I'm sitting on a great high covered porch overlooking Lake Suchitlan. The sun has gone down on a hot, but great day. The lake is surrounded by hills that are densely forested. Not 500 meters away someone has started a fire, probably to burn their trash, but it seems to be growing larger though no one strolling by under where I am sitting seems too concerned.
It's not like the people with the flames would have any kind of hose with water to put out the fire. I just asked a local about this flame which is lighting up the night sky and he said "No problema". The people are just burning before planting. Somehow dangerous things are not as dangerous here.
We scored a great hostel here in Suchitoto. Air conditioning in a very private room that lacks hot water but makes up for it in the view and breeze from the hammock on the porch. There is a comfortable living room and a modern kitchen where though we won't be cooking any meals we are using for cutting up fruit. We eat at least one watermelon & pineapple a day sometimes with cantaloupe, banana & mango on the side. Super tasty! I'm anxious to see the results of my fruitopian diet on the WW scales when I return~ I'm guessing that no point fruits & veggies has a limit!
Thursday, 13 April 2012
So far our stolls around this small town, quiet during the week, have yielded some great photo opportunities, the wrought-iron window grates and brightly colored flowers are especially nice.
The church in the town's main square was open this morning, it's nearly 500 years old and being restored.
We walked to Hotel Tejado where I may return for an afternoon swim, the heat is oppressive!
On the corner of the main square here in Suchitoto we happened upon the local corn milling station. We have watched tortilla machines on many trips but never before seen the process of taking corn, that has been cut from the cob and soaked, through the mill to make fresh maza for the tortillas. Women were waiting to use the grinders with their plastic bowl of corn kernals on their laps. Rubber belts move the corn through a grinder with just a little water dripping to make the mix.
Tortillas in El Salvador differ in thickness to those in Guatemala. Personally I prefer the thinner ones you can wrap your guacamole, rice & beans up in to these thicker tortillas. Pupusas are the street food of choice in El Salvador, tortillas with a filling of beans & sometimes white cheese and a pork mixture. We had one for supper last night covered in spicy, pickled cabbage & a refresco made from cashew fruit. $1.25 for both of us.
Breakfast this morning was taken at Hostel/Cafe Gringo where owner ex-pat Roberto offered lots of tourist information and promised to accompany us out on the lake for a bird-watching session. His coffee and food was great and his company interesting so I'm sure we will return during our time here. The restaurant Villa Balenza which is associated with this great hostel also has good daily specials ($2.50) with tasty options.
I'm not seeing us moving on anytime soon! It's summer here and the living is easy. Plus the town supposedly comes alive each weekend with arts festivals. I changed our hotel reservations for the return from San Salvador. We were going to stay in the large, dangerous, polluted city for two nights giving us one day to tour and see the El Salvador's capital city's museums, but I realized the museums would most likely be closed on Monday and we had enough of the city when we went in to switch buses to come here. We felt we had a city tour riding the bus into one bus station (heavily guarded with armed military), busing to the station on the opposite end of town and finally bussing it out of town!
We are going to splurge on Monday night and stay right next to the airport at the Quality Inn.
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