archaeology in my backyard!

before i get into the fabulous discovery of what may be mayan piedras in ataco, let me ask you this....is there anything better than the ¨pretty in pink: everything's duckie edition¨ dvd being released yesterday? so for those of you who´ve been asking me if i ¨need¨ anything down here....ahem, yeah, i NEED this!! definitely in my top 5 movie list.

anyway, getting back to the archaeology......so i was talking to some dude in apaneca a couple weeks ago and he told me that they discovered some ancient stones in ataco, near/in the cemetery. i was super excited and planned on getting over there, and then the next day read an article in the salvadoran newspaper about it. they think the stones are mayan, but obviously need to do more examinations of them. there is a group called CONCULTURA which is in charge of all things culture here in el salvador and they are in the process of investigating them. anyway, so when antonio and i were in ataco the next time we asked around andas it turns out, they are being housed in the alcadia´s (mayor´s office/building). so we head over there and ask the front guard if we can see the stones. we are asked to pay a quarter, which is the ¨entrance fee¨ to see them. so we go into the room where the are and it´s so hilarious, because the stones are fantastic! but they´re sitting on this kind of table and there´s just a rope separating the stones from anyone who´s viewing them. there´s also a handwritten note taped to the rope that says ¨favor no tocar.¨ (please don´t touch)

so i´m trying to tell antonio that if this were in the states, or europe or wherever, these would probably already have been carted off to some lab or museum or something. but i´m telling you, to be able to see them up close, before lots and lots of other people have, was really cool. it was quite emotional! kind of like when i saw those van gogh paintings in the musee d´orsay in paris. anyway, i e-mailed some of the pics to one of my old anthropology professors back at CSU who specializes in mayan archaeology and he said they ¨may¨ be mayan, but are clearly in the salvadoran style. see, the department of ahuachapán, where i live, is the westernmost department of el salvador and borders guatemala. so there were clearly mayan cultures that lived here, but they were also heavily influenced by other groups that were here as well. the nahuat, which is a group that includes the pipil indians, lived here and their influence is all over western el salvador. names like ¨apaneca,¨ ¨ataco,¨ ¨nahuizalco,¨ ¨salcoatitan,¨ ¨ahuachapán,¨ and ¨atiquizaya¨ are all nahuat words that have different meanings. for example, in nahuat, apaneca means ¨windy river¨ or ¨river of wind.¨ anyway, i´m not clear if it was just the pipil, or all of the groups within the nahuat culture, that drove out the mayan cultures here in el salvador. but i think what my professor was saying was that the mayan archaeology of el salvador is clearly different than the mayan archaeology in let´s say, tikal - which is in northern guatemala.

in any event, i´m really excited and i´m going to try my darndest to get in touch with CONCULTURA and see if i can worm my way into working with them or something. there is also another intresting story about archaeology in this area. when the massive earthquakes occurred in 2001 here in el salvador, the iglesia antigua catolica in apaneca was destroyed. when i got here in december 2005, they were still repairing it, and are still not finished. well, i just got the full story on why it´s taking so long. after the earthquakes destroyed the beautiful church, they started bulldozing away the debris and what did they find? stones and figurines and things like that similar to what they just found in ataco. so apparently all these archaeological teams came in, as well as CONCULTURA and were excavating and investigating everything. but finally, the padre of the church realized that because of the archaeological finds, the rebuilding of his church was not going to start. so he halted all excavations and said everyone had to get out. the salvadoran government gave him an ultimatum and said that if he didn´t allow the excavations then the church was not going to receive any money from the government to rebuild. and he said ¨that´s fine with me.¨ so the rebuilding of the church is taking forever because there´s no money to finance the materials and the labor. meanwhile, underneath the church are tons of archaeological finds. i find that story fascinating!!!

anyway, here are some photos of the stones.....for those of you have no interest at all in archaeology, i can see you saying ¨what, THESE are what laura´s going on about?¨ because they´re not that huge and some of the designs and stuff are hard to make out. but believe me, most archaeology or paleontology or whatever is not as romantic as it seems. i mean, finding a complete skeleton, intact, of a t-rex doesn´t happen all the time. nor does some indiana jones-style type of ancient city get discovered every day!!

adios!



what i find interesting about this is that here is a tool that was being used back during the time of the maya (and even way before in north america by native americans there) to flatten corn to make tortillas. and you´ll find the people in the campo of el salvador using the same tool today, in the year 2006. amazing!

me playing the part of a tourist

workin´ with the niños

here are some pics of the kindergarten and first grade kids working on those books about the forests that i was talking about in my previous entry. awwww, i love the kids here! even though they can be little shits a lot of the time.

KINDER

leydi

carolina and josselin

fernando

katerin

marlon

mirna

brenda

FIRST GRADERS

erick and josé

karen

erick

jorge

jasmin

ever

let me try to answer that.....

since being here i’ve been asked a myriad of questions by people back home about a bunch of different things. so i am gonna try and answer some of them here, since it’s possible that more than one person has the same question. anyways....

where exactly do you live – what country?
el salvador. which is in CENTRAL AMERICA. not south america. and i certainly don’t live in the jungles of south america (as one person put it). and i don’t live in ecuador (as yet another person put it). ecuador is in south america. i live in CENTRAL AMERICA. central america is the group of countries (panama, costa rica, nicaragua, honduras, guatemala, belize and el salvador) that lies in-between mexico and south america. you all know where mexico is (if you don’t, well, i don’t know what to say about that) so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out where central america is. el salvador is the smallest central american country with the highest population density. it’s the only country that does not have a caribbean coast. el salvador lies beneath both guatemala and honduras and it’s entire southern border is the pacific ocean.

here is a great map of CENTRAL AMERICA showing where i live.

what town is it that you LIVE?
i LIVE in apaneca. apaneca is a pueblo of about 15,000 people, but that includes all the surrounding cantones and caserios, as well as those who live in apaneca centro. there is no bank and no grocery store. there are only small tiendas that sell lots of stuff, but if i need something specific, i have to go to the city of ahuachapán. the city of ahuachapán is the capital of the department of ahuachapán. ahuachapán is where i do my grocery shopping, where i have my post office box, where the big market is, where the banks are. ahuachapán is 40 minutes (by bus) from apaneca.

