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Tue, 7 Feb 2006 09:22:42 -0800 (PST) from San Salvador

Copan, bus to Guatemala City & Antigua, hello from San
Salvador

I am typing this from the Internet Cafe (80 cents per hour)
on Calle Arce in San Salvador, a major east-west artery,
right next to the Univ. of Technology.  I had to walk 10
plus blocks west from city center to find this one. 
Tomorrow (8th) on Tica Bus at 5am, I am leaving for the old
colonial capital Leon of Nicaragua, expecting to be there
at about 3pm.  (That is, I decided to skip the cute town of
Suchitoto--north of here, not Tokyo--as its population is
only about 20,000.  I already enjoyed Copan as a small
town; I like bigger places, like Antigua, for city
roaming.)  I will spend the 9th there and then continue to
the other old capital Granada on the Lago (Lagoon of)
Nicaragua--with 300 plus islets--near the Mombacho Volcano,
and an hour away from the Pacific. (There is also Managua
Lagoon to the north of the city.) By the way, there is no
road connection between El Salvador and Nicaragua, though
the two countries face each other across water--Golfo de
Fonseca--on the Pacific.  We will have to pass thru
Honduras to get there, meaning 2 more entry and exit stamps
from that country, as also from Nicaragua, BUT I have been
asking for the officials to use pages on my passport with a
little room here and there, so I can reserve the few blank
pages I have left (from 3rd addition of 24 pages) for the
many visas I will need starting in March.

0. Volunteer Work in Central America.  There are many
non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Central America
that help those who want to help in some capacity to find
work.  (They dont offer work directly, but guide you to the
right places.)  This may be fulfilling to some, BUT
understand that volunteer work is not free or cheap.  For
example, a 3-month program in Guatemala, including 4 weeks
of Spanish classes, will cost $2,400 (2004 prices), in
addition to your ticket to there.  I am undecided if many
of these NGOs are there to live off the idealism of young
people, though I am sure the also do much good for these
very poor countries.  (Some of them seem to be, at least in
part, employment agencies too.  Perhaps I am being
cynical.)

a) Bus Connections.  There are now several bus lines that
serve North America to Central America.  You can start in
Los Angeles or Houston, reach Mexico City, possibly other
international hubs in Mexico, continue to Belize, or to
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, to Panama. 
Dont jump into a bus yet.  This would be a grueling 5 to
7-day trip.  I know, for I took the ones in every direction
in Mexico, and the 18-hour trip from Costa Rica to Panama
City.  Alas, the Pan American Highway stops dead about 60km
south of Panama City, getting lost in wetlands.    That is,
there is no official road connection between Central and
South America.  There are other ways to cross that might
include crossing paths (unexpectedly) with drug smugglers,
or by making deals with dubious boat captains.  In either
case, it is strongly suggested that you can talk your way
out of trouble in Spanish, why I have not tried these
routes, yet.

b) Interesting people I met.  1) One young (20s) American
student from Maine, who took time from her studies to
volunteer as a teacher in Honduras.  2) Several old
American legionnaires who were on the bus from Guatemala
City to Panama City--at least 3 or 4 days--to celebrate the
marriage one of their comrade to a young woman from
Guatemala.  (Well, I too might take this option after my
travels, and I am not too choosy, as long as she is pretty
and 18 to say 23 . . .)


1. Buses, Copan to Antigua and more.  The 1pm bus service
from Copan to Antigua is VERY convenient in that it will
bring you right next to the Parque Central in Antigua at
6pm, as center as you can get.  And it stops right in front
of the tiny Tour Office of RUTA MAYA, from where you can
get tickets to as far as Mexico or Costa Rica.  Or, as I
did, for $21 you can get a ride to San Salvador, via the
TICA Bus in Guatemala City, delivery to the latter
included.  (Ruta Maya opens at 9am, closes at 7pm.) The
service starts at 9am daily, and they will pick you up from
where you are staying in Antigua.  The bus first collects
passengers from their hotels and then heads for Guatemala
City, there at about 10:30am.  The Tica bus leaves at 1pm
and arrives at Tica Bus Station--there are 3 major
stations: East and North, West, and South--in San Salvador
at about 6pm.  There is hotel at the station.

