8-15

An Open Letter to Lonely Planet:
Dear Lp - can I call you LP? - I love your products, really I do, but the truth is we need to talk. The elephant in the room is Alegria, El Salvador, which is as lovely as you describe but otherwise not at all in line with your entry. Take for example, Alegria´s picturesque crater lake: although it is in fact stunning it is not 2km downhill from town [Fact: 3km uphill] and likewise not icy [Fact: warm and green].
You and I both know there are other issues but lets try not to let them get in the way of what has otherwise been a lovely day in El Salvador´s highest down. Let´s just promise to try harder next time, okay?
xoxo,
Frankel

PS Oh, one more thing. Why didn´t you tell me they sell gelt in El Salvador. One word: delicious.

8-14

Say what you will about the politics but leave the people of El Salvador be. Indeed, after only a day on La Rute de las Flores I´m already beginning to wonder why Guatemala recieves so many more visitors than its smalle, southern neighbor. [Fact: El Salvador recieved only 35,000 tourists last year - Guatemala welcomed more than half a million.] I mean, what more could you possibley want than amaiable people, adorable villages, and amazing landscapes? Take Juayua, the first stop on La Ruta, as a case in point. The town´s central park, strewn with flowers, complimented its colonial church, yes, but the seven sucessive waterfalls just a few kilometers outside of town make them pale in comparison. So, too, did our impromptu guide, eight-year-old Juan Carlos, who led Seth and I there and back (the lot of us keeping ourselves entertained with more animal calls than I can make (in Spanish) all for the company and eventually a chocolate sundae. Juan Carlos may be an extreme example, sure, but everyone we met along La Ruta was as helpful as the day is long and, amazingly, seemed downright pleased to see us. Smiles and pleasantries were the order of the day in both Apaneca and Ataco as well. Above all else, though, the latter was exceptionally well named: there, at long last, I had a taco (or three) that met my newfound Mexican standards...

8-13

Yesterday´s marathon of traveling seems to have been worth it - one day into El Salvador and its already exceeding my expectations. One of the clearest reasons for this may be the ruins at Tazumal, which were themselves much more impressive than I thought they´d be.* So, too, was Lago de Coatepeque, my first - but hopefully not last! - volcanic crater lake. Being now something of a swimming hole gourmand I feel I can say definitively that it, too, was an unexpected surprise. The combination of mountains, water, sky, and El Salvador seems a potent combination.

* More than that, though, they were also the final piece necessary to complete my Five Mayan Nations experience. Amazing, having had never before seen Mayan ruins as recently as May, I have now seen at least one site in each of the five countries there were active in. This just blows me away, really it does.

8-12

Another day, another border crossing. Although Seth and I started the day in Coban, Guatemala (deep in the central highlands of the country) we are ending it in Ahuachapan, El Salvador (some 16km south of the Guatemala border). Today has, once again, been a travel day, albeit an unsual one. Along the way we returned to Guatemala City (making it the second city in Central America I´ve been too twice), ostensibly so we could change busses but also so
Seth could see the National Palace and Cathedral.
Heck, even I was happy to be back, to go one last time to a restaurant I already knew (not Wendy´s!) and even take the Palace Tour again. Say what you will about Central American capitals, but I genuinely like this one.

PS What I like less are lengthy bus trips through the hinterland, but what´s done is done and now, at long last, I have all of El Salvador to explore.