San Salvador

I arrived in San Salvador Saturday night and tomorrow I leave for Managua.I'm glad I called ahead and reserved a hotel room as I find San Salvador so confusing,congested and outrageously busy that I would have been hopelessly lost upon arrival.Yesterday I walked all around town visiting the main plaza...I was so tired I even dropped into the central church and listened to mass for a while...went to an anthropology museum,art gallery etc..I even navigated the bus system.The buses are crazy here...they hardly stop to let you off and speed ahead lurching all along throwing you about in the cabin...I crashed into a poor woman an child.El Salvador isn't as colorful or as cultural as Guatemala...very westernized..MacDonalds,Wendy's,BurgerKing ,KFC and Pizza Huts abound...and big shiny spacious ones at that.Lots of car dealerships and malls....and wide sidewalks...When you can hear over the smoke belching rumbling buses and blaring music you can hear lots of birds...especially one that sounds like a cross between a cuckoo bird and a owl...Food is cheap here( I love the pupusas) but I had to search for a cheaper hotel .First two nights I spent $30/night a the Hotel Florida but this morning I moved to the $12/ night San Carlos as it is beside the Tika Bus station and I leave at 4:45 am...

This afternoon I wandered through a bustling market...it was like a rabbit warren with a  labyrinth of stalls with thousands of venders literally grabbing at my arm.

It is very hot here..at least over 30 and sunny.I had to buy a baseball cap the other day.

The country side is not as hilly and mountainous as Guatemala...The bus wound its way through  wide lush,green valleys with sugar cane fields on the side fields and volcanic conical mountains in the distance.,The roads are lined with cocoa nut and banana trees.

I find I can get by with my Spanish but I,m sure I sound horrible.

Hey...I got a hair cut today...$1.00.I even cut my mustache off but I regret it as I look weird. Mind you whose to know here.