The countries in Central America are just too small! We seem to fly right through them without getting to know them much. It kinda seems a shame, but that is how it goes. Wheeeee!
Anyway, we spent our last night in El Salvador in a small community called Siramita. It consisted of about 6 watermelon stands, a church and a comedor. We stopped into the church to see if they'd be willing to let us sleep there for the night. Like most people they were more than willing to help us out. Juan, the Pastor, was a nice guy, soft spoken and quick to ask us about ourselves. We chatted about our trip; where we had been and where we were going and our crazy brother sister relationship. Then out of the blue Juan asks "what do you say about Christ". This is not an unheard of question here because people are usually genuinely interested. But it can be a scary one to answer, because you have to wonder what will the Pastor of the church you are going to stay at think when you tell him you do not believe in the teachings of Christ. Or to say that Christ is not necessary for our lives. Anyhow, picture me and Merilee seated with Juan standing over us in his maroon shirt (improperly buttoned I might add)and pointing at us while preaching about us going to hell. Sounds scary, kinda was. Anyhow after that was over they kindly offered us tortillas with some rice and beans to accompany our dinner of lentils, beats and rice. Yum!
Next day we went to Honduras. We are cool like that. We crossed at a small town called El Amatillo. Border crossing are quite the excursion. Semi trucks, bikes, people on foot and cars all trying to get between countries. Add a bunch of people with dollar signs in their eyes who chase after Meilee and I shouting "CAMBIO AMIGO! CAMBIO CAMBIO CAAAAAAAMMMBBBIIOOOO". Then a few people who are trying to earn a tip by leading us to immigration because we can't follow the pack of people headed that way. In short, it is crazy chaos that is kinda fun, kinda stressful and makes me feel really really white. Anyhow we finally made it across and met Christian and Alexis. Alexis is a full time car runner. He makes 4-5 trips to the USA to buy used cars (really nice ones) to sell for profit in Costa Rica. Christian was on his first run, but he was running a school bus to Costa Rica. And now we know how school buses from the USA made it to Central America, people like Christian decided to make some money and drive them down to sell them. Business venture anyone? But they were really friendly and we chatted for a long while and they told us some pretty wild stories of surviving the roads in Guatemala and bribing police officers. Fun!
Later, we made it to where we thought we would stay the night; Jicaro Galan. But every hotel was dirty and over priced. So we hopped back on the bikes to continue to the next town. Before we reached it I saw a watermelon stand outside a church. I decided it would be a good spot to ask about if they was somewhere we could stay (plus we could buy a melon!). The women selling the fruit led me to the pastor of the church. And Melki, the pastor, graciously let of stay on the floor in one of his empty rooms. But we were the town show that night. Everyone came to see the two Gringos. While we chatted, people walked by and stopped to gape. While we ate, kids stared in from all windows to see if we too eat with our mouths. When we were winding down for the night, kids stared in the windows to find out, it we too, sleep. It is interesting because we go through some areas where people are very respectful of us, and others where people are not. I suppose it wasn't "disrespectful" per se, but it was not how people of the town treat each other. But we did spend the night safely and ate homemade cheese and butter. Heavenly!!
Next day we were up and out before the kids of the town could catch us! We went not too far to a town called Choluteca. It is a quaint little colonial town. As usual we made it to a big town on Sunday hence everything was closed. But we did have our clothes washed in a washer as opposed to a hotel sink! We did watch an amazing Mexican movie. I realize I can't even begin to write about how bad it was. And ate fried bananas with eggs and tortillas! Awesome goodness!!! (I will be ending every paragraph with exclamations)
Then we went for Nicaragua. We had another crazy border crossing. Ate another watermelon...same old same old. Got caught in some rain showers. (The pictures are from those) Then the town we were trying to make it to never showed up on the road as far as we could tell. And it was starting to get dark and we couldn't make it to the next big city that has to exist. So, we had to stop and ask a couple of random women on the side of the road if we could sleep outside their house. Amazingly they said that would be fine. They helped us buy food for dinner and even offered us a spot inside to sleep on an unoccupied bed. It was a blessing at the end of a long day with an uncertain end. The only bad part was they were fairly poor. And us being seemingly rich Americans puts up a divide that some people cannot get over. They were very curious about what kinda of money we made, how much things cost and those kind of things. At times it can make conversation uncomfortable. It is sobering to know at the end of the day we will probably always have infinitely more opportunities than those we meet. We left this morning and find ourselves in the lap of luxury here in Leon, Nicaragua. A shower, trash can and wireless internet. I guess that is just how the world is.
Ok Pictures!!
All the kids from Melki's village Guanabo #1 some scenes, then the priests, their dogs and myself!
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