you always get along.  We eventually chalked it up to spending 24 hours per day together and left it at that. 

Overall, this week has been full of some pretty wonderful highs but some pretty uncomfortable lows as well.  I guess that’s life, even when you’re traveling through paradise.