Tuesday, 02/16/2010 - San Salvador, El Salvador

The past few days have truly been "exciting". But that doesn't mean they were pure enjoyment. Probably most people would be pissed to a certain degree now. But life is too short. And I WILL remember these days.

Read through some of the comments earlier (btw, please write - I really enjoy reading the responses) and will post some pictures again within the text - even though google takes forever to upload them.

Saturday - hiked up volcano Pacay - saw life lava-flow!

I met four Germans in Antigua - Wiebke, Karoline, Florian (Karoline's husband), and Johannes (Karline's brother). We apparently had talked Friday night while partying, of which I remembered little on Saturday morning. They had gone up Pacaya before, so I tagged along with them.
We hired a local guide, Domingo, to take us up there. The walk up was interesting. Along the way there are lot's of guys with horses for the people who suddenly figure out that they are not in good-enough shape to make it up there. Whenever you pass on of those guys they ask you if you want a horse. To which I typically answered some dumbass comment ("you want me to carry it up there"? ...).
There is a point passed which the horses can't go. Then the walk over the dried-up lava starts.

Then it get's cold and you need to put on a sweater/jacket. Then you get onto the warm lava and you get this really cool feeling of getting heated up from below.
Seeing the lava life really was worth the trip. Amazing. You've seen this so many times in movies, and then suddenly this super-hot, reddish substance is flowing right in front of you. As you move close to take a picture, you truly get to understand how hot the stuff is. I three in a small stick which started burning up immediately.
My four fellow Germans head off on Sunday morning after breakfast. Karoline and Wiebke both teach in San Salvador (the capital of El Salvador) at a German School. Florian is looking for a job there, too, and comes off and on. Johannes was here to visit. I spent the rest of the day wondering the city, encountered some really cool ruins and a fantastic 5-star hotel:

It's built on/around the ruins of an old monetary.  Some of the ruins are part of a museum, the rest you can wonder around inside the hotel compound. There is a pool, great hangout areas lined with palm trees from which parrots occasionally greet you. I decide that I like the city so much, I'll ask the owner of the hostel on Monday morning if they give me free lodging/food for a few days to do some maintenance work for them.

Then everything came different. Monday morning I'm woken up by the night-hotel-guard - the police is outside, someone has broken into my car on Sunday night. This is an 180-degree turn from Xela, where the police never showed up. These (four!) guys want to know everything, they probably would have called in forensics if they had something like that down here. Two pairs of sneakers, my air mattress + pump and - my electrician tools are missing. I scratch all plans. The side window was broken. I figure out that the only place to repair it would be Guatemala city. No desire to spend any time there.

So I just take off for El Salvador. It take me an hour to cross the border - even more than the typical (excessive) bureaucracy, but I find the people very friendly and I don't have to pay for any of that stuff. In the office hangs a poster with a number to call - in case anyone accepts a bribe. El Salvador fighting bribery.

I can't get a hold of my friends in San Salvador. I loved it so far - driving here was so much better than in Guatemala. Now I'm in this big city, don't know where to go or where to get the window fixed. I'm feeling helpless!

So what! This is what it's all about. This is what I'll remember for the rest of my life. I look at my guide book and find myself a hostel. Head over there. They have free wifi - thank God! I get a list of autoglass places in the city and the address of Subaru San Salvador.
This morning - Tuesday. I'm on a mission to get this done. I try calling autoglass places via skype - nothing. Seems like calling via skype isn't working here. Frustration! I ask the women from the hotel for help. They appeared somewhat cold last night, so my expectations are low. I was soo wrong!
After three calls to Subaru it turns out they have the window. After after much heated arguing with Sonja and Carina from the hostel with the Subaru reception lady I have directions.
Now I'm sitting on a beautiful terrace.

After getting to Subaru and scheduling the window-install for tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, I drove to the German school and asked for Karoline. Happened she was just between classes, and called up her husband who then gave me directions to their house. I'm hoping to leave the car here and then head down towards Panama by bus. If I get the chance, I'd even sell the car here. But I'm not sure how the formalities work here and I'd have to figure out how to get some of my stuff back.
So far so good. I think I'm ready for a nap in the hammock.

http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/04aHeadingToSanSalvador#