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  San Salvador, El Salvador
Saturday, June 24, 2006

We moved quickly through Honduras and El Salvador (but not too quickly to form opinions.) Surprisingly, El Salvador seems to be doing much better despite the civil war that ended only 15 years ago.

Our first stop was the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa (quick, don't look at the computer and try to spell that.) It turns out that there is a reason, besides pronunciation, that nobody talks about Tegucigalpa. The place was easily the least appealing capital city we visited. It managed to lack both historic charm and modern conveniences. (We would have been happy to accept either.)

Our first night in town was spent with the young and beautiful of Honduras. We dined at a nice restaurant and asked our waiter for recommendations on Tegucigalpan nightlife

01 - Main Square of Tegucigalpa

. He told us that the best club in town was only a few blocks away. The place was classic LA or New York with burly bouncers, reserved couches, mood lighting and loud techno music. Honduras took it one step further, however, with giant video screens playing an endless loop of hardbodies in an actual local beer commercial. (We found out later that the beer company was a sponsor of the club.) Our fellow patrons were quite amusing. They each seemed to have that casual arrogance of being born rich and somehow convincing themselves that they deserved it.

Honduras seemed to have widest income differential of any country we visited. Brazil would be close, but there was an extensive middle class that buffered between the two extremes. Poor in Honduras is not as bad as poor in Brazil, but there seemed to be no in between. This implies a complete lack of social mobility. I think this country will have trouble.

We were both much more optimistic about El Salvador. It turns out that there is a large displaced population of Salvadoreans living abroad that sends money home. These annual remittances equal about 16% of GDP. Additionally, there is substantial foreign investment in San Salvador. The city has an industrious feel and momentum seems to be on their side.

I caught a few innings of a Yankees game on our hotel cable that was piped in from Nicaragua (which is a baseball, not a soccer country.) There was a political advertisement that made the Willie Horton commercial seem like brotherly love. (Or going further back, it was reminiscent of LBJ's daisy commercial against Goldwater.) Hugo Chavez, of Venezuela, is supporting Ortega, the former Sandinista

02 - Even the Churches Look Worn

. Ortega's opponent ran images of Chavez' rants interspersed with goose-stepping soldiers, riots in the streets and police brutality. I couldn't understand most of the words but I was still scared. Politics is rough in Latin America.

The driving has been long and the border crossings are quite painful. Throughout South America, the crossings were quite simple and standardized. If the lines were reasonable, we could usually get through in about 40 minutes. There were never any fees. My sense is that Central American countries are small and the bureaucrats have a bit of a Napoleon complex. Whenever we enter a country in Central America we are besieged by a half dozen young men who offer to be our 'guide' through the process. (None of the bureaucrats seem to speak a word of English.) Kia stays to guard the car with the windows rolled up to keep the hawkers at bay. At these latitudes this can be a bit toasty and by the time I return she is usually feeling like a poached egg and I spend about 50 miles in the proverbial doghouse until the air conditioning has fully worked its magic. Each country requires a unique combination of documents, fees, inspections, 'insurance' and fumigation. The guides tend to be quite necessary and I end up paying about $10 in tips for each crossing.

Next stop is Guatemala, followed by Belize, Mexico, Texas and then, finally, the USA.

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03 - The Swank Part of Town

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