We finally make it to Nicaragua

After months of travelling in South America and people looking slightly perplexed when we tell them we’re heading to live in Nicaragua, probably because it seems that we have just plucked it from nowhere, it felt pretty momentous to cross the border. First impressions are good. We took a friendly shared taxi from the border in a clapped out old car that the driver turned the engine off going down hills through beautiful, green, hilly countryside and forest and into the first town, Somoto. From here, we were bundled straight onto a local bus and on to Estelí.

Small banknotes

Travelling across South America, we have come across paper notes for some surprisingly small amounts of money: 30p in some of the poorer countries. We thought we had found the smallest note of all in Guatemala, with this one quetzal note, the equivalent of 7 pence.

Imagine then, our joy and surprise on passing through Honduras and discovering the one lempira note. There are about 30 lempiras to the pound, making this a truly curious 3 and a bit pence note - pictured below with both of its glorious sides. A noble native man

A lovely picture of the Mayan ruins at Copan. A sight we missed, but may go back to if we get chance to explore before we return.

Honduras

We awoke on Sunday morning in San Salvador all set to head towards Nicaragua via Honduras. We turned on the tv and learnt that the Honduran president, Zelaya, had been ousted by the military in his pyjamas that morning and sent to Costa Rica. As the morning went on, images of Zelaya’s supporters protesting in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, were looking increasingly dramatic and we were not sure whether it was the best idea to enter the country. We decided to head to a town near to the border in El Salvador where supposedly we could catch a ferry across the Golf of Fonseca straight into Nicaragua. When we arrived, it emerged that there was no such service so we would have to go through Honduras. A few local buses later, we had crossed the border into a horrible, hangout full of truck drivers, money changers, a few seedy motels and several fried chicken shops. We were eager to get straight out of there, but as it was around 5pm, the last bus had already left for the day. We spent the evening in the horrible motel, drinking beer and trying to wish away the hours. We were told a bus left for Nicaragua at 6am the next morning. All was completely calm at the border and no signs of the happenings of the military coup that day. We awoke the next morning and couldn’t get out of the grotty motel as the drunk, old doorman was weeing up the metal gate in big, saggy pants. By the time we got out onto the road after the doorman had staggered around and located the key and attempted to put his trousers on, our nice, direct coach had sped past us and was whizzing out of sight. Instead, we took several local buses passing through towns and villages in the south of the country. All was totally uneventful and had we not seen the news, we wouldn’t have known that the president had just been overthrown. There was no sign of the military coup except for soldiers lounging around outside barracks with big guns. The action at this point was all in Tegucigalpa. A week on, it may well be different, as the Nicaraguan papers report that there are increasing difficulties in crossing into Honduras. Hopefully, we will explore a bit in Honduras at some stage over the next 6 months, but now probably isn’t the best time.

San Salvador taxis

They take a lot of pride in their taxis in San Salvador. If your taxi doesn't have alloy wheels or a spoiler then you're not taken seriously. Much better to have full skirting, low profile tyres and a garish design, such as Sonic The Hedgehog.

Food in El Salvador

We were not disappointed by the food in El Salavdor, although options around our hotel were strictly of the American commercial food chain variety, the selection of street food was one of the best and amongst the cheapest in any country we have visited.

The king of El Salvador street food, a national institution, the pupusa. A hot cornflour tortilla stuffed with fresh, white melted cheese and bean paste and served with salad, tomato and chile. Absolutely scrummy.

Another hot street snack, this one from the park. A tortita de elote or little sweetcorn tart. There were no whole pieces of sweetcorn in it, rather a sweetcorn paste, mixed with cornflour and fried. A good afternoon munch.

Mmm, quesadilla de queso. Also served warm. Somewhere in between a cake and a cheesecake but with a polenta texture. Made of white cheese, rice flour, cream and sugar. Delicious.

A typical local lunch and a Central American cola, in the very basic surroundings of a friendly city centre eaterie, costing $3.50 for both meals and the drink. The meal was a tasty dish of mince and potatoes, served with rice, avocado and tortillas. The cola was more refreshing than its famous competitors.

