San Blas, El Salvador

Aca estamos, en la playa. Despues de un par de dias en Santa Tecla nos vinimos a San Blas....es bueno tener amigos salvadorenios, no? La verdad es que con la familia de Mauricio y a pesar de recien conocerlos, tambien nos sentimos entre familia. Llegamos aqui el miercoles, y estamos haciendo lo que teniamos propuesto; nada. Desde la maniana a la noche nos pasamos en la playa o las diferentes piscinas de este lugar. Ni que hablar de la buena cantidad de mariscos y pescados fresquitos que estamos comiendo, como tambien las diferentes clases nuevas de frutas que hemos conocido y probado. La monotonia y tranquilidad de aca es justo lo que estabamos buscando, y lo estamos aprovechando al maximo. Corremos olas en la playa y vemos los hermosos atardeceres del Pacifico y de tarde hacemos algun fueguito, o nos tiramos en las hamacas a escuchar un poco la radio. Tambien es un honor, y una suerte el poder estar en este pais en un momento tan historico... como lo son estas elecciones. Aqui todo el mundo habla de eso, se siente la energia de cambio en las calles o con cualquier persona que uno hable. Ojala se de, de una vez por todas. El fin de semana lo pasamos con Guillermo, Luz, Betty, Carlos y los chicos; Guillermo, Fernando, y Fabi. Jugamos al futbol, al pool, al ping pong, fuimos a la piscina, y nos tomamos unos ricos licuados y unas cervecitas bien frias. Pasamos mas que bien, entre conversas, juegos y comidas, y cuando llego el domingo de noche y se fueron todos, quedamos un poco descolocados, tristes y aburridos. La onda que nos tiro esta gente es inigualable... no tenemos palabras para agradecer tanta hospitalidad! Ahora estamos esperando a Mauricio, Jose y Edgardo que se vienen en patota desde Toronto, un suenio hecho realidad, conocer a nuestros amigos salvadorenios en su propio pais... vos Pedro te nos quedaste en el tintero, pero siempre hay revancha, no?

We’ve spent the last few days at the beach, relaxing and taking a much needed break from the constant moving from one place to another. We actually didn’t realize how nice it would be to just stay in one place for a while, and I have even been able to concentrate a bit on some work! When we are not at the pool or at the beach, we spend our time cooking (we love your parrillero, Sharon!) shooting pool, watching the spectacular sunsets over the pacific and swinging in the hammocks. This place is perfectly designed for the climate, with an open concept which blurs the indoor/outdoor distinction in common living areas, and with separate (and air conditioned!) sleeping areas. One of our regular night-time activities has become lying in the hammocks and watching the antics of our favourite animal – the gecko! They are very cute and very plentiful, and they play around on the ceiling all night chasing each other and eating bugs. Mateo was tramautized the other day when he caught a baby gecko and suddenly it jumped off his hand, leaving its tail behind -- and the tail was still wiggling! It took him a while to recover from the shock and remorse, but once he realized what an amazing survival technique the gecko has (and that the tail eventually grows back) he was okay. We have also been going to the pier in La Libertad, where all the fishing boats come in. They have a huge selection of fish and seafood to choose from. Our first night here we made linguini with shrimp and chipotle cream sauce, and another night we made tamarind shrimp with coconut rice again, this time with green mango and lobster salad! Maybe next we will try to make a nice ceviche….San Blas is pretty much a gated community where people come from the city to spend their weekends, and as such we are virtually the only ones here during the week. There are many garden workers around, though, and it a veritable tropical paradise here in contrast to the dryness of the rest of country at this time of year (it is HOT here– the hottest we have been on the trip so far!). We are amazed at the variety of trees, shrubs and plants there are here -- mango, banana, cashew, almond, and lemon trees, coconut palms, and so many others that we don't even know the names of. Needless to say, there is a lot of bird action here too! Over the weekend, Guillermo and Luz and the kids (Guillermo, Fernando and Favi) came to join us, along with Mauricio’s sister Betty and her husband Carlos, who have a place right next door. We had a great time with them, between political discussions, lessons about the food and drink of El Salvador, ruthless games of pool, Guillermo climbing every fruit tree in sight to give us samples of fresh fruits and roasting fresh cashew nuts in the fire, and Luz making us delicious cashew-fruit milkshakes! We don’t have the words to describe their hospitality towards us, as even in such a short time they have made us feel like we are part of the family. One thing we can’t seem to get used to about El Salvador is the fact that everywhere you go – and I mean everywhere, from the beach to supermarkets to shoe stores to bakeries to hairdressers – there is at least one armed guard with a big gun. Apparently it has to do with the prevalence of gangs, or maras, which are a huge problem in the entire country. Apparently if there is no guard in view, they come and extort amounts of money from people. There are nieghbourhoods all over the country where they have a complete mafia-like hold over the terrorized people, who work hard to eke out a living and on top of that have to pay for “protection” to these gang members. This is a problem that was largely imported (or more correctly, deported) from the US when they decided to do something about their own gang problems in LA: now it seems that the Mara Salvatruchas have taken over El Salvador. The funny thing is that some of them, being second-generation Salvadorans in the US, had never even been to El Salvador before (and ironically, some of them didn’t even really speak Spanish!). Government measures so far have been a bit of a joke, partly because the members of the ruling Arena party apparently have a stake in keeping the gun trade going, and also because it is generally convenient to keep the population living in fear. People are hoping that a change in government might help to clean things up a bit. The election is looming, and just yesterday we looked up to see an airplane dumping hundreds of paper pamphlets out of its door. We picked one up off the ground and it was a totally ridiculous piece of propaganda from the Arena party, who are getting desperate because it looks like they are losing ground. It will be interesting to see what happens next Sunday. Mauricio, Edgardo and Jose are coming from Toronto, so it will be great to see (almost) all of our favourite Salvadorans in their natural habitat at the same time!