San Salvador

Crossing the border from Guatemala to El Salvador turned out to be a long journey. We made our way using local buses- ie. Chicken Buses. Chicken buses are an experience in themselves- they are old american school buses, brightly painted and covered with cartoon stickers. They are crammed full with people and luggage, hot and uncomfy. Men, women and children walk up the isles with baskets of snacks, fruit, newspapers, fizzy drinks, gum in their arms or balanced on their head trying to sell you their products. One man stood at the frount of the bus reading from the bible and at one stop a man dressed as a clown got on and performed magic tricks. Chicken buses are crazy!

We saved alot of money getting the chicken buses instead of the tourist bus, but it ment we had to get 5 buses instead of 1, it was quite fun though and at the border there were bicycle taxis. We sat in a little carriage thing whilst a the taxi driver cycled us across a large bridge connecting Guatemala and El Salvador.

When we got to the capital it was dark so instead of continuing we decided to stay over night. The next morning we explored the city and went to Museo de la palabra y la Imagen which was really cool- had lots of images of the poverty in El Salvador and of the civil war too.

We wandered into the city centre- poked our heads in the market and cathedral. Unfortunatly it started raining around mid day so decided to go to this big american-style mall- shop and go to the cinema.

I have to be honest and say that San Salvador is the most horrible place we've been out of the trip so far, it's smelly and grimey and the streets are lined with american fast food resturants. Everyone carrys a gun and i even saw a man get on the bus with a machete. Every bank, garage, hostel, clothes shop, cinema ect has an armed gaurd in it. The upside however, is that everyone is really friendly and goes out of their way to help you. All the same is was a relif when we left the city!