and so the madness begins...

the memorial garden at 'la UCA'
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the last 48 hours are blurry and strange!

after spending the first day settling in (with a bit of difficulty - being a guest in somebody's house is different to crashing out in a hostel!), going to see the local drug dealer's house.. possibly one of the scary moments in my trip. i was in a car so i felt safe, but this is gang territory and i was getting eyeballed off all of them, i also knew this was the local crack den. wahey! in the evening i met some friends and relatives of alejandro and we had a nice evening with wine and beer, my manners in spanish go down the pan when i'm pissed, i had to keep reeling myself back in and remembering what to say! i tried empanadas... how lush! banana stuffed with refried beans and fried, you can have them with custard in too. yum!!!

fede and alejandro
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the day after we went with fede and alfredo to the university of central america (know to everyone as 'UCA') to see a memorial museum. 6 priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed here by the salvadorian military in the civil war for being 'intelligent' (really!). upstairs there's a beautiful garden with rosebushes planted where they fell, and downstairs again i was shown books full of photos of the priests and the 2 women when they were found. very sobering, i almost threw up when i got outside. we figured a bit of cheering up was needed after this, so we went to pizza nova nearby and had 4 huge jugs of beer, then headed off to del arco for more beer, and then off to, erm, another bar! to drink more beer! quote from fede at the start of the night - "the english can't drink!". well, that's just encouragement! in fact this english girl stayed up drinking till dawn cracked, then fell asleep on the bar so it was back home and bed for me!

the next day and night were spent being a bit hungover and lazy, and a bit homesick