where do you WORK?
i WORK in the caserio of san jorge, which is in the municipio of apaneca. san jorge is about 3 minutes from apaneca. san jorge has a population of about 900 people. these are the people i work with and this is where the school is. most of the people in san jorge are poor, which is in stark contrast with the people who live in apaneca. there are poor people who live in apaneca too, but there is also a lot of wealth there. there are some rich people who live in san salvador that have houses in apaneca. so apaneca doesn’t see these rich people all of the time, just on weekends, or during fiestas like semana santa or the fiesta de patronales – things like that. about 80% of the population of people living in apaneca (or in the surrounding cantones and caserios) work in the cafetales (coffee forests) and this brings in money during the coffee season.....which is from about december to march. the rest of the time people don’t have work or do other odd-job stuff. this is why so many people are poor here.....well, that and the fact that it’s el salvador and there are no jobs for people.

el salvador is broken up into the following: 1) departments (biggest), 2) municipios or ciudades/pueblos, 3) cantones, 4) caserios, and 5) colonias (smallest). so it goes like this....i work in the department of ahuachapán, the municipio of apaneca, the canton of san ramoncito, and finally the caserio of san jorge. it’s basically along the same lines of counties, townships, cities, towns, villages, etc. in the states.

where is ataco and why do you spend so much time there?
ataco is about 5 minutes or so from apaneca. it is in-between apaneca and the city of ahuachapán. i like ataco because it’s a fun little town. it has a higher population than apaneca. i like visiting ataco but i wouldn’t want to live there. there are too many bolos (drunks) and lots of riff-raff in certain areas. ataco is the opposite of apaneca to me....i like living in apaneca, but i don’t spend a lot of time just hanging out there, unless it’s at the hostal. i know more people in ataco too, so it’s nice to hang out with them. it’s also where the pupuseria that i like is located. it’s located in the intersection where the buses come through and i like to sit out there with don gerardo and antonio and niña rosa and whoever else is there just watching everyone. it’s kind of like that bar cheers because it’s usually the same people hanging out. it’s also nice to be able to people-watch since people spend so much time staring at me all the time. i like the park in ataco better than the one in apaneca too because it is bigger and the park benches aren’t all broken. their market is also bigger, so if i need stuff that i don’t want to go all the way to ahuachapán for, i can always try for ataco because there is usually a chance i’ll be able to find it in ataco.

this is a map of the area where i live....as you can see my town is on “the ruta de las flores.” anyway, you can see where all these places are located. the two departments (not labeled) to the right of the department of ahuachapán are santa ana in the north and sonsonate in the south. the towns of juayúa, salcoatitan and nahuizalco are in the department of sonsonate. apaneca and ataco are in the department of ahuachapán.

this doesn’t mean that i don’t like apaneca. i LOVE apaneca and i LOVE living there. i could even picture myself living in apaneca if i didn’t leave el salvador. it’s just a nice quiet mountain town. it just seems to be that i spend more of my free time in ataco just because that’s how it’s worked out.

you always talk about how apaneca is cold but you never explain why. so why is it so cold there?
ok, it goes like this. apaneca is the highest elevated pueblo in el salvador. it’s elevation is approximately 1,480 meters (4,855 feet)...which is almost a mile above sea level. anyway, apaneca is also located smack dab in the middle of the “apaneca-llamatepec” mountain range. there are mountains on all sides of apaneca....cerro apaneca, cerro las ninfas (where the laguna is), cerro laguna verde, cerro los naranjos and cerro las ranas ( both in the dept. of sonsonate). anyway, what happens is it gets cold at night because of the high elevation, but if it’s at all windy, it’s freeeezing because the wind sweeps through the valley between all these mountains and gathers speed because the mountains serve as sort of a tunnel.....and it’s already cold air. once you get past apaneca (going south) the mountain range continues, but only on the eastern side of the ruta de las flores so juayúa and salcoatitán don’t get the wind. plus they are at way lower elevations because they aren’t really in the mountains like apaneca is, so it’s a lot warmer there. also, ataco is to the north of apaneca, but it’s at a slightly lower elevation and it’s not surrounded by cerros, so it’s also not as cold.

here is an ok map of ahuachapan where you can see some of the cerros i talked about (las ninfas, laguna verde and cerro apaneca). cerro los naranjos and cerro las ranas aren’t on there because they are in the dept. of sonsonate and this is only a map of ahuachapán. but they are both located to the southeast of apaneca, below las ninfas and laguna verde. so you can kind of see how apaneca is located within the mountain range.


here’s another photo i labeled (i’m getting good at this labeling thing). you HAVE to click on the photo so that you can see what the labels say. when you´re done looking at it, just hit the back button and it´ll take you back to the blog. anyway, this is a huge wall map of el salvador that they have hanging up in the training center in san vicente. anyway, when we were told where our sites were gonna be, we had to go up and put a star on the map where our site was so everyone could gawk at where people were gonna be. anyway, so that’s why there’s the stars with people’s names on it. so here’s what i have labeled (i’ll try to move from left to right):

APANECA/SAN JORGE: duh, well if you don’t know what this signifies by now, i’d give up on the blog if i were you.

EL IMPOSIBLE: this is the largest protected forest in the country and home to tons and tons and tons of biodiversity. it’s beautiful there and i can’t wait to visit again. i hope salvanatura (the group in charge of protecting these areas) is successful in fully protecting the area because it’s one of the last areas of el salvador that hasn’t been deforested or cultivated.

ANNA’S SITE: self-explanatory....but the name of her little town is “el porvenir” and it’s literally on the beach.

KATE’S SITE: this is where the super hard mountain that we climbed (the first full-moon hike) is located, way up in the northern part of the department of santa ana. also where parque montecristo is.

IMMERSION DAY, PORTERO SULA, CHALATENANGO: this is the little canton i where i was sent to spend my first few days alone, trying to get along with my really broken spanish. it’s located near the border between chalatenango and santa ana and is near the río lempa which is the natural border between the two departments.

LAGO COATEPEQUE: in the southern part of the department of santa ana. this is where anna and i went a couple of weeks ago during vacaciones.

VOLCÁN SANTA ANA: self-explanatory since i labeled it “the one that erupted.” duh.

SAN SALVADOR: self-explanatory....the capital of the country, and the city that i hate to go to most of all.

