Perquin

We got a number of chicken buses to Perquin, a really important town, up in the mountains in El Salvador, as it was controlled by the guerrillas during the civil war. We stayed in a really beautiful hotel, we had our own log cabin and the food was amazing!

It rained like crazy during our time in Perquin, we didn't realise at the time, but this was because of a hurricane. The hurricane killed over 100 people in El Salvador and left even more homeless or injurged. By complete coinsidence, we were in the safest place possible. Being on top of a mountain ment that the land slides didn't affect us- we're just lucky i guess!!

We went to El Museo de la Revolucion and a man called Carlos showed us around. He fought with the guerrillas, against the goverment from the age of 16 between 1980 and 1992. He's been shot in each leg and he showed me the bullet wound in his neck and told me that afterwards he couldn't speak or eat for 8 months and had to be in a volunteer run hospital in the mountains whilst he recovered. His 2 sisters and brothers also fought in the war, but i'm not sure what happened to them.

The guerillas were supported by various organizations but the money was limited. People went down to San Salvador to bring back food for the guerrillas but the whole trip took 8 days so for at least 4 days the guerrillas would have nothing to eat.

All the photos were in black and white and Carlos took us outside to show us the wreckage of helicopters that the guerrillas had shot down. It was incredible hearing all this information first hand and made me realise how lucky i am to have never gone through what Carlos had at only 16 years old.

Next door was the guerrilla camp which a boy showed us around. Around 200- 300 guerrillas would have lived there. We saw bunkers and tunnels that the freedom fighters would have hid in as goverment helicopters flew over head dropping bombs.

At the end of the tour the boy showed us an old photo of his dad in his guerrilla uniform. His dad fought from the ages of 14 to 26 and still has a scar on the side of his face from when he was shot.