Highway 1 All the Way

El Salvador continues to delight us. We learn how to make pupusas from our new friends that we met at Lago de Coatepeque, Rosy and Terry. We go to their house in a town close to Santa Ana and Rosy demonstrates the technique, then lets Paul and Quinn make the pupusas. Connor and I are the official tasters… We try a new type, cheese and loroca, which is a tangy white flower with a hint of asparagus flavor. Quinn now claims that he can make better pupusas than Paul. As official tasters, Connor and I concur.

We then venture to a colonial town, Suchitoto. We wander through the quiet streets, admiring the architecture, colorful buildings and art galleries. Our hotel has two refreshing pools, so we spend lots of time swimming due to the steamy temperature (95+ degrees and humid!). We take a boat tour around a nearby lake, Lago Suchitlan, which is known for bird watching. Unfortunately, the water is not swimmable and has a greenish tint. Paul calls it “spinach water”. After such at nice time at Lago de Coatepeque, we are disappointed with the other lakes that we visit in El Salvador.

We become friendly with the employees at the hotel (Paul makes friends with everybody…) and they bring us freshly picked mangos and cocohotes (small fruit like plums) from their garden. Quinn enjoys talking to the many birds and Connor is happy with a TV and A/C.

We attempt to escape the heat and head to Alegria, a small town in the mountains known for its flower nurseries. We stay at a rustic cabin overlooking a valley and mountains. The place not only has accommodations, but also a huge nursery, restaurant with an amazing view, church, artisan products and animals (lots of roosters for sopa de gallina, rabbits, hamsters, raccoons and birds). Quinn adopts a black kitten who hangs around our cabin. The little guy is now named “Ireland”. Oh, and I can’t forget about the bugs! Not so bad during the day, but ruthless at night. Some of the bugs are as big as hummingbirds. Yuck!

We check out another lake, Laguna de Alegria, which is small enough to walk around in a half hour, but not good for swimming. Thus, we spend our last afternoon in El Salvador in the plaza in Alegria tasting “street food” that Paul deems as safe. We eat empanadas, pupusas, fried yucca, French fries and shaved ice with fruit. Total price for lunch: $8.

Along the Panamerican highway, we see all kinds of interesting things. Note that the highway is the major thoroughfare through Latin America and has 2 or 4 lanes, depending on the section. On the shoulder of the highway, cows, horses, goats, sheep, pigs, roosters, and chicken graze. People walk, push baby carriages, jog, and ride bicycles, horses and ox-led wagons. Numerous small restaurants, stores and fruit stands line the road. We even pass a wedding party (the bride wears a bright pink dress and the groom wears a baby blue tuxedo – ghastly!). All this while cars, trucks and big rigs speed past at 60-70 mph.  I think about my commute at home along 280 with nothing on the road except for vehicles.

We are now heading through Honduras to Nicaragua. Adios El Salvador.

El Salvador – what a wonderful place! The border crossing is long, but uneventful. Fortunately, our caretaker from Monterrico has a brother who works at the El Salvador border, so he accompanies us and helps us through the process. After two hours of miscellaneous paperwork and waiting, we are free to continue into El Salvador to our destination, Santa Ana, a bustling city in the mountains.

As usual, we have a hard time finding the hotel, which turns out to be shut down anyway, but finally find a good, clean hotel close to the central plaza. The kids are happy with the AC and TV.

On Tuesday, we have the perfect day. We go to volcanic crater lake called Lago de Coatepeque and find a lakeside restaurant with a large dock. The lake is amazingly beautiful – sparkling water is a perfect round circle, surrounded by three volcanoes. The shore is lined mostly with fancy private homes and just a few small hotels and restaurants. We spend the day swimming in the clear, refreshing water and socializing with other visitors. The kids love jumping off of the dock and are joined by several young men showing off their diving skills (Quinn happens to be the best of all of them). We have a relaxing, wonderful day.

Today, we spend our time in the city, getting the car serviced and sightseeing. The plaza is surrounded by a gothic-looking church, ornate theater and colorful government buildings. We spend a leisurely lunch overlooking the plaza. Leisurely because meals take forever to be served. We venture to a museum and learn about the history of El Salvadorian money. Very interesting – starting with coffee beans to pesos to colones to US dollars.