a) Roads, Guatemala City.  ($=7.5 Guatemalan Quetzales).
The roads are surprisingly good, but forget about sleeping
on the bus.  It is 6 hours in the mountains, climbing or
descending, with almost continuous curves.  The Guatemalan
border is only about 10km from Copan.  The driver´s
assistant collects passports and gets the exit stamp from
Honduras and entry from Guatemala--on the passport pages
you want, I should add--since I will need my blank pages
for visas later, I ask stamps to be put on already-stamped
pages with some room.  For this he asks 20L ($3).  The bus
made 2 stops to discard passengers going to other
directions, like north to Tikal, conveniently right at
those buses.  The landscape changes from tropical flora and
fields to a something like the Mojave Desert with tall
desert bushes with honey-mesquite, some cacti, and other
shrubs for the 1-hour section before Guatemala City, but
then it is lush tropics again.  I found Guatemala City well
organized--but, like Los Angeles, there is no heads or
tails or torso to it.  Traffic police directing traffic
flow at many crowded intersections, roads are well taken
care of, drivers made room for ambulances, garbage is
picked up, etc.  Of course, you also see many hillside
favelas--slums--as in Brazilian cities.  Our driver told us
that tourist buses to mountain villages are often robbed by
bandits who wait for them at slow curves and steep
inclines.  This passing thru GC was sufficient.  The drive
from GC to Antigua is about an hour, downhill but still in
mountains.  Antigua is very pleasant during the day, but it
gets quite cool at night due to the elevation and
mountains.

2. Antigua.  Huh, no wonder this is a UN World Heritage
Site, with leisurely live-and-let-live ambiance to match,
crowded with tourists, also from USA, the population
seemingly evenly divided between the locals and visitors. 
I rate ambiance very important in judging a city´s pulse. 
I dont like pretty places that are dead or sleepy.  For
that I look at landscape paintings.  A city must have some
pulse in its pretty frame--I dont mean just a commercial or
business pulse as in many USA cities in which the streets
are often dead after business hours.

Antigua is NOT a city with scattered Colonial buildings in
its midst; the entire city is Colonial, period, with every
street in uneven cobble stones, many perhaps a km or so
long.  I have seen almost all Colonial cities in Latin
America; I would rate Antigua one of the tops, even if many
parts and buildings are in need of renovation and
face-lifting.  So I have chosen well in Guatemala, and I
hope so also with my next 2 destinations: Leon and Granada
in Nicaragua.  That you find MANY tourists here is good,
for Guatemala is a poor country.  By the way, there is
tight security all over the touristic parts.

a) Mayans.  More than other places, half the local
population of Antigua is Mayan.   You can spot them
immediately.  Women are generally about 4ft 5in tall, men
about 5ft.  Women wear outfits from very colorful material,
a skirt, a different design blouse, a colorful rope around
waist to hold things together.  Dont be surprised if you
some young women breast-feeding a baby in full view while
strolling around leisurely.  The men generally wear a
dark-colored pants, a casual white dress suit and
invariably a white stetson that seems too big for their
frame.  They all have dark weathered faces with sharp
features.  By the way, I was told that many Mayans speak
mostly their own dialects among themselves, not Spanish.

b) Hostels.  First some directions.  The bus from Copan
stops right adjacent to Parque Central in Antigua, the bus
facing north when it stops.  Across from the Park (to the
east) is the old cathedral.  If anyone recommends that you
go to a place called LUNA MAYA to stay, forget it.  The
place, while cheap at 50Q (less than $7) and close to the
Park (on parallel street to the west, away from the
Cathedral, to where the bus drops you off), it is loud and
with very inconvenient toilet.

Instead, facing the Park, turn left, walk to the corner,
turn left and walk 2.5 blocks to McDonald´s (red-brown
building) on your side.   Stop there and look across the
tiny street.  You will see Hostal REFUGIO.  A single goes
for 40Q (less than $6).  It is not the best place I stayed
at, but better than Luna Maya.  Hostels close doors at 1am,
so be back (well) before then, as most things are closed at
around 9pm.  

If you continue the street to the boulevard with a
center-lane, say about 100m WEST from Hostel Refugio, you
will see the spread-out market.  This more or less defines
the boundary in that direction.  The opposite one is at the
Cathedral.

c) 3 Volcanoes.  Exit Hotel Refugio, walk across to 
McDonald´s, order something, and take it out to its garden.
 Then look south to enjoy Volcano AGUA, and look southwest
to enjoy 2 more: Acatenango and Fuego.  Nice ha?  Ask any
tour office for joining a group to climb any or all 3.  The
Ruta Maya agency where the bus dropped you off has a 7-hour
tour to Volcano PAKAYA, the active one, at 6am and 1pm,
including the 1.5 hour ride to there the 2-hour climb for
just $5.50.

