La Palma
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2008
1
41
59
Trip End
Jul 16, 2008
La Palma,
El Salvador
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Our first main stop was in La Palama (SPS to Nuevo Octotepeque to El Poy to La Palma). La Palma is painted up like a coloring book! It is adorable! A really famous artist created a type or style of painting called Naīve while living there so that is now how a large portion of people make their living- painting naīve handicrafts. Very cool stuff too. I love graffiti that is done tastefully and legally. We stayed at a sweet little hotel with no running water and just bummed around town all night, watching the sunset over the hills. For dinner we had tamales and hot chocolate with doughnuts for desert. El Salvador is big on hot chocolate and so am I! Baked goods are also very popular.
The next morning we found out that Melany´s uncle died back in the UK so she had to fly home in time for the funeral and to be with her family. It was really unexpected and she was obviously shocked and heart broken. We felt really bad for her, of course.
Adrienne and I headed up to Cerro el Pital, the highest point in El Salvador. We had to spend the morning in a small town called San Miguel waiting for a bus to Las Pilas. While we were waiting we got to watch the local colegio marching band! They were really great and I was so impressed by their music instruments and talent. I cannot imagine getting our colegio to do that...
Local painter
Anyway, we caught a bus and trudged up this huge mountain on an access road, blowing black fumes the whole way. I kept falling asleep and I awoke in a fairytale! It reminded me a lot of Europe actually. We walked up through a pine forest lined with a spectacular view on one side and little gardens and cafes and hotels and cottages on the other... so cute! It was unreal and definitely unexpected. The climate was perfect mountain weather- cool and crisp. The hike was steep but felt great. Breathing fresh air was a luxury that I had almost forgotten about. It was paradise! The views were spectacular and we came down very satisfied. I felt like I was in a Cabbage Patch book because there were literally cabbage patches lining the hill sides next to the pines. At the bottom of the mountain we found a little outdoor papuseria. Papusas are semi-popular in Honduras and REALLY popular in El Salvador. They are small discs of corn tortillas with cheese and refried beans stuffed inside. They are heated on a flat top stove and served with pickled vegetables and sauce, sometimes. Of course we had more hot chocolate and sweet bread for desert as well. 