EL TUNCO: this is the beach in the department of la libertad where i spent my second travel weekend during training. it’s a fun place to go, but definitely not my first choice for beaches. but it’s a surfing beach and near the surfing mecca of la libertad bay which is reportedly one of the best places in the world to surf.

GRACIAS, HONDURAS: where i spent 4th of july this year.

LA PEÑA: this is the most recent mountain i climbed which is near york’s site in the upper part of the department of chalatenango.

COURTNEY’S SITE: the name of courtney’s pueblo is “dulce nombre de maria.” i like courtney’s pueblo, but it’s really friggin’ hot there. i’ve been to dulce nombre about three or four times now and it’s a nice place to just chill (not literally) out with my friend and get away from my site.

SUCHITOTO: this is where i spent my first travel weekend during training. it’s kind of a touristy place, but it’s tranquilo and clean. i haven’t been back there since that travel weekend, but i’m sure i’ll hit it again sometime in the future.

MOLINEROS: the little canton where i spent my months in training.

SAN VICENTE: where the peace corps el salvador training center is located.

PERQUÍN – this is a pueblo in the department of morazán which was heavily affected by the civil war. most of the people who live in morazán are die hard fmln supporters and have horrible memories of the massacres that were carried out by the u.s.-supported salvadoran government. there is a war museum located in perquín which i haven’t visited yet, but that i hope to visit soon. it’s such a far trip, i’d need to plan for a whole day of bus rides just to get there!

FIELD BASED TRAINING, MONTECA, LA UNIÓN: this is where anna, courtney, nathan and i spent four days laughing our butts off during training. the four of us still say that those four days were the most hysterical time we’ve had during our peace corps time here in the savior.



you talk about food all the time....why?
i’m not sure. i guess i didn’t even realize i was doing it until someone pointed it out to me. and so now i’m all self-conscious about it. most of it is because the food really is amazing here. and i also think part of it is because i’m absolutely shocked that i’ve lost 35 pounds since coming down here even though i’ve been eating all kinds of different foods. i’m not kidding.... and i don’t think people in the united states realize how horrible the food is there...i mean, it can taste good, but i’m talking about how horrible it is for our bodies. it’s like – food can be good and be a normal sized proportion. i’ve learned that from living here. proportion sizes in the united states are out of control and i didn’t really realize it until i came here. but the thing is, i never felt like i was not getting enough food when i made the move from the u.s. to here. food here is REAL. it’s not made of preservatives and fillers and all that kind of stuff that is in practically everything we eat in the states. fruits are the colors they are supposed to be. oranges aren’t orange. bananas aren’t bright yellow. the ingredients in pan dulce are sugar, butter, flour...maybe oil too. and yes, that sounds bad for you, and you probably shouldn’t eat pounds and pounds of pan dulce....but i’d rather eat that than pan dulce that has partially hydrogenated oil and preservatives and color #5 and chocolate flavoring and whatever. also, i think when i was sick and i couldn’t eat food a lot of the time, it really was a bummer. and it wasn’t like that lasted for a week or two. that was like for a month or so. so when i could eat, i think i was so excited about being able to eat again, i wanted to describe it all. i don’t know. i’ll quit talking about food for a while!

why is it winter there right now when el salvador is north of the equator?
this question was asked by someone who actually knows where el salvador is. winter and summer are not really terms that people use that much here. yes, it’s winter right now and you’ll hear people using that term sometimes, but what most people use is “the rainy season and the dry season.” the rainy season (winter) lasts from may to november; the dry season (summer) is from december to april. más or menos. there really is no variation in temperatures between the rainy season and the dry season. it’s just as hot in winter as it is in summer. it’s just a matter of if it’s raining or not. temperatures in places like anna’s site are probably around 95-100 degrees every day of the year. so el salvador’s being located north of the equator really has nothing to do with the fact that it’s winter here, because really, it’s just the rainy season. el salvador is also closer to the equator than the united states, which is why it’s hot all year long.

what exactly are you doing?
sheesh. i try to explain things in the blog, but i guess some people don’t read it or don’t get it or something. that’s kind of depressing. i work with the community of san jorge...mostly in the school. in the school, i teach environmental education to the kids – things like recycling and biodiversity (what kinds of plants, animals, trees, etc. live right here in el sal) and why trash is bad for the earth and how water gets polluted and other environmental stuff. in the community i try to talk about the trash that gets left in the streets and how it relates to health problems and how we should recycle and i try to get them to recycle. i’m also working with the community on some agroforestry things...mostly lombriculture (worm-bedding) to grow flowers and vegetables which reduces organic waste and promotes organic (and not chemical) fertilization. basically that’s it. just trying to educate kids and adults about the environment and get them to actually put what they’re learning into practice. the teaching’s not hard, it’s the getting them to do things that’s hard.

are you going to come home during your time there?
no. at least right now i don’t plan on it.

what are you going to do when you’re done with the peace corps?
i have no idea. but i´ve gotten anna hooked on the idea of the apartment in europe idea. and we´ve talked in length about it. and we decided that maybe italian would be easier to learn than french for now, since it´s similar in some ways to spanish. so we´re thinking maybe italy....like take some kind of language course at a language school there for 3 months or something. after that, if we do that, i have no idea.

who is antonio?
god, that question AGAIN? you people are worse than the people here! he’s the promotor de salud in san jorge. he’s my good friend. that’s all you’re getting out of me.

when is your official last day of service?
sometime in late november, 2007. i can’t believe it’s august already. come september 21st, i’ll have been gone for a whole year! time flies!