A snowie, like a slush puppy, at the shopping mall. Half cherry, half blackberry, with sweetened condensed milk on top.

A fruit that we haven't seen since Colombia, mamey - its round and brown but looks like mango when its chopped up. It tastes quite different though, with a crisp apple bite.


CNN Espanol was on in the background in this Mexican chain restaurant in the Western suburbs. Around halfway through the meal, we looked up to realise the 'Rey de Pop' had died. The waiter, perhaps thinking we were American, consoled us by saying, 'Es una gran perdida', 'It is a great loss'. We were more concerned with our TexMex meal. A tasty soup and chicken in a rich, spicy sauce.

Lychees as we have never seen them before. A local variety, hairy but not prickly on the outside, and very familiar on the inside.

Local sweets, as the packet says, made from nancy fruit, whatever that is. They tasted nice, with a slight liquorice flavour. As the packet also says, they come with their seeds, which turned out to be several rock hard, toothcracking seeds and stones in each sweet.All this from just two sweets which took the edge off the enjoyment a little.

A swimming pool on a hot day

El Salvador has lots of turicentros - state-run public complexes of parks and pools dotted around the country and aimed at locals, rather than international travellers. We were intrigued by this concept and in need of a good cooling off, so we jumped on a local bus to one by a large lake to the east of San Salvador. It only cost 75 cents to enter and 25 cents more to swim. There were lots of trees, the lakeside, a playground, many eateries and some clothes on sale. The parks must have been built right after the civil war and this one, especially around the pool area, was showing its years.Fancy changing rooms.

We were the only foreigners in the place, which attracted us a bit of attention. It got worse when we went to the pool and realised that our trunks and bikini, which had seemed so prudish and sensible in Brazil, now felt a little more risque in the context of Salvadorenos all swimming in shorts and t-shirts. Still, once we were in the pool it was all worth it and fortunately hardly anyone had goggles.

We left feeling refreshed and with an insight into local recreation time. Next time we will be more suitably attired.

The Devil's Gateway and Balboa Park

We left San Salvador on a day trip to a local park and view point. The park was pretty and green with lots of paths and childrens play areas. There were hot snacks to be bought and shade to be sought.

From the park, we walked a mile uphill to La Puerta del Diablo, a rock formation and panoramic viewpoint. A stiff, sweaty climb to the very top rewarded us with plenty of wispy cloud obscuring the views of San Salvador and supposedly to the Pacific Ocean. Luckily, things still looked pretty through the clouds. All in all, it was a great respite from the exciting but busy and noisy city below.

Rubbish

Walking to a viewpoint outside San Salvador.

It's terrifying how much non-biodegradable rubbish we are creating in the world. It's easier to choose to ignore it in the UK where more is recycled or dumped in a hole out of sight. Not so, in much of Latin America where it pours down hillsides and plastic bags blow around the streets and clog waterways.

