Sitio Arqueologico Tazumal

I have about 40 minutes to write. Let's see if I can cram in a blog about my day! I feel like I keep taking hours and hours to write one blog, which often ends up with my having to save drafts and continue writing over a few days. I'll try to keep 'em shorter and sweeter from now on!

So today was another great day! Isaac, my hired driver, came to the house at 9am to pick me up and take me to the Ruinas at Tazumal. The first few minutes in the car were slightly awkward: I felt like we both wanted to say something to the other person but weren't sure what to say. After a while, he asked, "¿Vamos a las ruinas de Tazumal?" or something like that. He spoke really fast, so I said, "¿Como?" and he repeated himself. I nodded, and then he asked, "¿Hablas español?" (Do you speak Spanish?) "Sí, pero entiento mejor si uno habla más despacio," (Yes, but I understand better when one speaks more slowly.) "Ahhh!" He said, smiling as he understood. We then started talking and we had a great time all the way to Santa Ana, which was the city right by the ruins. We talked about my family, his family, the weather, the driving conditions in El Salvador, his desire to learn English  and my desire to practice Spanish and how we should help each other to learn the two languages, etc. Good talk.

There are a lot of religious billboards here (ESPECIALLY in cities like San Salvador). This one says "Receiving Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, in your soul is the most important decision of your life." 

When we arrived at the archaeological site, Isaac told me that he was going to park and stay in the car. He said I could take as much time as I wanted at the ruins, and he'd just sit there and listen to music. I'm not totally sure why he stayed in the car, but either way I wound up walking up the street to past tons of street vendors to the park entrance by myself. I was pretty nervous about going to a tourist site by myself, since the U.S. Embassy sent me an e-mail yesterday about the rising homicide rate (10 per day between Feb, & April 2014), and there was also a note that many tourists are mugged at tourist sites and so they should hire only certified guides and whatnot. The park seemed pretty empty, though, so I just explored the ruins on my own! I set my camera on a broken fence post, set the timer, and took a few pictures! I then hiked up the stairs and walked around the ruins. I also went to the museum and looked at some artifacts and read about the history of the site. It wasn't too thrilling all by myself, but I tried to learn something while I was there.

This is a cashew tree! See the little red bell thing on the branches? The cashews are under that fruit.

Pottery

 Description of human activity at this site

 Restoring the ruins to their former glory

more pottery. This is a ceramic called poli-something that means "many colors."

So, yeah! I went to some Mayan Ruins for the first time in my life. These were probably a ceremonial center of a Mayan civilization. I still have hopes of one day visiting Macchu Picchu, which is a place I decided I wanted to visit when I was in third grade.

After we left the ruins, Isaac took me to Juayúa to the gastronomic festival! I'd already been to Juayúa last Thursday with Moises, but I was happy to get to go again! We visited a lot of the vendors who were selling souvenirs by the city center. I finally was able to tell a vendor "No, thank you," and walk away, but then I was suckered into buying a bag at the next stall. I'm awful at haggling and saying "no" to vendors. Ugh. Anyway, I got a cool new bag and some earrings for my sister. I wanted a bag like this one, anyway: it's the same kind of hand made bookbag that a lot of the students at the school have. I just didn't want to spend the money on it on this particular day; I'd had my eye on a coaster set at another stall, but after buying the bag (she even offered to knock a $10 bag with "El Salvador" embroidered on it down to $8, but then I bought a plain bag for $6 instead), I only had $6, and that was not enough to buy the $10 set. He'd only go down to $9. Shucks. Oh, well!

I wasn't very hungry, so I had an ice cream cone for lunch. I was ridiculously happy to be sitting in the central park of Juayúa, eating an ice cream cone that, at that moment, was the most delicious ice cream I'd ever tasted. There was music playing at the festival, and I started dancing slightly and smiling with my ice cream. A man with a beer in hand walked by at that moment and came over and started talking to me in slow English. "Hello! How are you? I am fine. What country are you from? What city? I used to live in California. I worked at Carls, Jr. Do you remember Carls Junior? I learned some English, like hamburgers! Welcome to my city! Do you understand?" Haha. It was a decent conversation. I stick out like a sore thumb here in El Salvador, and this wasn't the first time a stranger has approached me and tried to speak some English. It was, however, the first time someone had such a long conversation in English with me. Most people have just memorized "Hello" or "How are you" and don't understand a lick beyond that, so I'll switch to Spanish and usually they'll move on.

Isaac and my heavenly ice cream cone. It's leche con chocolate (milk and chocolate). 

I bought a jade pendant at Tazumal. It was one of the things I couldn't say "no" to the tourist trap lady. I should have asked how much it cost before I asked for all the info about it. Anyway, it is pretty cool. It's a carving of the mayan calendar symbol for my birthday. I'm a No'j, which apparently means that I'm wise and intelligent. It's the day of making decisions and giving advice. I like the idea of that description, but clearly I need to wisen up to deal with street vendors like some of the pushy ones I met today! Wow, were they pushy.