is it dangerous there?
el salvador is the most dangerous country in all of latin america (yes, including colombia!) so on paper, yes it is dangerous here. but i think that also has to do with the fact that it has a really high population density. add that to the notorious gangs here and you get a pretty dangerous country statistically speaking. but i don’t really ever feel threatened or like i’m in danger. i mean, i’ve explained before that it’s not safe to really be out on the streets anywhere after 9:00 p.m. at the latest. so i just don’t go out in the streets after 9:00 p.m. sure, there’s always a chance i’ll be on the bus that some mariñosos (robbers) decide is the bus that they’re going to board and rob everyone on. but, i mean, what am i gonna do – not go anywhere? i have to ride the buses, there’s no other way to get around. and yes, there are incidences of this – or of gang members getting on buses and harassing people – but it’s not like it happens all of the time. the incident on the bus coming back from la peña was the first time i was feeling a little uneasy, but even that wasn’t that big of a deal. it could have been worse, obviously. but it wasn’t. san salvador is way dangerous and it’s just not a good idea to be walking around alone at night there. i have this one story about san salvador...not my personal experience, but an experience of ashley’s (our tech trainer). she went into the market area of san salvador to buy materials for her artesan group back in her site (which is now anna’s site) and when she was walking down the street, she saw a human head on the sidewalk! there was rickety police tape around the area where the head was, but it was like real shoddy – not very official-looking. but it was some crime scene. and ashley said she never went back there again and made the women of her artesan group go there to buy things after that. can you imagine? central america is kind of rogue still when it comes to things like this. like on the news, they always start off with how many people were found murdered (most by gang members...mara salvatrucha, etc.). but it’s not that they just report on it, they show the lifeless bodies, blood and all, laying where they were found. it’s totally weird. but i have to admit that now i’m used to it and it doesn’t weird me out anymore to see that. but can you imagine if that’s how it was in the states? guatemala seems to have a lot of killings every day.....we get the guatemalan news stations here in my area and it seems that there’s always a lot of murders in quetzaltepeque. guatemala city’s supposed to be super dangerous. i suppose all these central american capital cities are dangerous. but then check this out....remember when i went up to gracias, honduras for that fourth of july thing? well, jamie, the volunteer whose site gracias was, apparently got the shit kicked out of him by la policia there.....like they beat him up pretty bad. i guess what happened is they thought he was some gringo escaped convict or something (not sure on those details) and so now he has to have his site changed to some other town.

the police down here are not messing around. and i’m not sure if we should be afraid of them or be glad when they stop the bus and order all the men off to search them. that’s happened only a couple times on buses i was on. they set up these roadblocks and then randomly choose buses and cars to search. so they’ll pull over a bus and all the men have to get off and line up on the side of the road and get searched. it’s just a whole different ballgame when it comes to the police here. police officers in general just ooze arrogance to me anyways – in the states and down here – so it’s doubly sketchy to see the police officers here gripping their friggin’ machine guns like they’re just WAITING for someone to make a wrong move. i told you how anna and i saw these two police officers kicking the crap out of this dude on the street in san salvador. they did it totally for kicks too, because they kicked him around for five minutes and then started walking back down the street and were laughing. like it wasn’t an arrest or anything like that.....yeah, like if it was an arrest it’d be justified..... but what i´m saying is this dude was not carrying any weapons or anything so it wasn´t like the police were afraid he was gonna hurt them.

also lots of guys carry machetes everywhere, which sounds crazy just reading it. but it’s not really a threat and i’m never nervous or anything because it’s just so normal. it’s just if there’s a fight or something (like the one from la peña) that it could be a bad thing. also, you can carry a machete on the bus as long as it’s in a case, or it’s covered. so lots of guys just wrap newspaper around the blade. which, really, is that making that big of a difference? anyways, so yes, el salvador is dangerous if you read all the reports of the gangs and murders and what-not. but here in my little world, it’s been alright.

do you get bored a lot?
sure i get bored. why do you think these blog entries are so friggin’ long? i think i have it better than a lot of volunteers though because i hang out with antonio a lot and he likes to hike or show me new places around here, so i feel like i’ve always got something to do especially on the weekends. plus i live in an area where it’s relatively easy to visit other towns close-by. and those towns are fun....ataco, juayua, salcoatitan, etc. i’ve been hanging with my peace corps friends a little more lately too it seems...we do the full moon hikes and i like to visit other people’s sites. when it’s just me and my cuarto after school, i sometimes walk down to the park and get pasteles (more food...i won’t go into detail about what they are) and that’s usually sufficient for dinner. then i either come back to my cuarto and read or write on my computer. i’ve read a TON of books and one of these upcoming blog entries, i’m gonna do a book report. i’ve read some really great books and people keep sending me books which is super cool of all of you who have. i’m loving them all. about one night a week i try to go to the cyber cafe to check my e-mail or update the blog. so i keep myself busy. but i will admit, i’ve never had this much down time in my life. i don’t usually work outside of the school because i’m at the school almost every day and since every day i’m not teaching or whatever, if i have a charla or an activity to work on, i just do it there. so my time here at the hostal is usually down time. and like i said, i read or write or lay in the hammock and read. or i’ll chit-chat with niña teresita about something. and i go to bed at about 9:00 p.m. every night and get up around 7:00 a.m., i get tons of sleep and i usually feel good (unless i’m sick). so yes, i can get bored, but for the most part, things are pretty tranquilo.

what is tranquilo? you use that word A LOT!
i know i do. it means that things are just fine, there aren’t any problems, you’re content, lovin’ your life, etc. and unless i’m going through a funk or something (which happens every now and again), things are usually tranquilo around here.


SO, that´s it for now....i´m sure i´ll get another bunch of questions from people soon, so i´ll start saving them up again!

adios!

happy thursday! here´s some photo updates

got a lot for you....a new entry (below this one about the hike to la peña) and since i finally can add lots more photos (it´s hard to find a computer here in el sal that has firefox on it) and since i got a bunch of pictures from courtney from previous stuff we did, i´m updating some of the previous entries with more pictures.....here´s which ones:

THE LEMPIRA MINDFUCK (july 10, 2006): more photos of mine from honduras, as well as some of courtney´s. you really should go back and look at the added pictures of the kids in the park there. and the pictures of us at the bar with those crazy hondurans are truly hilarious.

LA MONTAÑA: A REALLY PATHETIC DOCUMENTARY (may 17, 2006): a couple more pictures of the view there on the mountain. but the best picture yet is one that courtney took of me as i was nearing the end of the hike. i am NOT happy and the picture definitely shows it! ha!


