El Tejado Suchitoto

... and I kind of felt guilty I was spending so much on transportation. At 0530 the bus left under the watch of an armed guard at the bus depot, and I was on my way in air-conditioned comfort in a seat better than anything in a first class plane cabin. There was an attendant on board who kept us fed with meals, snacks and drinks and movies played in English with Spanish subtitles. Not bad at all. And the best part was that at the border we didn't ...

... the children. They danced and sang for us. The first perfomers were 2 little girls doing a modern hip shaking dance! We also had a boy and girl act out a traditional rhyme about a little green toad, statements from mothers, and a family band from a nearby community. <br><br>Mass was said by a priest who is Italian and whose Spanish was beautiful. He gave a wonderful homily. susie was one of the readers. Before the sign of peace the priest invited all the children to the altar. He invited them ...

... naar de andere busterminal aan de andere kant van de stad waar de bussen naar Santa Ana vandaan vertrekken. En zo gedaan!<br>Vijf dollar voor een ¨taxi¨...type goedkope jappanner met veel te veel kilometers, zonder contactslot, bekleding, uitlaatdelen, en gaar onderstel....maar met ¨chauffeur¨. Met enige hulp op de andere terminal vonden we de bus....en ruim een uur later waren we dan toch op de plaats van bestemming.

... werden later opgepikt om terug te gaan naar het guesthouse om ons om te kleden voor het diner. En we hebben wederom heerlijk gegeten.....en lekker wijn gedronken....en Rummonade.<br>Om een uur of tien gingen de kaarsen op de slaapkamer uit....we hebben heerlijk geslapen!<br>Na om 8 uur genoten te hebben van een heerlijk locaal ontbijt zijn we terug gebracht naar Copan waar we de bus hebben gepakt naar La Entrada. Daar vandaan de aansluitende bus naar de grens van El Salvador ...

We took the bus from La Palma where it was sunny but cool and had to change in Las Aguilares on the main road to San Salvador where it was absolutely scorching. There we had a massive great lunch, prawns and seafood soup, I had 3 1/2 crabs in mine which took me forever to eat, I have no idea how to sort them out and just end up angrily smashing them to pieces. The whole lot with drinks cost 6 dollars which was great, they use ...

... I´m still waking up at 5am even without the wretched church bells, there are still roosters. El Salvador is surprisingly lush, with loads of different shades of trees. I don´t really know what I was expecting, some sort of blasted heath I guess. I´d hoped I´d left the chicken buses behind in Nicaragua, but the one I was on yesterday to La Palma had the least legroom of any vehicle in existence.

... so I followed that and found myself at an absolutely beautiful place. In traditional Colonial fashion, the exterior doesn't even hint at what you encounter inside: lushly planted courtyards and gardens surrounded by buildings housing a restaurant and rooms decorated in classic Colonial style. It presented a wonderfully calm and tranquil atmosphere and I spent two ...

With our enjoyment of El Salvador on a high we ( Nadia ) started researching hard for our next slice of heaven. Suchitoto was the choice and after a trip to San Salvador we found ourselves on our busiest Chicken Bus to date. 2 hours in all. Vinny squished on all sides, shoulders on the ceiling one foot on the ground the other on a bag of potatoes, Nadia (unsurprisingly) blissfully asleep on the back seat, complaining of a ...

... on the streets on Thursdays. It is very much friendship evangelism here - and just being there when people need help or someone to talk to. So this week we will be mainly helping the missionaries here with things that need to get done around the base - computers that need to be repaired, yard work, cooking, baking, cleaning, etc. Liam loves the freedom of being able to crawl around and get into everything. There used to be a family that ...

... experience didn´t have as much of an effect on me as one would think it might, this was probably due to the fact that I´d already read a book that described the whole sordid affair in some detail, coupled with the fact that it is simply too hard to take in the idea that, twenty five years ago, hundreds of children and women were being mutilated and murdered on the very spot that you are standing. Either way I´m definitely glad I made the trip. So, not wanting to end this entry on such ...