El Salvador

Michelle and I got very lucky the other day. We high-tailed it out of Xela on a bus that took us all the way to Guatemala City. Crazy as things are, our cab got to the bus terminal in Guate roughly five minutes before the bus to San Salvador left. A few hours later we were in San Salvador, surrounded by American fast-food chains and bad air.

After a night sleeping on the most heinous mattress I´ve ever experienced, we checked out the city of San Salvador. Choked with traffic, it did have some very cool buildings, specifically the two churches we went into. One of them held the tomb of Monsignor Oscar Romero, the famous liberation theologist archbishop. Unfortunately, it was closed at the time. Stuff closes here from 12-2, I´m pretty sure for the lunch hour.

We did, however, manage to make it out to the Universidad Centroamerica to visit el Centro Monseñor Romero, which was really cool and really kind of messed up, just finding out the history of what happened. The building was in the former quarters of six Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter, who were all slaughtered by Salvadoran forces during the civil war.

The next day we walked to the Museo de la Palabra y Imagen, or museum of the word and image. It had lots of realy cool exhibits, most of which referred to Latin American civil wars. They even had a whole exhibit dedicated to the FMLN´s radio station that broadcast during the war, which was really cool.

Yesterday we took a bus from San Salvador to Suchitoto, which is a really pretty city. It´s nice and small, and our hostel has a view of the lake. ¡Que´ bonito! The hostel also has food, so we´ve eaten pretty well here, including some of the best pasta I´ve ever had. Not to mention the jugo de tamarindo. Doesn´t look to appetizing, but sooo delicious.

Anyway, we have concluded that tomorrow we´re going to head to San Miguel, then from San Miguel to Perquin and El Mozote, to visit some important sites from the civil war. Including, a little less happy and more sobering, the village of El Mozote. El Mozote is a village where, in 1981 (very early in the war), the US-trained Atlacatl Battallion executed all but one of its nearly 800 residents. They found 143 bodies, and 131 of those were children. I found out about this event and this village while at the School of the Americas protest back in November.

I think that El Salvador, as a place, may be my favorite place so far, just for all of the history involved with it. It doesn´t hurt that it has some of the most beautiful country I´ve seen so far.

It´s also hotter than a bloody oven here.

I think it´s time for another installment of Desert Island Discs with Yonki!

Today, we shall discuss a recent acquisition that has immediately skyrocketed to my top 5 of all time slot. I am talking about the Copper Blue album by Sugar.

Although I am a huge fan of Bob Mould´s work in Husker Du, I think this album represents his best work. While it doesn´t have the raw hardcore urgency of albums like Zen Arcade or New Day Rising, it has some of the best pop melodies I have ever heard. On top of all of this, and some very good lyric-writing, is some of the catchiest guitar work, and some of Bob´s finest electric-guitar ripping. It has another one of my favorite songs of all time, and that being ¨Helpless,¨an extraordinarily catchy one. I recommend this album without giving any warnings of need-to-get used to vocals, or market it as an acquired taste. It´s amazing, and I demand all fans of melodic rock music to buy it right now.