y decision, and I miss the Pacific already, but after another cracked board and a longing for new experiences, I felt it was time to continue. I didn't leave El Salvador immediately, but rather headed up into the mountains to a small coffee producing town called Juayua where I spent a few days. When I was living along the coast I often wondered if the relaxed nature of the people had something to do with the peaceful setting by the ocean. A local even told me that during the war the coast was the one place that remained at peace - even during great bloodshed and violence, the ocean and beach maintained a sense of tranquility. Once I arrived in Juayua though, and felt the welcoming vibe of the people there, my respect for the people of El Salvador was only reinforced, and I realized that it was not only the coast that instilled a great kindness in the people here.
Every weekend in Juayua there is a food festival called the "Gastronomical", where cuisine from all over El Salvador is cooked in the central square. As you make your way into the area surrounding the square the aromas of fresh meat and spices hit you. For vegetarians, there is no escaping the fumes and smoke of burning flesh; for those that like meat, there is a wide range to try. Fortunately I had met a girl earlier in the day while hiking to a nearby waterfall who liked eating and trying new things as much as myself. We split a plate of grilled rabbit and barbecued frog - unfortunately the snake cookers weren't present this weekend...
After Juayua I was determined to make my way to Honduras, to the Copan Ruinas. The fact that I was in Central America, where brilliant Mayan structures abound, and I had yet to see any of them, was beginning to bother me. I wanted to do the trip in one day, via chicken bus, and the fastest way to do this was for me to cross from El Salvador into Guatemala and then up into Honduras. I never really considered how interesting of an experience this would be - to cross the borders of three different countries in one day. Traveling in a chicken bus is always an experience of complete immersion, where the services provided are primarily for locals. On the chicken bus in Latin America, the culture of the area flourishes. Thus, by traveling this way in three different countries, I was given a clear and concise juxtaposition of them, and was able to really notice the many differences. Just by simply stepping across a border so many things change drastically: the language; the styles; the attitudes; the music; the food; the politics; the looks; and even the geography. The one constant of course, being those aspects of humanity that an invisible line cannot draw a distinction between - good nature and kindheartedness. Viewing borders in this way made me really question their importance - made me really question whether borders are for better or for worse. Do borders help to maintain a sense of national pride and character? Or contrarily, do they impede a sense human unity? Are the borders there because of the great differences that are apparent? Or have those great differences only grown and been exacerbated by creating a more apparent distinction in the first place? As a strong believer in localized and direct democracy, it is difficult to find a balance between these thoughts. However, it is clear that in most nations of today, democracy is not as it should be anyways, and therefore the no
tion of a border to protect a shared belief is a fallacy...
Now I am in the border town of Copan Ruinas, a place where arguably tourism has played a vital role in helping the people. The locals here ought to thank their Mayan ancestors for building the incredible structures that now remain in ruins. Were it not for the thousands of tourists that flock here every year to
see these stunning structures, I wonder what would keep this community from falling into desperate poverty. I won't dive into the positives and negatives of tourism this time. However, tomorrow I will be diving literally into the Atlantic ocean when I make my way to the Bay Islands...
Every weekend in Juayua there is a food festival called the "Gastronomical", where cuisine from all over El Salvador is cooked in the central square. As you make your way into the area surrounding the square the aromas of fresh meat and spices hit you. For vegetarians, there is no escaping the fumes and smoke of burning flesh; for those that like meat, there is a wide range to try. Fortunately I had met a girl earlier in the day while hiking to a nearby waterfall who liked eating and trying new things as much as myself. We split a plate of grilled rabbit and barbecued frog - unfortunately the snake cookers weren't present this weekend...
After Juayua I was determined to make my way to Honduras, to the Copan Ruinas. The fact that I was in Central America, where brilliant Mayan structures abound, and I had yet to see any of them, was beginning to bother me. I wanted to do the trip in one day, via chicken bus, and the fastest way to do this was for me to cross from El Salvador into Guatemala and then up into Honduras. I never really considered how interesting of an experience this would be - to cross the borders of three different countries in one day. Traveling in a chicken bus is always an experience of complete immersion, where the services provided are primarily for locals. On the chicken bus in Latin America, the culture of the area flourishes. Thus, by traveling this way in three different countries, I was given a clear and concise juxtaposition of them, and was able to really notice the many differences. Just by simply stepping across a border so many things change drastically: the language; the styles; the attitudes; the music; the food; the politics; the looks; and even the geography. The one constant of course, being those aspects of humanity that an invisible line cannot draw a distinction between - good nature and kindheartedness. Viewing borders in this way made me really question their importance - made me really question whether borders are for better or for worse. Do borders help to maintain a sense of national pride and character? Or contrarily, do they impede a sense human unity? Are the borders there because of the great differences that are apparent? Or have those great differences only grown and been exacerbated by creating a more apparent distinction in the first place? As a strong believer in localized and direct democracy, it is difficult to find a balance between these thoughts. However, it is clear that in most nations of today, democracy is not as it should be anyways, and therefore the no
tion of a border to protect a shared belief is a fallacy...Now I am in the border town of Copan Ruinas, a place where arguably tourism has played a vital role in helping the people. The locals here ought to thank their Mayan ancestors for building the incredible structures that now remain in ruins. Were it not for the thousands of tourists that flock here every year to
see these stunning structures, I wonder what would keep this community from falling into desperate poverty. I won't dive into the positives and negatives of tourism this time. However, tomorrow I will be diving literally into the Atlantic ocean when I make my way to the Bay Islands...
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