entering nicaragua was relatively easy…athough it still took about 1hr, $30 ($7 per person + $12 for the vehicle) and was a bit of a pain. for one thing, we all had to wear masks (swine flu). luckily i had brought a few along. then we had to wait in line (again)…get a bunch of paperwork, etc.
then we had lunch at leon, which is a nice colonial town about 1-2 hrs from the border. driving in nicaragua, one gets the impression that the country is poorer than it’s neighbors. houses look cheaper, more people are missing limbs, etc.
leon has a nice center…which seems a bit like a student town. it’s a cool place to visit….but quite hot (temperature).
with limited time (patrik leaves tomorrow), we headed for managua. managua is a relatively small/manageable city. the view from the lake is awesome. they also have some cool monuments/museums there. unfortunately this touristy area is also in a poor neighborhood and seems quite deserted. it feels almost like a ghost town over there. here are two pics from managua.

choluteca is a little city in between el salvador and nicaragua. we got here kinda late, but it seems like a nice place to live. a little bit hot….but simple, cleanish, calm, some nice churches…..and conveniences of a city (supermarkets, shops, hospital, etc.). i still very much prefer coban (guatemala), but choluteca reminds me a bit of it….not much of a tourist attraction, but a nice stopover.
the next morning, we finally got around to fixing one of the tires (which had previously gotten a flat). turns out the nail was still inside….and was smooth/polished….probably not a good sign for the inside of the tire. oh well. the tire’s back on and has been working fine.

the honduras/salvador border was a bit of a pain, but easier than last time. in the salvadorian border, they gave me shit for using two passports (i’ve used brazilian most of the time, but us when it’s easier/cheaper….like entering mexico or belize). the honduras auto immigration was still a bunch of work, but a bit easier and cheaper this time. this time it involved: showing them originals of passport, car registration, car title, salvadorian auto immigration form (showing car has been expored) and $47 US. it took about 1hr, but as before, the officials were very nice.
on the road between el salvador and honduras were a ton of police checkpoints. its unclear if they were looking for bribes or trying to protect the public. at 3 out of 4, they asked for me to show them my reflective triangle (in case of a breakdown). some also asked for a fire extinguisher and a spare tire. luckily, i had all of them (thanks for the fire extinguisher suggestion jim v!).

perquin was once a stronghold of the FMLN (el salvador revolutionary party during the 80s). they have a small museum with guides who were soldiers in the war, which adds an interesting human element to museum (i.e.–the guide would point to a picture and say, this man, ernesto, was a friend of mine. we used to call him che, and he died fighting). an interesting visit, although the amount you get out of it is probably directly correlated to how well you can understand spanish (with a salvadorian accent)

.

chilling in the little mountain town of alegria. not much to do here, but it’s quiet and tranquil. also, there’s a cool little pool at the crater of the nearby volcano (about 2 km away). it smells like sulfur, but is really scenic and has awesome views of nearby countryside. there’s also a little place to stay up there (in laguna)….a little bit roughing it, but incredible scenery (with fireflies!). unfortunately, we had already paid for a room down in the town.

cool view of volcan san vicente (from the interamerican highway). plus another pic of traffic in el salvador.

note: gps might be a bit off
hanging out in juayua…a nice little town on the ruta de flores. unforutnately, we’re in the complete opposite season for the flowers. still nice. they also have a gastranomic festival on the weekends. you can eat things like frogs. but we had rabbit and ceviche.
they also have a coffee coop, with a museum and a processing plant (..actually, the next town over…maybe 6km away?)

note: similar gps as last entry (about 10 blocks away)
so, this morning, patrik and i tried to leave the hotel (8ish am). we didn’t end up leaving till closer to noon. why?….the car wouldn’t start
we tried a bunch of stuff….fuses, relays, jumpstarting, etc. nothing worked. we called in a mechanic….nothing again. just when we had given up hope. he tried one last thing. banging the starter motor with a hammer. it worked.
so we went to a repair shop, where they confirmed that it was the ‘carbone’. so 1 hr and $40 later, we had a working car again. the children (child labor laws do not seem to be in effect here) removed the starter motor with their agile fingers, then took apart the motor and replaced the brushes of the motor (pic below shows before and after….see how much the heads are worn?!). pretty cool….although much different than the US, where they’d replace the whole motor…and probably charge $200 for labor.
….also the plug on the rear tire fell out (…actually in, i think)….so we just popped on another tire, and will get the tire fixed one of these days.

today, picked up patrik at the airport (8:30am), then we headed west — along the coast — towards santa ana….where we are now. en route, we stopped at the nearby lake, had some licuados….then chilled in santa ana. santa ana is a little city (pop 200k), which isn’t much of a tourist destination. it has a nice cathedral and a market….but is not artsy or colonial like some of the other places. we’re spending the night at some house recommended by lonely planet….it’s some guy’s house…and he rents out rooms. it’s nice and calm.

drove through san salvador, which seems like a typical central american city — although the center has good street signs…so that makes it much better than others (i.e.-tegucigalpa). i also finished taking out all of the sand from my big cut on my heel (one week earlier) — it’s much easier to walk now…probably should have cleaned out my wound better the first time around. now at another little beach town (costa del sol)…although it’s pretty dead (mostly private villas…no real town center). there are so many miles of coastline, and this one is nothing special (warm water, decent beach) — i guess i’m a little jaded now. since nothing big happened today, here’s a collection of some thoughts i’ve had thus far:
+most borders require you to pay money. and so far, none accept credit/debit cards. and also, none have atm’s or banks. instead the governments depend on money-changers who screw you over. is this on purpose or just short-sighted?
+mexico is much bigger than i had originally imagined. and how is size measured? miles, travel time? either way, mexico is big…but especially in

the latter.
+throughout rural mexico one very often comes across garbage patches which smell just awful. i’m pretty convinced that swine flu originated in one of those pits. in guatemala, the practice of burning your trash is much more prevalent…the country looks cleaner, and perhaps has shorter term health benefits but longer term environmental problems?
+it’s interesting observing the relative cost of goods within a country. for instance food:housing seems much higher in guatemala than mexico or the us. in el salvador, it seems the opposite. how does this impact life? conversely, does this suggest something about the culture or politics?
+pollution and environmental destruction seem to be big issues thus far, although, until recently it seems to have been largely ignored. how much is due to lack of education and how much due to lack of feasible alternatives? (i.e.–firewood in the country, littering, no smog checks, etc.) Tradition also seems to play a role — people in eastern guatemala or more likely to use backpacks to carry firewood than people in the west.
+signs in guatemala are often non-existent or confusing. without gps, it seems like the beest strategy is to simply follow the car in front of you. it works most of the time.
+most guatemalans seem to be very nice and quite poor. i’m still not 100% sure if it’s solely because of their nature, or if they’re expecting a tip. EXAMPLE: in antigua, i paid for a hotel room….then 30min later, the kid working there told me that he accidentally overcharged me and returned 10Q, along with an apology. wow.
+in turkey, i learned to appreciate olives — they came with every meal, and being cheap, i figured i should eat them. likewise, on this trip, i’m learning to appreciate beans. +most backpackers say belize is very expensive, and look forward to leaving. they are right, belize is overpriced.
+Guatemala has an interesting relationship with tourists. it neglects to provide certain services, assuming (and depending on) local business will fill the gap. for instance, at the border, you need to pay about 50Q to get in. but there are no banks or atm’s. another example is at castillo de san felipe…which does not provide parking…but a private lot, across the street does — the government run castillo has plenty of space for parking, but chooses to leave it up to the free market.