Impressions of El Salvador

Some thoughts on a couple of days in San Salvador-

One must possess the patience of Job and have the absolute absence of fear to drive in this town.

It´s hot. Really hot. REALLY hot. Painfully so. It´s been near 100 degrees both days in San Salvador and it seems we´re in a cool period with temperatures near 43 or 44 celcius in the near future. That works out to about 105-110 in the near future.

Mister Donut seems to use the Starbucks theory of store building here which is if you can´t see one Mister Donut from another then they aren´t close enough together!

The ride from the airport to the city is about 45km. The airport is near the beach and is on a flat and easy to access plot of land making it one of the safer airports in Central America. The ride in is a pleasant one with a very nice four lane highway designed exactly like the US interstate system. The terrain reminded me of West Virginia at times with similar terrain and topography.

It´s still really hot.

The most important thing a person can own in El Salvador seems to be a ridiculously loud speaker so that it can be placed right at the door of a business. This does draw attention to the store but also creates a sound barrier preventing anyone from being able to actually enter the store.

Tourists are rare and when seen should be gawked at until they are completely out of sight.

This is an NRA type of town! Because of the recently civil war and past political instability plus the pretty serious poverty many people face most businesses employ security guards. Now, as most of my blog readers are Americans you are thinking of the security guards at the US malls tht are generally mockable and unable to make it a real police officer. This is not the case in El Salvador. The security guards here are some of the baddest mo-fo´s to be found. Most wear a supremely militaristic uniform complete with pants tucked into jack boots with a full on arsenal slung around the neck. We´re talking shotguns, rifles and semi-automatic long barrel guns not designed just to scare a person (although they do that successfully as well). Strapped around the waist, enough ammunition to keep the bad guys from trying to be bad.

It´s still absurdly hot.

As I´m typing this, the rains have started to fall. It´s raining in torrents, sheets of it. Relief is coming to a city that needs a cool night. This is the beginning of the rainy season in most of Central America and we haven´t had to deal with it yet. I´m sure we´ll get acclomated with it as the trip continues.

I´ll have pictures of our adventures when I get back to the States and I´ll put them in some order and post them. Until then...adios....oh, and it´s hot.