ALSO, two more sets of pictures.....some i took on my last trip to laguna las ninfas.....there will always be something to take a picture of there!

flowers and lilypads in laguna las ninfas

me standing at the top of the south side of cerro las ninfas

view of the clouds hanging over the valley

beautiful view overlooking the valley leading to juayua (juayua is in the northeast corner)

view overlooking the opposite side of the mountain into the clouds which are about to overtake us!

same view, literally two seconds later. the clouds moved fast through the area, leaving us surrounded by them which was kind of eerie.

view of the laguna amongst the clouds

a rainwater filled leaf on the trail

these two kids are brothers and live in one of the houses that antonio visits in the laguna. the kid on the left (with the hat) has some kind of muscular disability and can hardly walk, but he his so happy all the time. he remembers me every time i visit that house and he gets all beside himself laughing whenever i show up because he knows i will play jokes and act funny. he´s so adorable. seriously, if he can laugh and have a good time having the disability he has, not to mention his family being super poor, i really have nothing to complain about.

more clouds rolling in over the laguna

another view of the lilypads and flowers

AND...photos of my family that i took back in july when i visited for dayana´s birthday....

sindy´s quite the big girl now

la peña - the easier mountain

i’m so happy! i’m back (and by back i mean, i got back last saturday) from my third hiking trip and it was so much more tranquilo than the previous one. i feel like i’m slacking a bit in the work department, but that’s just because there have been so many things scrunched up into the past three or four weeks. i haven’t really been slacking. i actually worked my butt off last weekend and on monday making these little books for the kindergarten and first graders about forests. see, most of the environmental education stuff that el salvador and even the peace corps puts out is not really geared for kids under fourth grade. and in my opinion, the littlest kids are the coolest because they are the ones most into everything. they love doing any kind of activity, they participate and they’re small enough that they are more likely to learn stuff and remember it. anyway, so i decided i’d make them these books that they could color and they are all about forests. like for the kindergarten it was more about what’s in the forest and things like that, and that we need to take care of them because they’re our friends. for the first graders it was a little more about why we need forests and why animals need them and how to take care of them and all that. so this past tuesday i was able to work with the kindergarteners. we read the book, and bessy helped – which is good because a lot of our work is supposed to be about getting the teachers involved so that when there’s no volunteer in the school anymore, they’ll still carry on what we were teaching. so the kids were awesome and then they colored them and i felt good about finding something to involve the kindergarten kids. this coming week i’ll work with the first graders and then do a more complicated charla with the 5th and 6th graders.

anyway, i left on tuesday afternoon for courtney’s site in chalatenango because it would have been hard to leave on wednesday and then hike that night. since the full moon was on wednesday night, we were supposed to be up at york’s site around 7:00 p.m. or so. so i hung out at courtney’s on tuesday night and on wednesday both of us were really tired and wondering if we were gonna be able to hike that night. plus, i was having a little hiker’s anxiety since the last hike was so damned hard. but we got our stuff together and left on the bus for york’s. it started pouring on the way up there and it was not looking good. we were both like – if it’s raining, we’re not going. but as we got closer to york’s, it started clearing up so that was good. once we got there we waited around for the rest of the crew, there were only 7 of us going, so it wasn’t a long wait. we loaded up on pupusas and caffeine and then left for the mountain. this mountain is called “la peña” and it is in northern chalatenango, near the honduras border. what’s interesting is the top of la peña is the same elevation as apaneca, the pueblo i live in. it’s so deceiving. when you’re riding the bus to apaneca, you’re climbing the mountains the whole way, but once you’re in apaneca, you don’t really feel like you’re at a high elevation because there are mountains surrounding the town. so you still feel like you’re at a low elevation because of all the high mountains around you – does that make sense? anyway – so we started the hike and since it was dark, we really couldn’t see much. but the moon was shining so brightly through the clouds, there were points where we didn’t even need our flashlights/headlamps. the first part of the climb wasn’t too bad – it was a good workout, but i never felt totally breathless or like i was gonna die or anything. the climb was gradual and there were some rock steps, but it was a pretty good trail and it was in the forest so that was good.

we then got to this area which york started off saying was pretty hard. it’s a cow pasture up on the mountain, so the first thing was we had to kind of try and not step in these humongous piles of cow poop every other step. i failed on that one...i stepped in this huge pile of it and it felt like my foot was never gonna stop sinking. it was really gross! but the good thing was the grass was wet from the rain, so walking through the grass pretty much cleaned my shoe off. anyway, this pasture ended up being almost vertical in some spots, and again, because of the wet grass, this became kind of a problem as our feet slipped a lot from not being able to find a firm hold. that part of the climb was really hard....i pretty much just had to concentrate on not falling backwards which would have been easy to do since my backpack was pretty heavy from having to haul up water. that’s the crap thing about hiking....you get your backpack packed and then you realize you have to carry up a ton of water and while it’s not really wasted space (because water is super important) it still feels like you’re using space that you could use for other stuff...because on the way down you’ll just have empty water bottles and maybe one that’s got water in it. and water’s damn heavy!!!! whatever.

so after getting up this vertical pasture area, we entered into an area that york said was really kind of dangerous. on the left side of the trail was the mountain dropoff...one false step and you’d fall off the trail and the mountain. it wasn’t a sheer dropoff because there was some monte (small saplings and wild flowers and brush) that would prevent you from tumbling into thin air. but still, you’d get beat up pretty bad and probably break a lot of bones. on the right side was this same kind of monte.....not much to grab on to. and the trail was only big enough to put one foot in front of the other.....6-8 inches at most. and it being night and all, it was kind of scary. also, there were areas where the dirt that made up the trail was not very sturdy, like it was just made up of loose dirt and some roots from the monte. there were areas where it was washed out and you had to kind of hop over the space. but anyways, we all made it through that and after a little bit more climbing, we were finally at the campsite! i felt really good about it which was such a difference from the last hike. so we started by setting up camp, and bart had brought this tent that the peace corps has for youth camp events....and this tent was friggin’ huge. it was a 10 person tent – it had three separate “rooms” and when we unrolled the tent it was too big for the area that york had cleared earlier in the week for us to camp! you should have seen this thing...it was a mammoth of a tent! we ended up only setting up two of the rooms because the other one wouldn’t fit. after gathering firewood, we hiked up a little further to where the actual rock part of la peña is. we dumped the firewood behind this rock where mark was gonna try and start a fire and then hiked up even further to stand out on this big rock that gives a spectacular view of the town we had just come from, as well as el poy (the el salvador/honduras border town) and nueva ocotepeque, honduras. la palma and san ignacio (both in el salvador) could also be seen. it was so beautiful, and the moon was shining the sky was so clear. it was just really awesome. the funny thing was you could tell where the border of el salvador and honduras was because the color of the lights changed....in honduras they had more of an orange color to them, and in el salvador they were like bright white. what’s up with that?

