San Salvador

We rode thru Quezaltepeque and almost immediately began a climb. San Salvador was founded on the side of the volcano that share's its name, and passing into the city from the north means climbing either one set of rising hills or another. The climb was very hot into the capital without any services on the climb to help keep cool and with few roadside trees for shade. As seems to often be the case when we have a short day ahead of us, we didn't leave early enough to make it in good time so we got there around 2.  Tried to find one of the art galleries mentioned in our book that seemed to double as an upscale cafe only to be told by a local man that it had closed a while ago. The same man helped us find a hostal, however, so we were ready to start exploring the city!  We stayed in the Boulevard de los Heros area, and made all our explorations on foot, including 2 galleries, a few food places, a grocery store, and a mall laid out like terrace gardening with each floor only spanning about 30 percent of the overally building's length. Similar to many other Central American cities, the city sucks for street signs and is NOT built on a grid so Erin was completely lost whenever we went walking. The capital could really be mistaken for any american city minus the nasty open sewers masquerading as streams, the lack of sewer grates, and the lack of signage. The city itself is built right on the side of a volcano, so going anywhere is a workout and we got plenty of exercise in our wanders.

The sign before San Salvador....disheartening.. 

Open sewer/stream..

Tiny people!

Of the two galleries we went to, one was the Museo de Arte Popular which had exhibitions about miniature sculptures depicting scenes from a more traditional way of living set in an air-earth-fire-water theme. Ironic since we saw many of those activities and they are still very common in the countryside. The other museum was dedicated to imagery and was mostly a photo gallery about the civil war. We stayed two nights at the little hostal with access to the kitchen.
The mall had big open doors but most of the stores inside were air conditioned so it was hot except for a few rooms that had a cool breeze. The use of energy though really doesn't make sense.  Cars are valued higher than pedestrians, even on crosswalks, almost got run over walking out of the mall as it seems pedestrians never have the right of way or drivers just don't care. El Salvadorians lose their courteous generosity when they get behind the wheel regularly honking aggressively and weaving into the shoulder to pass.