We head back to the hotel for a quiet evening, stopping along the way to shop for some clothes. Quinn gets a Barcelona soccer jersey (Messi) for $6 and Guinness boxers for $1.50. How cool is that?!!

Here are the pictures from Monterrico, Tecpan and Ixamche ruins, and Lake Atitlan. Enjoy!

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Monterrico! It feels like coming home. We spend our time socializing with our friends, swimming in the pool and watching the waves. The waves are exceptionally huge. Patrick and I go for a swim and he immediately gets knocked down by the undertow. That ends our ocean swimming in Monterrico. Instead, we blow up our old camp air mattress and play in the pool. The night before we arrive, man who was drinking went for a swim at night and got swept away. Never underestimate the power of the ocean!

Paul and I bring Patrick to Guatemala City and at the same time, meet my parents. We spend a night in the City with just the “adults” of the family (our friend, Becky, graciously offers to babysit the kids in Monterrico), then Patrick leaves at 5am on Sunday morning. We enjoy our week with Patrick – playing lots of pool at the new pool hall, playing poker, playing board games and enjoying Paul’s cooking. We look forward to travelling with him this summer in Ecuador and Peru.

We spend a few lazy days with my parents in Monterrico. Paul and the boys love the new pool hall, and Quinn even joins local musicians and a famous young English actor, Olly Alexander, to sing a few songs. The waves get bigger and some reach the edge of our property. At night, the house shakes when a big wave crashes like a small earthquake. We estimate the waves to be about 20 feet high.

My parents and the family leave the steamy weather and head to the highlands for a few days. The weather drops from 96 degrees to 68 degrees and rains, and everyone complains about the cold. We go to Ixamche, Mayan ruins dating back to 1470 AD. We explore the four plazas. Connor has studied the Native American culture and provides us with all kinds of interesting factoids.  We stay at an amazing cabana with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, loft, kitchen, and fireplace. The grounds are incredible – playgrounds, pool, animals, church, gardens, restaurants, tennis court, basketball, football, etc.

We spend the next couple of days at Lake Atitlan with my parents. Connor, Quinn, Dad and I check out the zip lines near Panajachel. All of us “pass the test” at the base of the course, but I explain that Quinn needs to go with a guide. Imagine my surprise when Quinn comes down the first zip line alone! He looks completely out of control, so I re-explain that he needs a guide. All of us have a great time, and Quinn even does the last couple zip lines solo. The guides are impressed when I tell them the age of my father.

Soon after the zip lines, the rain starts again and continues through the night. The main street of Panajachel turns into a small river and we get soaked coming back from dinner.

We go to Santiago Atitlan on Friday to see the market and church. A Catholic priest from Oklahoma was murdered at the church’s rectory during the Guatemalan civil war. The church was a safe house for the local guerillas during the war and has an interesting history.

We spend our final days in Monterrico relaxing and partying with our friends. Tomorrow, we go to El Salvador. Guatemala has been a nice break and we are now ready to resume our journey.

Just a few pictures of our sixth week in Guatemala with Patrick:

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Here are pictures from our fifth week of travelling in mainland Mexico during Semana Santa: Huatulco, Tonala and Tapachula.

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Here are the pictures from our fourth week of travelling in the Mexican mainland: Tizupan, Playa Azul, Ixtapa and La Ventura. Enjoy!

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Guatemala! The border crossing goes seamlessly, but has several steps. We have to check out of Mexico at migracion. We drive across a bridge to Guatemala after paying a toll (interesting that we have to pay to leave a country) and go to Guatemala migracion. We have to pay a small fee to get our car fumigated (my take is that this is a way for Guate to get more money), and lastly, get a permit for the minivan. All in all, less than one hour. Naturally, we get lost going from the border to the highway, but get ourselves back on track.                                                                                                               It seems that as soon as we enter Guate, everything is lush, green and jungle-like – a far cry from the brown, dusty, dry Southern Mexico. Note – Good Friday is a bad driving day in Latin America. The towns have colorful processions which cause long back-ups on the highway, which is really just a two lane road.                                                                                                    We get lost again coming into Guate City and after asking about 10 people for directions, finally find the hotel. Fortunately, Guate City is a ghost town due to Semana Santa, so we do not encounter any traffic. We are staying at the Barcelo, which is the same hotel that Paul and I stayed at during a previous visit when it was the Marriott.                                                                                                    We are all thrilled to see Patrick. He brings us some goodies from home: electronics that we ordered from Amazon, some books from Terry, and an extra special treat – See’s candy from Auntie Terry. The chocolates are the first good sweets that we have in over a month.                                                                                            Since Guate City is literally shut-down, we simply spend our time at the hotel, catching up, swimming in the large pool, exercising at the excellent gym (first gym since we left!), emailing and blogging, and eating fast food, which are the only restaurants that are open.                                                                                                                                                                      We leave for Monterrico manana. Yeah! I so look forward to seeing our friends and staying in our house.