anyway, kate and york brought up their ipods and speakers and put on some bluegrass tunes and we sat up on the rock eating snacks and drinking rum for a while. it was such good times! even if it was a little dangerous to be dancing around to bluegrass while drinking rum on the top of a rock that didn’t look like it would be too hard to fall off of. finally after a while we went back down to join mark who was having a hell of a time trying to start the fire. we were using old newsweek magazines and wood that had gotten a bit damp from the rain, but eventually we got it started. we drank some more, listened to more music and ate this sketchy looking meat that we grilled over the fire. it was good though! finally, around 4:30 a.m. or something we headed for the big tent to sleep. york went on this drunken speech about everything which was so friggin’ hysterical, i ‘bout died laughing. then he fell out of the tent. damn it was funny. the next morning i wasn’t feeling too hot, but it was ok i suppose. we hiked back up to the rock and were blown away by the view. the clouds were just sitting there, rolling by us and the vista was so stunning. the mountains directly in front of us were the mountains near kate’s site (montecristo) and we could see the ridge and mountain we had climbed before....it looked so crazy high! we chilled out there for a while and then decided to make the trip back down. it wasn’t that bad as we could see this time, but it was super hot. by the time we made it down to el rosario (where we had started) i was hot, sweaty, tired, sore and in dire need of a shower. but it wasn’t to come because we had to catch the last bus from el poy to san salvador...so we booked it back to where we had left our stuff and then we all (minus york) headed to the highway to wait for the bus. we decided to catch a pickup ride to la palma so we could get some food before the bus came, so we did that and we waited and waited and waited and it was forever before the bus finally came. and when it did there was a mad rush to get on the bus because it was pretty much full and there were a bunch of salvadorans waiting with us too.

so we get on the bus and we’re riding along and even though we didn’t have seats, i wasn’t that uncomfortable because there was at least a rack above to put the backpacks on. so we’re riding along and all of a sudden this fight breaks out between two guys. there was this drunk dude sitting behind this other guy and he started saying something about how he was better than the guy in front of him. like being really obnoxious about it and saying these weirdo things. the drunk guy had a friend sitting next to him that was laughing and kind of egging him on, but wasn’t saying anything to the other guy. it started to get out of hand and finally the guy that was being harassed started banging on the side of the bus yelling for the bus driver to kick the drunk guy off. the bus driver stopped the bus and turned off the music and just looked back in the mirror at what was going on. the cobredor did nothing, i don’t even know where he was. then the bus driver just started driving again. so then the guys start arguing again, and this time the guy that was being harassed was yelling back at the drunk guy. then the drunk guy starts standing up and trying to get out of his seat, but his friend wouldn’t let him. and when the drunk guy stands up, his pants are all undone. ????? kate walks down the aisle towards me and is like “dude’s taking off his pants...” with this scared look on her face. then, the other guy starts banging on the bus again and the driver stops and this time turns off the engine and i think he’s gonna throw the drunk guy off. but no! he starts driving again. finally, when the drunk guy gets up again, the guy in front of him takes his umbrella and shoves the point of it into the drunk guy’s face like three times and i was like “oh my god!” i thought for sure he was gonna take the drunk guy’s eye out. everyone was yelling and screaming, thinking that it was gonna get worse because you know, dudes carry machetes on the bus and shit...not to mention guns. it was so crazy. and all these salvadorans are just sitting there, watching this fight, but not really helping at all – kind of just like it was entertainment. some woman farther up front finally offers her seat to the dude that’s being harassed and he goes up there, but when he gets up there starts yelling at all of us up towards the front of the bus that the drunk guy is talking to us and then looks at my friend tara and says, “and he’s looking at you...you’re the problem.” what the hell?? tara got all freaked out and turned around and faced the other way and everyone was staring at her and it was so crazy. then the drunk guy starts yelling really loud at the other guy and calling him “louie” and he just kept saying it: “louie! louie! louie!” and then kept telling him to look at him and something about the war and san salvador and other crazy shit. then he starts yelling at bart, who had gotten a seat with kate across from the drunk guy and his friend. he’s calling bart “george bush” and saying things like “anti-american! anti-american!” bart went up to the driver and basically was like – you have to get this asshole off the bus. but the bus driver never stopped and the cobredor didn’t do shit either. then because bart went up front, the drunk guy started getting louder with the george bush/anti-american stuff. at some point, all the seats around these two were vacant and this woman (who had actually ridden in the pickup with us from el rosario to la palma) sits in front of the drunk guy and is trying to calm him and make him shut up, but he just gets worse and starts insulting her. then he starts crying – i mean sobbing - saying stuff like nobody will listen to him and i don’t even remember what else. then he starts yelling “louie” again. finally we get to this town and that woman who had tried to calm the drunk guy down gets off the bus and when the bus goes around the park and back down the street to leave the town, she gets back on with the police. so the bus driver stops the bus and turns off the engine and the police get on and get the drunk guy and his friend and there was another fight between them and finally they all get off the bus. then we had to sit there for forever waiting for the bus driver to stop talking to the police. meanwhile, the guy who was being harassed was trying to yell at the police officers that the bus driver was bad because he didn’t throw the guy off earlier. and then this old woman gets in a fight with the guy because she was defending the bus driver saying that it is his job to drive people on the bus and not to kick people off of it. ugh! what a friggin’ saga!

so because of this whole thing, there was no way i could make it back to san salvador or to my site in time, so i just went back to courtney’s and hung out there. i ended up staying an extra day because we were tired and i wouldn’t have made it back to apaneca until like 2:00 anyways. so i ended up not coming back to apaneca until saturday. which was fine with me. but despite that craziness on the way home, the hike was really, really cool and i’m so glad i decided to go! so who knows where the next hike will be....but i’m hoping it’s more like this one! i think i only got a blister under one of my toenails this time...what an improvement!

here’s some pics!

york drunk and dancing bluegrass on the top of the rock

ok, this has got to be one of the most hysterical pictures EVER! it´s probably funnier to us that live here in el salvador, and it seemed to be the funniest thing anybody had ever seen the night that i took this....but i took the picture and looked at it and the first thing i thought was that it looks like courtney´s carrying that rock on her head. so i went around showing it to everyone saying ¨look! courtney´s a true salvadoran! she´s carrying that rock on her head!¨ and probably because we were all drunk, we all busted our guts laughing and we kept looking at it over and over. oh, and then there´s the mysterious ¨floating¨ churro bag on the side. oh my god was that hilarious.

