Have you ever encountered something while traveling, and thought “I should bring this home”? Was it a type of food? A style of dancing? For Wilson Garcia Nunez from Apaneca, it was zip-lining. The difference between him and the rest of us, is that he actually did it. His boyish face must have been grinning […]
Travel on public transportation, especially buses, both within and outside the capital, is risky and not recommended. The US State Department certainly has a way with words. That quote nestled snugly into my brain while I walked to the bus station, and played like subtitles across the bottom of the screen as I watched people […]
San Salvador wasn’t as bad as I’d been led to expect. Sure, the air was like pancake batter, so packed with black gaseous vomit from the ceaseless succession of buses and cars that I’d catch myself breathing shallowly in self-preservation, but the people on the street were friendly, often beating me to the punch with […]
They were fighting in election headquarters, the votes of overseas Salvadorans piled on the table, caught in a disagreement that may have been procedural, was probably political, and was definitely maddening. Each of the twenty-one tables in the hanger-like room had four young people, early twenties at most, drawn from four different political parties but […]
Who are these men, with lines around the eyes, who spend so much time laughing, and who are in El Salvador to monitor the election? He was born in Ahuachapan, in Zacatecoluca, in Chalatenango. At age 14 he was already involved, already at risk. He was a student organizer, or unions, a known critic of […]
What is it the guidebooks always say? Travelers are strongly advised to avoid all political discussions, demonstrations, and events? Do they specifically advise to steer clear of capital cities during elections? Something about the dangers of discussing subjects (which are often seen as trivial in the US) in a country where politics has literally been […]
Lots of people riding around in the backs of pickup trucks, and sedans with windows tinted so dark, they’d be illegal in the US. That was about all I could see of El Salvador when I passed through its airport a year ago, just another gringo in transit, looking out the window on my way […]