Yeah! We are in Guatemala City with Patrick now. It is so great to see him and hear about home.

The past week has been hot and busy. We spend 4 days in Huatulco, which is more developed than I expected. No little fishing village anymore! I suppose that after weeks of tranquil beaches that Huatulco during Semana Santa is a bit overwhelming. Most of the people are Mexican tourists that come for the holiday week. They pack a bunch of people into a little hotel room and go the beach completely self-sufficient with coolers filled with beer and bags filled with food. We adopt the Mexican way and find a restaurant with nice palapas, then order a margarita, and proceed to eat our own food and drinks all day. The beaches are crowded – much more so than Ixtapa. The Mexican tourists go in the water fully clothed, in just their underwear, or bathing suits – anything goes. One lady strips down to her white bra and skirt to take a dip. Even though the Huatulcan bays are calm and shallow, many people wear life jackets. We spend a couple days at the beach just checking out the chaos. On our final day, we are happy to remain close to the hotel to run errands, go to the movies and swim in the pool.

One of the highlights of Huatulco is a great taqueria with “tacos al pastor” (we refer to this as mystery meat – a large chunk of compacted meat strips roasting next to a fire). The cook carves the meat onto a tortilla, then flicks a piece of pineapple from the top of the fire spit onto the tortilla. The tacos are absolutely delicious.

On our way to the border, we stumble into a bustling town called Tonala. The town is about 20 miles inland and just a typical Mexican town. No tourists, no hawkers, no tacky gift shops. Connor says that this is the most Mexican town that we have visited. The hotel is situated on the square, which is full of life. The hotel has several parrots and a toucan which Quinny really enjoys. Connor is thrilled with the colorful décor, A/C and TV (the simple comforts are very appealing these days). Paul explores the food markets and finds yummy tomales for breakfast. I enjoy sitting on the patio and watching life go by. At dusk, the birds go crazy, flying haphazardly from tree to tree and squawking loudly.

When the weather cools, Connor and I hike up lots of steps to a monument and look-out point. Really cool to see the town from above. We spot a large blue and white church, and continue our walk there, then through the market. Connor wonders why everyone stares at us. We certainly stand out here.

As we near the Guatemalan border, we see all kinds of crazy stuff on the road. Old pick-up tricks pulling cars, trucks with cars inside – the best was a truck pulling another truck with a car inside. We assume the vehicles are bought cheaply in the U.S., then driven down to Guatemala for resale. As we head further south in Mexico, the temperature rises up to 100 degrees. We splurge at a nice hotel with A/C at the border city of Tapachula. The highlight for the boys is the girls from the Miss Pacifico pageant that are staying at the same hotel. Our jaws drop as these tall, thin, gorgeous women in full regalia walk past us in the lobby: Miss Mexico, Miss Guatemala, Miss El Salvador, Miss Nicaragua, Miss Honduras, Miss Costa Rica, and Miss Panama.

A side note about bathrooms. Yes, we Americans like our luxuries, yet the bathrooms here are so far from decent that I am sometimes baffled. No toilet paper, no toilet seats, no paper towels, sometimes no hot water. Even at nice hotels, we only get 2 skimpy towels and 1 roll of TP for 4 people. The showers can never seem to hold the water in the shower stall, which creates a big wet mess. Enough said – I imagine that bathrooms will get worse as the trip goes on…

All in all, we spent just over 4 weeks in Mexico and covered about 4,000 miles. The weather went from windy and cold in Baja California to stifling hot and dusty in Southern Mexico. The food was delicious, from delectable tamales for breakfast, savory tortas for lunch and Paul’s favorite, caldo de mariscos (seafood soup) for dinner. Yet more important that anything was how our family overcame challenges and bonded, and is better equipped to handle whatever comes our way.

Wishing you a very happy Easter!