york, me and kate

courtney and tara cooking the mystery meat

me (drunk with the rum we renamed ¨revive¨) and kate (drunk with a pupusa)

an AWESOME picture of the rock....actually, you climb higher than the rock to get to the rock, and this is the view you get as you come over the higher rock. that´s york, kate, mark, tara and bart down on the rock

wild orchids growing on the mountainside

view of the rio lempa below, which separates the departments of chalatenango and santa ana. the mountains on the other side form part of parque montecristo where kate´s site is, and directly across from where the picture is being taken is the ridge and mountain we climbed at kate´s site. that was the harder mountain.

all of us...york, mark, tara, kate, bart, me, courtney

a view of la peña from el rosario, the town we started from....the lighter green area was the vertical pasture we had to climb....

después vacaciones

(wrote this sometime last week….just getting to posting it now!)

well, well, well.....i feel like vacaciones really hasn’t ended yet.

vacaciones started off by celebrating bessy’s birthday on the friday before (the 28th). actually, her birthday isn’t until december, but because nobody’s around in december because it’s summer vacation for the schools, we celebrated it now. so mirna and elba kept saying how we had to get a joke gift for bessy, so i told them i’d buy a pair of huge underwear the next time i went into ahuachapán. so i did that (which was totally embarrassing....i went to the super mercado and found a pair in there and got all the other stuff i needed and then went up to wait in line. there were like four cash registers open, three of them had women working them and one had a guy....like the only friggin’ guy in el salvador that works a cash register at the super mercado had to be there that day. anyway, i go stand in one of the women’s lines, even though there is nobody in the guy’s line, because seriously, it’s bad enough that i am the only american person – everyone stares at me anyway. but i knew that if i got in this guy’s line he would see that underwear and be like – what in god’s name??? anyway, so as i’m standing in line, this guy starts motioning that i should go in his line because there’s nobody there. and i pretend not to see him, instead staring at a hanging box of condoms [in new flavors!] hanging on the post in-between the registers, in the hopes that some other customer would see the no-waiting-in-line-opportunity and make the guy happy. but no, he comes out from behind the cash register and actually comes up to me and says that i can go in his line because nobody’s there. for god sakes. so i do, and it was just as i thought it would be. he got to the big, giant granny underwear and even though i was pretending to look for something in my bag, i could feel him looking at me like – man, these are some big underwear! totally embarrassing....) anyway, so i got bessy a normal gift too and all was fine. so i wrapped them both up and on friday a.m. antonio called me to see if i wanted to get pupusas in apaneca. i told him i was going to flores de eloisa with the teachers to celebrate bessy’s birthday, but that he should come too since he knows them all. so he said ok and came to the school that afternoon to meet up with us. so we go over there, and on the way i tell antonio that i have two presents for bessy and he can give her one of them since he didn’t have a present for her. he was all glad that he’d be able to give her something. but, of course, he had no idea that i was going to give him the giant underwear to give to her. ahhhh, it was sooooo funny when bessy opened them. not just because she was laughing at the giant underwear, but because antonio was totally embarrassed. hahaha. but it was all in good fun and we laughed so hard. and i got to eat apple pie! i’m sure i’ve written about flores de eloisa and jardin de celeste before....they’re these two really nice viveros that are owned by the same woman. flores de eloisa is actually in san jorge, off the carretera, and jardin de celeste is down the road a bit, more towards ataco. anyway, they have these really nice areas where you can sit and eat dinner or dessert or whatever. they have all these really cool artesenia stuff, wood carvings, candles, wind chimes, stuff like that. and then they have cabañas too. anyway, so that was that.

anyway, megan and anna came to visit me the next day for the weekend. megan hadn’t been here before, so it was cool to show her the town. i think it’s funny when people come to visit me for the first time because they’re always shocked at how cold it gets here at night. at first they’re like “oh, it’s so nice to feel cold!” and then after a while they say “man, it really is cold here....” like the novelty of it has worn off. haha. i always end up lending my fleece jackets to people for the night because they are totally unprepared for the temperatures here, especially at night. anyway, we had a great time and ate tons of food in apaneca and juayua. on sunday morning, antonio came over and we all ate quesadilla on the back porch of the hostal. megan and anna thought maybe they’d try to walk to juayua that morning on their way back to their sites. they wanted to get minutas (these things that are kind of like snow cones, but taken to the sweetest extreme by putting honey and leche and other confections on them) again. they kept asking me to go with them, but i was like “i’m not sure if i want to walk to juayua.” it’s like 12 kilometers (7 ½ miles) and it’s all along the highway. i ended up going with them, and let me tell you, it wasn’t that easy – even though most all of it was downhill. and don’t go thinking i made the trip back on foot. no, after eating more food in juayua and saying goodbye to megan and anna, i hopped on the bus and rode, with much more appreciation for the buses than i ever had before, back to apaneca.

i didn’t have much time because i told antonio i’d meet him in ataco because he was going to take me to a soccer game in ahuachapán. it was a pre-season game between ahuachapán’s team, once municipal, and santa ana’s team - metapán. so we went to the stadium there in ahuachapán and i had a really great time. it was so simple and non-cluttered with the things you find at sporting events in the states. no food vendors (well, there was one guy who had an ice cream cart), no cheerleaders, no huge scoreboard, nothing. just a field, the players, the refs, the coaches, the fans and a couple of cruz rojo people on the sidelines. to know the score, you had to be paying attention to the game – which wasn’t hard for me as i enjoyed watching the game. my favorite player on once municipal is this truly ugly guy (he’s got red hair and is losing most of it) from uruguay who can play some damn good soccer. anyway, once municipal won 2-1 and that was that.

