"Gangsters", "Point Brake" and "Wild West"!

Plaza in Santa Ana.
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Civil War, dictators and brutal Mara gangs... Assosiations way to familiar with this small and almost ignored pearl. Yes, we were warned about gang crime from the fierce Mara gangs worse than in Guatemala. And they are really brutal according to the news. This was no gangster "Menace to society" or "Brotherhood"-puffed up action movie but real life.That's way I stopped reading the newspaper, and tada! Felt much better!

So we went to Santa Ana, the second largest city in El Salvador but despite what my guidebook said (again!) there's isn't much there. A relativly nice main square (relativly means not THAT much garbage around) but we were asked to keep inside at night because of gang crime and violence. Argh.

The next step took us from a surf and fish movie to a western movie:

The fishermen have come in for the day. Any luck?
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La Libertad at the Pacific coast seemed much more appealing, and the smell of fresh fish and the ocean struck us once we got out of the chicken bus. Mmm, the sound of the rolling waves on a beach automatically calms you down. And so was the town. The old pier, which has been there since the 15th century, was the point of local day time activity. When local fishermen came back the pier exploded in fishermen trying to yell eachother out with "the best fish" and "the really best fish!" and "the best fish and freshest shrimps!". And todays catch was still alive. And the afternoon was surfing time! The local bar had cool paintings on surfboard how the old Mayas met Columbus' sailing ships on surfboards. Nice, and you could almost imagen how it would have been when the moon came up over the local beach. When the tide went out there was total silence, except for the sound of the world greates ocean. The next step took us from a surf and fish movie to a western movie:

There're sharks out there. I know.
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Sochitoto, hidden in the northern forests, had dusty street , saloons where the locals played cardgames, a dominating church and the whining sound of a occasional breeze. Only thing missing was the occasional dustball. Even our hostel was like an hotel in Texas anno 1850', including the holes in the roof. And when it rained one night... yeah...(!). On one of the cafeterias around the main square they actually played the soundtrack from the classic Clint Eastowood movie "The good, the bad and the ugly" which in one moment made us wanted to have a duell on the Plaza. High noon!. One evening the easy going feeling was interrupted by childrens laughter and pick-up trucks with ballons. Candies were thrown out and the kids running after eagerly trying to collect as much as possible. Another fiesta celebrating some local saint. Finally the nearby lake was in the same class as Lago de Atitlan, and the colorful mixture of sunset and a heavy thunderstorm on its way in made the view a fiesta in itself. Me and my friend agreed upon that if we some day were doing something wrong and wanted to hide, El Salvador, and especially Sochitoto, could be a nice spot to hide out. So let's not tell the sheriff....