You can see the 3 volcanoes from various parts of the city.
 From where the bus from Copan left you, if you look along
the street continuing in that direction (north), you will
see a large yellow arch.  Walk to the arch and turn around
180 degrees; the biggest volcano (Agua) will be facing you
without hindrances. 

d) Internet, Telephone.  Internet places are all over,
including one about 20m to the right when you exit Hostel
Refugio.  It  charges 8Q per hour and gives you 15min extra
per hour, a better deal than most that charge 10Q and no 15
minutes.  Telephone to USA is about 1$ per min.--this is
the best rate--still much too expensive compared the rates
from Kenya and Venezuela, but much better than the $6 per
min. some places charge in Brazil.

3. El Salvador--uses Dollars, US electric plugs, CST zone. 
The 1pm bus from Antigua ($21, 6 hours) arrived in San
Salvador at 7pm (not 6), at the Tica Bus Station that is
also a HOTEL SAN CARLOS (singles $12 in clean but noisy
rooms with bath and shower), where I am staying.

a) Bus to Managua.  Right away, I got my ticket for Feb. 8,
San Salvador to Managua  for $25, the bus leaving at 5am,
in Managua at about 5pm.  (I will get off in Leon about 2
hours earlier.)

b) San Salvador.  I decided I am going to tour at least one
large city on this trip, gangs or no gangs, and made it the
grittiest of them all: San Salvador, where there is said to
be more gun-totting people than Texas, and as easy to buy,
and gangs.  And pissed about dont go here and there, this
morning at 6:30am, dressed in shorts--except at beach
resorts, South Americans wear long pants (like
Mideasterners)--camera on hand, looking exactly like a
tourist, I left the hotel, walked 1km to the center,
passing the Mercado Citadel as mobile vendors were coming
alive.

c) City Center.  I arrived at city center as it too was
waking up, the Sun strong in the east.  I strolled around
leisurely, taking photos at Parque Libertad, Plaza Barrios,
Catedral Metropolitano, Iglesia (Church of) El Rosario,
Palacio Nacional, etc.  The center is really gritty, grimy,
and filthy.  All around, both sides of any street are
taking by semi-permanent and mobile vendors, also blocking
many shops.  The discard generated by food stands, etc.
would fill a truck every hour.  It is all on the street,
though there is futile effort to sweep the garbage.  There
are more full-size buses than cars.  The smoke they belch
adds to the grime and filthy look.  Things looked much
cleaner and orderly in Guatemala City.  This is somewhat of
a surprise in that El Salvador has one of the better
economies in Latin America, of course, thanks in part to
the huge inflow of Dollars from USA, but the people are
said to be hard-working too.  Talking about Dollars, as in
Ecuador, Dollar is also the local currency, and unlike in
Ecuador, where often you will get the old local coins as
exchange, including a brass (coin) Dollar, here it is all
USA coins.

d) Sites.  The Plaza and Parque are indeed nice, with a
nice view of the Cathedral from both.  Iglesia Rosalia, on
the eastern side of Parque Libertat, looks like an old
airline hangar from outside.  Inside it is quite
interesting i that the curving sides on its east and west
are covered by rows of stain glass.  The eastern side was
glowing from sun rise, also reflecting on the western side,
when I took my photos.  The church is quite spacious
inside, designed like a museum, with 3 statues and a wall
relief on the southern wall, 2 statues at the northern
entry, and a few other figures made of scrap metal.  (If
the front door, facing the Cathedral on the west is closed,
try the side entry from the street on the right.)  I should
add that security is very tight at city center, with 2
policemen at every corner.

During the 10 hours or so I
browsed the city, I was the only tourist there.  This
covers the area from Tica Bus Station, thru the center, all
the way to the Univ. of Technology, actually all the way to
the hospital where Calle Acre ends.  However, there were 5
girls in the bus with me from Guatemala City, and they got
off there.  They may have continued somewhere else.  The
park areas at the center are fine, but the city has to do
something about the flea-market environment of the center,
where shops on both sides are covered, within about 3 feet
from their entries, by semi-permanent shops, with mobile
vendors in front of them.  This for 100s of meters on streets
in all directions.  Where there is a little space
left on the street, is taken by crawling motor traffic,
pedestrians, etc.  Many of the regular shops have closed
down, probably due to blocked traffic to them.  And all
this generates much garbage at street level.  That a few
things may be still nice at the center becomes irrelevant
as far as tourism.  As for the countryside, San Salvador
is like the others in this part: tropical, with many very
poor villages and settlements, but scenic.

OK, now that I have typed this, I will browse around until
it gets dark, return to Hotel San Carlos at the station,
get some sleep, be up at 4am, and off I go again . . .

Sirman