anyway, the next day (monday) i went into san salvador. my main reason was to get checked to make sure i wasn’t still infested w/ parasites, or worse, something new and different. i was also meeting up with anna and megan to go see pirates of the caribbean so i had that to look forward too. how is it that johnny depp is still some kind of good lookin’ even as a pirate? seriously? anyway, when i saw megan at the office she told me that she and our other friend lisa got robbed near the estancia the night before. some dudes just walked up and started feeling them up and taking their stuff and that was that. there was really nothing they could do. totally sucks. but at least they were ok. so i went off to the lab and then later we all hooked up to go see the movie. the next day i had to run some errands, get some copies from the office and stuff like that. anna and i ate lunch and i was like “i really don’t want to go back to apaneca right now.” she agreed that she didn’t feel like going back to her site, so i suggested we check out lago coatepeque. it’s this big lake in santa ana – it’s on our side of the country, so it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to just hop on over there for a little side trip. so we got on the bus headed for santa ana and in-between asking people on the bus where to go and text messaging other volunteers, we found our way there. it was amazing! the lake is super clean! we found the hostal that most backpackers stay at and because it was a tuesday, there was only one other guy staying there. there was a canoe there that we could use, so we decided we’d do that. only thing is, because it was a spur of the moment decision, i had nothing to go out in the water with...no shorts, no extra t-shirt. so i asked the woman who owns the place if she had an extra pair of shorts and she’s said yeah, and brings me these really super hip and fashionable guys pierre cardin swimming trunks that were about a size too small for me. yep. and because my standards of what i’ll go out in public wearing have seriously been lowered since being here, i slipped those shorts on and was a happy camper. so we asked for the paddles for the canoe and the woman gives us these paddles that are clearly NOT for a canoe. but whatever. so we go out to the dock and there’s this group of salvadorans just sitting there, staring at us as we are unloading this canoe from the dock. they are saying these stupid things in english like “can we go with you” and “have a nice trip!” ugh. so we get out in the water and it’s super tranquilo and just awesome to be away from everything. we jumped out of the canoe and swam for forever and just hung out in the water. it was so cool because we were on the other side of the santa ana volcano and the view of the surrounding mountains and other volcanoes was just awesome. after a while we headed back in and ate some food at some random pupuseria then came back and just read magazines and chilled out.

the next day we headed to santa ana to catch our buses, but before we did that we wanted to get ice cream. so we’re walking down the street in santa ana and my friggin’ flip-flop breaks. i’m like – seriously? and you know, you can’t really walk in a broken flip-flop. so i take off the other one and am walking barefoot down the street, laughing my butt off but i was pissed because those flip-flops were reefs, man. those are supposed to be way good quality! i suppose it may have had something to do with the fact that i walked from apaneca to juayua in them that sunday before with anna and megan. ugh. so i had to go into this store and buy this random pair of flip-flops for like $1.00 and i was like – whatever, they fit. so we get ice cream and then head back to the bus terminal and get on our buses – me to ahuachapán, anna to sonsonate. and i sit down and my feet are killing me and i look at them and i’ve already got blisters on them from the classy, well-made flip-flops i bought like a half hour before. WTF? anyway – i get back to ahuachapán and then get on the bus for apaneca and the hostal. what a trip.

the rest of the week was spent here in apaneca. thursday i went to visit antonio’s sister because she was on vacaciones too (antonio still had to work) and ended up hanging there for the whole afternoon. antonio’s mom cooked me some good dinner and i went home with a happy stomach that night. the next day i hiked laguna las ninfas with antonio. he had to go there for work and told me that i could go along with him so i wouldn’t be bored at the hostal. so we did that – he only had to go to three houses, but we were gone the entire day. we hiked around and went on some different trails that i had not been on before and it was so cool because it was kind of stormy and the sky had these really eerie layers to it. the clouds were surrounding all the cerros and looking out over the landscape it was really green and peaceful, but then the clouds were this mixture of dark gray and white and it was like it was this blanket about to lay down on the ground – like you know when you were little and you’d go to bed and your mom would shake the sheets and blankets in the air so they’d float down on you? that’s what it reminded me of. totally cool. then we went over to this one side of cerro las ninfas and it was all white because the clouds had moved in. i’m lucky to live in an area where there’s actual “bosques nebulosos” (cloudforests). they’re soooo beautiful! anyway, like i said, we hiked around for a while, then it rained on us and my feet got soaked and at first i was like – this sucks. but then i kept thinking, it’s just water. and my feet will be fine. and it’s a friday and i’m not in an office typing away or dealing with some bullshit from some boss that needs something done rightthisveryminute because his or her client is a egotistical prick who likes making people run around and do things even if they really aren’t necessary. know what i mean? i think this a lot actually. like, a couple of years ago on an august 4th, i’d have been sitting in an office doing the very thing i just described. but instead, now, i’m up in this mountain, hiking around, leisurely taking pictures and getting to actually see what goes on in the forest while the rest of the western world is in offices, talking on cell phones and drinking frappuccinos. it’s fucking awesome! so the fact that it rained for a little bit and my shoes and pants got soaked from walking through the grass in the laguna was totally fine. and with this fourth hike to laguna las ninfas, i’ve decided that it’s really my favorite place here. i mean, i love going to the beach and i’ve liked seeing other places in the country, but laguna las ninfas is absolutely my favorite place to be. it’s so tranquilo and i never get tired of seeing the same things again. the colors there are so vivid, even when it’s raining. and i can’t even begin to describe the wildlife there. every time i go i see at least ten different kinds of butterflies than i had the previous time. the trees are enormous and magnificent and just absolutely beautiful. it’s really my favorite place in the country.

anyway, so the week ended with hanging out in ataco and apaneca – where there was a food fair because of vacaciones. and so you guessed it, i ate lots and lots of food! oh, and i forgot, i watched some bruce lee movies back to back and now i’m hooked! seriously! those movies are so unbelievably cheesy that they are impossible not to like. the voiceovers are priceless. people here love the action films.....they love steven segal movies. no, i’m not kidding. they LOVE steven segal movies. they love arnold schwarzenegger movies. and i can’t forget about how much they like sylvester stallone. and they really like their bruce lee movies. it cracks me up when they say the actors’ names too, because of course, they don’t have the pronunciation right. and antonio likes the bruce lee flicks and i told him i watched some bruce lee movies and he was telling me which bruce lee movies he likes and when he says bruce lee he says it like “bruseh lee.” it’s so funny. and then he was asking me if bruce was a chinese name or an english one and i was like “i’m pretty sure it’s an english name, but i could be wrong.” then i told him my dad’s middle name is “lee” and he was like “really?” like he was so impressed, like i had told him my dad’s name was steven segal or sylvester stallone. ahhhh....seriously, it doesn’t get any better than this.

bessy opening one of her presents, which was, of all things, a hello kitty lamp. huh? this was NOT the gift i got her.

bessy in her new underwear!

another fabulous view...hahaha.