sweet Santa Ana

Hola Todos,
Happily the bag arrived on Friday, one day earlier than predicted! So we said adios to S.S. and vamos'ed to Santa Ana. This was by accident since we meant to go to Lago de Coatepeque but couldn´t tell when to get off the bus. Oh well, we were going to Santa Ana anyway. Here we got a tiny little room and had a look around the town. Since it was the weekend the plaza was in full market/festival mode. Santa Ana has a lot of early colonial architecture, including an enormous gothic cathedral- very cool. The main cross on the top steeple fell off in the earthquake (pienso que lo se caeó (sp?) en 2001), so they are in the process of refurbishing.
After that we called René, el hermano de Manny, Maggie´s friend from Whole Foods. We stugggled a bit on the phone, as I speak only slightly more espanol than he does ingles (I have to interject here. Hata did great on the phone. To me, it seemed as though he and Rene were holding a conversation and it was something to be proud of. Hata told me that Rene was coming momentarily instead of tomorrow so we went back to our hotel. Well, it turned out Francis said they came right away because Rene said ¨we got to go meet them right now because I can´t understand a word this guy is saying.¨ Back to the blog)) Somehow we managed to arrange a time and place to meet, and he brought his son, 21 yr old Francis, who is bilingual. They insisted we leave our room (even though we paid already. guess it wasn´t a good part of town)and stay at Manny´s house, which is empty since Manny lives in the States. Super luxurious, and inside a gated residential community, it felt strange to be so insulated. But also very comfortable and plush.
Yesterday they took us to Lago de Coatepeque (think Crater Lake)for a quick swim. The water is warmed by thermal vents so it was awesome! We could have stayed all day but Rene and Francis don´t swim and had a lot of places they wanted to show us.
So we headed to Cerro Verde, a mountainous forest between two volcanoes, where we got a manditory guide to show us the cloud forest (in Spanish). EL Salvador is really funny about their tourist area´s. There is a whole government movement to seperate the people from the tourist. So there would be two different parks, one for the tourist and one for the Salvadoreans-not too cool. For right now they have armed policia at the main attractions for safety although everyone is so nice and friendly here it is hard to imagine what they are protecting you from.
On to the town of Juayua for the Feria Gastronomica. Here they have a food festival every weekend with the kind grinds (roasted toad, baby goat, seafood, fried things, fruit, you name it)! Hata got some sort of steak plate that was huge and Maggie got a big pile of paella. Both were great! This town was super cool with cobbled streets and tiny sidewalks. Most business are open behind locked gates so if you want something you ring a bell and hand your money through the gate. This is common throughout the country. Guess those armed guards aren´t such a bad idea if everyone is locked away from each other too...
After the food fair, we went to some epic waterfalls (forget what they were called) with another guide who carried a big machete. Here the river comes gushing out of mutiple cracks in the rock cliffs. There are pools built at the bottom which are left overs from a Japànese company that was trying to develop hydropower here. The policia was in full force as it is a popular place for people to go for a swim.
All this in one day, a bit exhausting but very cool to have local guides who drove us everywhere! Rene and Francis are really great and since they are both on vacation right now (from work and university) they have the time to show us around.
This afternoon we will go to see geothermal springs. And tomorrow we will head north, crossing into Honduras the day after. But you know how plans go....
Love you guys! Mom´s and Dad´s, don´t worry, we are doing fine and having a great time!
H&M