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Massacre and the Flea Market

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

Day 64
San Salvador is hot, 35 Celsius yesterday. So it was a nice luxury to wake up in our cool a/c room this morning. We had a tasty breakfast of Gallo Pinto (rice mixed with beans and eggs) before setting out to see more of the city. At least more of it beyond the mall. There was a small museum dedicated to the lost indigenous peoples and the struggles of the leftist guerrillas (FMLN) in El Salvadors civil war that we wanted to visit. There are not many attractions in the city but this was one place I felt was important to see since the civil war here affected so many people.

We paid our $1 entry fee and entered the small museum. There was photos of El Salvadors native people and the story of their tragic past. Unfortunately all the information was in Spanish so we understood little. What I do know is El Salvador was very different from Guatemala. In Guatemala native people still make up about 65% of the population. Here that number is about 5%. There were photos of the young men and woman who fought and died for the FMLN in El Salvadors brutal civil war. One particular event of the war, which sadly I had no prior knowledge of, was especially gut wrenching. On December 11, 1981 the U.S. trained Atlacatl Battalion of the Salvadoran army entered the village of Mozote to question locals about the whereabouts of the FMLN. The local population was well known sympathiser of the FMLN. The army rounded up the entire village for questioning, there were reports of woman and children being raped. Before leaving Mozote the army killed the entire village, every man, woman and child. 733 people left dead for any who passed to see. When news of the massacre started to reach the world the Reagan administration called it a “gross exaggeration”. The U.S. was sending the Salvadoran army big dollars during the civil war. There have been constant attempts to investigate what happened in El Mozote that day but nothing much has come of it and nobody has ever been found responsible.

We left the museum a bit depressed but I believe its positive that this information is there for future generations of the country to see. We jumped in a cab and headed to the centre of San Salvador, for no particular reason except that we were here so I figured we should see it. The centre is off limits at night due to the high crime rate in the city and even during the day its advised to stick to the busy streets. As our taxi stopped at the main square it became evident that San Salvador had surpassed Guatemala City as the shithole capital of Central America. The crumbling buildings looked like the war was still ongoing, the streets were filthy with garbage piled up everywhere and lined with stalls selling everything you could imagine. It looked like a giant flea market that was being held in a garbage dump. This was a like being in another country compared to the metrocentro mall yesterday. We walked the streets as people literally grabbed our arms trying to pull us into their shops. Needless to say after walking around for about an hour we were ready to leave, it just wasn’t a pleasant place. Civil war and earthquakes had taken their toll and instead of rebuilding it seems anyone with money just moved out to the suburbs.

We retreated back to our cool, clean a/c room where we showered off the filth from the day and found some decent italian food next to our hotel. Even though central San Salvador was much we saw it and we are ready to move on in the morning to Honduras. Our plan is to only tuck into Honduras for a few days before heading south to Nicaragua. Tomorrow will bring yet another Central American capital, hopefully better than what we’ve seen so far.

For more info on El Mozote checkout the articles below;

The Original article from the New York Times, Jan 27th 1982

In depth report on the massacre

The Truth of El Mozote

The “Real” San Salvador?

Monday, January 7th, 2008

Day 63
Early monday morning in Juayua and the streets are being cleaned and street stalls from the weekend festival put away for another week. The cleanup seems like a lot of work each weekend, back home a festival like this would happen maybe twice a year. Certainly not every weekend. Jordana and I grab a quick bite to eat at a small bakery located at the corner of the main square. I’ve been continually disappointed by the crap coffee I’ve had since we left Mexico. Down here all the good stuff is exported and the result is instant coffee at nearly every cafe. As we finish our sweets and coffee I see the our bus pull up to the stop. We rush out and board the converted U.S. school bus, today we are headed to the big bad city, San Salvador.

About 5 minutes into the ride a clown boards and stands at the front of the bus. Decked out in full costume, face paint and a big red nose he breaks out into a comedy routine. Now I couldn’t understand a thing but the fact that a random clown just boarded our bus was funny enough for me. Not many people laughed at his joke but some gave a few cents for the act. Across from me sat a young man named Carlos. His english was much better than my spanish so we conversed in english. He was an intelligent guy and very curious about Canada and how we lived life in the great white north. Carlos wanted to know everything from what sports we played to how much money we made. Did we all speak French? and was Canada just like the U.S.A.? We were both surprised to learn how old each other was, Carlos only 16 and I 30. I was guessing he was at least 23. As we pulled into the suburbs of San Salvador Carlos jumped off and told us to be careful. It means more when a local tells you to be careful rather than an outsider.

Our bus stopped on a main road that looked like an industrial area and we were told this was the last stop. I was hoping for a busy area with taxis. Although it was far from busy a few taxis roared by and we flagged one down. Turns out we weren’t far from the hotel we had picked out from the guidebook. This part of San Salvador is supposedly safer than the rest, well at least during the day. At night we have been told walking is a no go anywhere in the city and you must take taxis anywhere you go. With years of civil war and several natural disasters the city is now spread about not in neighbourhoods but large car friendly suburbs. I’m shocked at what we find. Huge malls and fast food lining 8 lane roads, cars honking and a few poor souls walking on the roasting pavement of the treeless sidewalks. San Salvador looked to be everything a city shouldn’t be, add to this the incredibly high crime rate and you’ve got just about the worst city you could imagine. Well that was our first impression from the cab ride, hopefully this would be dispelled over the next few days.

The one positive so far was that our hotel was run by a friendly family, our room spotless, chilled by A/C and over 100 channels of cable. We checked in and then did like most other upper-middle class San Salvadorians and hit the mall. The Metrocentro is the largest shopping mall in central America. We cooled off in with an ice coffee and wandered the frigid air conditioned mammoth mall. You could have told me we were in any high end mall in any city in the world, Nautica, Hugo Boss, Channel were all here. This wasn’t the San Salvador I expected, although it did bear a slight resemblance to the up scale Zona Rosa of Guatemala City.

We spent our afternoon at the mall, caught a movie and then broke down and had some American fast food, Pizza Hut. We left the mall in the dark so as a local would do we caught a taxi at the mall taxi stand straight to our hotels front door, safety first. The streets were deserted and it was only 10pm. We didn’t really experience anything different this first day in a new city but we did experience a day as a upper class San Salvadorian. Tomorrow we find out how the rest of the city lives.

Up the Waterfall

Sunday, January 6th, 2008
Day 62 Awake early on Saturday morning we meet our guide and quickly are off through the cool streets of Juayua to do some hiking. We don't know much about the hike other than we will see 7 waterfalls today ... [Continue reading this entry]

Discovering the Unexpected

Friday, January 4th, 2008
Day 60 Travel is all about discovery. Meaning anything from discovering a new culture, meeting new friends, whitewater rafting or just discovering new beer, its all part of the thrill of discovering new things. Best is when you discover ... [Continue reading this entry]