Perquin
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
22
110
Trip End
Ongoing
Perquin,
El Salvador
Monday, January 15, 2007
It's estimated that between 65,000-80,000 El Salvadorans were killed during their 12 year long civil war. It was a war that was predominately fought between the Salvadoran military dicatatorship (and the U.S.) and the leftist guerilla movement FMLN. Perquin, situated in the North of El Salvador, a dusty two hour bus ride from the Hondurean border, was completely controlled by the guerillas during this time.
Perquin is now home to the national museum dedicated to the civil war. Appearing as a highlight on all three guide books that I read, it was always going to be visited by us two history buffs. I'm glad I went but I am also glad that it was on our route towards Honduras as it was really just a collection of photos of the victims of war.
What was interesting for me, however, was the vast amount of women who were involved as chief commanders in this guerrilla movement. This was similar to the revolution in Cuba. They say that if you can find a tough, suitable woman for the army etc, she'll make three times the soldier of a man. Although we're obviously not physically stronger, a rational woman (she might need a good bit of testosterone in her body for this though!) is more loyal to the cause, thinks with the organ in her head and has a higher pain threshold than a man...It's true, you just have to watch ER to know women make better patients!
Perquin itself was tiny and very expensive. The people's attitude towards us was different to other parts of El Salv aswel. It wasn't that they were rude, per se; more cautious and cool. I believe this was due to the presumption that they held that we were North Americans. They are, obviously enough, not the U.S.' greatest fan as they were the most affected by Ronald Reagan and co's foreign policy.
After a two day stint here (including a nice walk to Rio Sapo, a nice forested area nearby), we headed towards Honduras..