Football in El Salvador: Alianza vs AFI

Once again we struck very lucky with the football fixtures. Football is the main sport in the small country of El Salvador (appearances in the 1970 and 1982 world cup finals cemented its popularity despite a record 10-1 defeat to Hungary in 1982). There are two seasons played each year and the official league site informed us that the first one was over and the second yet to start, so we had about given up on the option when we read in a newspaper that there was actually one final game remaining and it was to be played that very night. And it was a biggy too: the second leg of a play-off match between the 2^nd bottom of the top league and 2^nd place in the league below. Alianza, the only team from the capital, San Salvador, had had a terrible year and were on the verge of going down for the first time in 50 years. The first leg had ended 1-1 at their opponents ground.We got to the ground as night was falling and had no trouble buying a pair of tickets from a tout for $5 which seamed to be the done thing, to avoid long queues for what were only $2 tickets each anyway. It was unclear where to enter the ground but we were soon encouraged to push in to a queue and join some friendly locals who were happy to find out we are English, not American. Everyone was dressed in white (except for me) and someone walked along the queue, past smoking barbeques, painting faces for a few cents. We chatted about football matters local and abroad; their favourite European clubs, unfortunately, were the charmless, pig-rich duo, Real Madrid and Chelsea. All the fans we encountered turned out to be great fun and all were happier when they found out our nationality. As a crowd, the white-shirts at the front jumped and danced the whole time and further back, in our section, they followed the game closely from seats while being offered cola, beer, sandwiches (3 for a dollar), hamburgers, sweets, fags, nuts and ice-lollies. It was a great atmosphere, especially about 20 minutes in, when everyone was excited by the appearance in the stands of a local celebrity who danced and wiggled his sizeable belly in answer to shouts from his public. We were told he was a clown and are still not sure if it was an ex-player who ‘clowned around’ a lot or a famous professional clown, the latter a more likely possibility here than in England. At half time, with the teams at one-all, the mood was still jovial as we visited the relatively clean toilets (though some men still chose to wee on the wall outside and inside the ladies- men relieving their bladders at will, almost anywhere is a pan-Central American occurrence) and exchanged banter with people in a queue for hot dogs being passed though a tiny hole in the outside wall.The second half started with tension, but ultimately brought great cheers of joy and relief from the Alianza supporters as first one goal, a penalty, and then another went in. A less commendable period of gloating followed as a section of home fans called the away fans ‘indios’, presumably racist taunts aimed at the visitors from a more indigenous are of the country. Feeling occasionally embarrassed of your own fans is something a York fan gets used to, so this didn’t take the edge off a great night of Latin- American football following. In fact, thanks to the welcoming, amiable supporters, it was one of our most enjoyable matches so far.

San Salvador

Travelling via El Salvador seemed the most direct route to reach Nicaragua. We also hoped to escape the tourist crowds here. Only relatively recently has El Salvador begun to really move on from its years spent ensconced in a terrible civil war, from 1980 to 1992. Because of this and its location, tucked down on the Pacific side of Central America, tourism is only just starting to pick up. It does however, have the fastest growing economy in Central America. One of the main government buildings

We went straight to the capital, San Salvador, where we stayed for a few days with a couple of trips out of town. We loved it here. Salvadoreños were incredibly friendly, the streets teemed with markets, people and noise from ghetto blasters and everyone trying to sell their stuff and we didn’t see a fellow tourist in our time here.San Salvador is set in a basin with green mountains all around. The US influence in the country and El Salvador’s reliance on the northern giant is very apparent. El Salvador’s currency is the dollar and the plethora of US fast food outlets is astonishing – Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King hog the corners on most major crossroads in the city. Pollo Campero is the only Central American fast food place to compete on the same scale, they were everywhere too and the food to us looked equally revolting. We stayed very near to what we were told is the largest shopping mall in Central America in the ‘Western Suburbs’. It seemed to be a very popular hang out and didn’t seem as socially exclusive as other malls we have seen. Outside the shopping mall

It still made a strong contrast to the hundreds of thousands of market stalls and wheel barrels in the centre which so many people eek a living out of. Many people only sell one thing – 40 tomatoes for $1, wet wipes for $1, 12 mangoes for $1 or 10 bananas for a ‘cora’, the salvadoreno adaption of the word ‘quarter’ or 25 cents. Many people live in poverty in El Salvador which is very evident when you head out of the city in any direction past one room homes built from black bin bags, rusty bits of corrugated iron and used tyres, but with sparkling white school uniforms drying on washing lines. Mainly people are so well turned out, even when they are living in these conditions with no clean water supply or amenities.

While we were here we wandered around the organised and sweaty chaos of the sprawling central area with all its markets. It’s a fascinating place to people watch and there are a few nice, recently restored buildings – the airy cathedral provided us with a welcome relief from the heat. They were putting the finishing touches to its restoration following damage from the last serious earthquakes, one month apart, in January and February 2001.You can just make out tiny people halfway up the scaffolding on the right of the impressive murals.

We also glanced into this bizarre, modern church, built in 1972. Were it not for its Christ statue and impressive stained glassed windows, it would have been a little too similar to a concrete hay barn.

On the smarter side of town in a leafy suburb, popular with embassies, we visited an excellent modern art gallery in a beautiful building.

San Salvador restored our enthusiasm for travelling in Central America. If for any reason we couldn’t make things work in Nicaragua, El Salvador is where we would head to instead.A physical but friendly game of roundabout American football