Jueves April 13

This has been an interesting end to my first month here. Last weekend, I was pretty sick with some sort of bacteria in my guts that resulted in some fantastic diarrhea and stomach cramps. Thanks to Rinat, Conny's son who's a doctor, I recovered in only a couple of days with Levaquin. Today, however, I woke up with a regular cold, just three days after recovering from whatever food-borne bug I had before. This means that in the month I've been here, I've had heat stroke twice, food-related illness twice, a cold, and tendonitis flare-ups as a side effect of the Levaquin. I'm a little bit jealous of my fellow intern, Lacey, who flew back home 8 weeks early because there was no work for her. She left this morning, leaving me alone in Izalco for the next 6 weeks. I'm not entirely comfortable with being the only CWU student here. 

I know that a lot of my blogs have gotten kind of complainy, and I'm sorry for bringing you readers down, but my body really hates El Salvador, as much as my brain might love it and the people I've met. 

Aside from illnesses and occasional bouts of depression, Lacey and I managed to make it a pretty good last week of her being here. She makes a delicious guacamole (pictured below) and we basically went to Atecozol as often as possible and chilled out with guacamole, chips, drinks, and movies in the evenings. 

Yesterday, Conny's nephew Moises rescued Lacey  and me from the confines of the house (we're not allowed out without an escort and very few people drive around here). Moises not only showed up to the house with boxes of chocolates (the best in the country, he said) for Lacey and me, but upon hearing how little of El Salvador we've been able to see, he became our escort for the day. He took us to Nauhizalco to see the park and the church there, and then we went to Juayúa for a gastronomic festival, among other things. 

Metro centro (a mall thing)

A circus was taking place in the parking lot

The drive to Nauhizalco 

Nauhizalco

Lacey and I in front of a fountain in a park in Nauhizalco

The church in Nauhizalco. Inside, there were MANY wooden litters with life-like dolls of Jesus and the saints being polished and prepared for the many processions for the weekend of Semana Santa (Easter week).

Colored palm fronds outside the church (I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures inside the church, so you don't get to see the many different Jesus figures and stuff)

On the way to Juayúa. Juayúa is way up in the hills, so we were above the worst of the pollution smog for most of the day. It felt great while we were up there, but it really sucked coming back down into Izalco and the smog again.

A park

There were a LOT of street vendors. I wanted to buy ALL of the scarves (bufandas) and bags (bolsas). Everything was so beautiful! I wound up just buying a small backpack for daytrips, though.

The park in Juayúa

This guy was painting kids' faces! Also, side note, clowns are still popular here. They're not the terrifying nightmare fodder that they've become in the U.S.

This was lunch! There were SO many places to choose from. Tents filled the city square, each one with a delectable culinary delight. I had BBQ chicken wings, casamiento (rice & beans), tortillas, and half of a potato. Also, since Moises took us on this day trip rather last-minute, he insisted on paying for all our meals and admissions to things. It was so nice!

Walking to the bathrooms.

Bathrooms cost 0.25 (the most expensive bathroom I've been to here), but we got TP AND there was soap by the sink! Most places will charge 0.15 for the bathroom and you get TP but no soap... Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.

There were beautiful archways that led to the fountain from four different directions.

Here I am, by the fountain!

Creepy, creepy statues. Any Whovians: Don't blink!

Pharmacy

There was a bakery/sweet shop that I kind of wanted to go check out, but we didn't. 

Lacey and I met a real doll!

Tie-dye clothing. Indigo seems to be the dye of choice for tie-dying here. It's beautiful!

Moises took us to a reptile exhibit

This was the doorway into the snake house!

Crocodile with a gimpy back leg. :( I felt pretty upset as we left the exhibit. There were a lot of animals there that looked injured, diseased, or just depressed. The tanks/cages were also NOT big enough for any of the animals. I just felt really bad, especially since many of the snakes there were actually endangered species.

Turtles

Iguana

Chameleon

GIANT fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That sucker was bigger than my head!

Reticulated python (pitón)

Burmese python

BLOOD python!

^Blood python

This snake was missing the front part of it's mouth! :( I almost cried. Poor li'l guy.

Emerald tree boa

Vine snakes

Types of jaws and teeth of the snakes, along with a sign that reminds patrons not to tap on the glass.

Pretty little garden outside of the snake house

Moises is telling us about a lake that you can sometimes see from this viewpoint in the winter here.

We should be able to see 7 mountains from this viewpoint, but because of the cloud cover, all the smog is lower than usual and it's also thicker, so you can pretty much see nothing. I'm sure I've stated it before, but it bears repeating: The pollution here in El Salvador is BAD! Don't come here if you want to see an unspoiled tropical paradise! I wish I could help try to solve the problem, but unfortunately, all I can really do is not pollute myself. There are signs everywhere about "putting garbage in the garbage cans; keep our cities clean" and what-not, but there's just a country-wide attitude that needs to change. The pollution problem is not something that can be fixed overnight, or even in the next 6 weeks. Perhaps one day people here can breathe clean air again.

"seven volcanoes" 

We returned to Conny's house at around 4pm. During the afternoon/evening, Moises took Lacey and me to go look at the alfombras (carpets) that people were making in the streets in honor of Semana Santa. Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are apparently the most important days of this 9-day holiday. I took as many pictures of the alfombras as I could until the battery died in my camera. Of course the battery died before we saw some of the REALLY elaborate and beautiful alfombras, but that's okay. I at least got to see them with my own eyes! I think that the processions of Thursday and Friday represent the passion and death of Jesus, and then Sunday is to celebrate the resurrection.

The first Alfombra I saw

a tree 

the loaves and fishes from Mathew 14

The procession. There were about 24 cargadores, or carriers, carrying that giant float through Izalco. The men switched after a few blocks so that the same guys didn't have to carry such a heavy burden all night long. 

 The men in purple and white are the carriers of the floats.

 Another Alfombre and a group of carriers.

 Another Alfombra.

 This is the Virgin María de Guadalupe, rendered in a cute little cartoon style in this Alfombra.

Here, a family is working on making an alfombra. They're using cardboard stencils and powdered dyes to make the designs, and then water or a glue to spray over the colored powders to make it stay in place better. It's a really neat artistic process! I've never seen anything like it. 

Moises told us that his family used to make alfombras, but they would add characters like Mickey Mouse, Tweety Bird, Pokemon characters, Link from Legend of Zelda, and even Beavus and Butthead made an appearance one year. Part of me wanted to laugh, and part of me wanted to be shocked because that seemed somehow irreverant, but that's cultural catholicism for you! Some people are very catholic, and some people just enjoy the festivities.