I went to El Salvador in December and stayed there until January. This is a recap of what I did using my photographs.
December 19
I was very excited to go because I hadn't gone in so long but the airport experience was very frustrating and it made me mad. When the airplane took off I started crying because I was scared. I watch too many conspiracy theory videos and that made me scared of airplanes because there's always a chance that it can crash and other bad things so I was just letting my emotions out. The food they served us was good, to be honest. It was meat with potato and carrots, some kind of weird salad that was too sour so I gave it to my dad, a piece of bread and a bag of mango and pineapple granola squares. It was a five hour trip on the plane so I had to entertain myself with the tv shows and movies the airplane offered so I watched an episode of Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan and an episode of Cake Boss, the beginning of Life of Pi and listened to my music. It was a long five hours.
We arrived to El Salvador past 9 pm and I was very hungry so we stopped at some gas station and we got Powerades and chips. The Powerade bottles are different than the ones here so I had to take a picture. The chips were lemon flavored tortilla chips which is different than here because we usually eat lemon flavored potato chips but they were still very good.
When we finally got home, my dad’s house, I was overwhelmed by my new environment. It was 10 pm, so it was silent and dark. We looked around the house, and I found a turtle and a lot of banana stems.
December 20
The next day, I don’t remember what I did but all I knew was that the shower water was cold and I felt cute. We had a really cute backyard, it was all green. El Salvador is very green. I also rekindled my love with hammocks. I explored the neighborhood. There’s a little school there named “Cedi” and there are also a lot of little stores right in the homes of people. Everyone knows everyone in that neighborhood.
We went to the only actual supermarket that was close and I found it to be very expensive. I can’t remember the exact prices but I do remember it being more expensive than here in the states which is crazy to me. I also thought it was funny to see the cereal that I see here, seeing it over there but in Spanish.
Apparently we went out to eat twice that day. We went to a nice restaurant for lunch and I don’t remember what I ate but I’m sure it was delicious. According to the picture, I had a strawberry smoothie.
For dinner we went out to a small pupuseria which displayed old salvadoran artifacts which I thought was pretty cool. That place was pretty cool. I had revueltas and queso con loroco. If you ever find yourself in the pupuseria de Guaco then I recommend you to eat the queso con loroco pupusas. Don’t eat the revueltas, I’m warning you now. I took a horchata to go and in El Salvador, to go drinks don’t come in cups, they come in bags.
December 21 We went to La Gran Via Shopping Center, and that place was gorgeous. When you think of El Salvador, you probably only think about its poverty and its beautiful nature, but it also has some excellent shopping centers. We ate a small cafe there, and I had a strawberry smoothie and carrot cake, it was pretty good. It wasn't a huge shopping center, so we walked through most of it. For dinner, we had Pollo Campero. I remember Pollo Campero being the greatest thing El Salvador had ever produced but I was highly disappointed. We were served some reheated fried chicken. No one said anything about the food being so bad, but it was. So I don't recommend it. I thought the menu was funny though because everything was in Spanish and I never knew that translations of some words. For example, a cinnamon bun is an "encanelado."
December 22
I spent most of that day building the Christmas tree and decorating the house with lights. I love Christmas so much, so I love to decorate for it. My cousin's wife helped me a lot, so I don't deserve all the credit. We even had a Nacimiento under the tree. I don't know why but apparently deer with lights are a thing in El Salvador, so we put them under the tree too.
December 23 We drove by San Lorenzo, and you could see a beautiful mountain. If I remember correctly, it was the San Vicente mountain.
We went to a lake in Apastepeque which was surrounded by restaurants. We went to one where a relative worked at and ate fried fish and drank soda in glass bottles. It was such a beautiful view. After that, we got on a little boat, and we rode around the whole lake. My dad took terrible pictures of me next to the tree when we got home.
December 24 We explored the neighborhood even more. This time we walked far from our house. We walked to a soccer field, behind a green (by green I mean that there were trees and plants everywhere) alley, and up a mountain. Everything was beautiful. It was a lot of exercise, but it was worth it, I'm glad I got to see what I would have never seen here. In El Salvador, fireworks are a big thing on Christmas and Latinos celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, so we fired up fireworks from the roof of our house. It was beautiful. Everything is beautiful in El Salvador.
December 26 I spent most of the day laying on a hammock. To be honest, 50% of my time there was spent in a hammock. I love hammocks. I also spent some time outside and hung out with the big turtle which is named Pancha. We went out in the afternoon to Plaza Mundo which is basically a mall. Stores close very early in El Salvador so by the time we got there, most of the stores were closed, so all we did was walk around and eat pizza that was very overpriced.
Even though I love El Salvador, I was also hating my time there and I wanted to go back home immediately. Since the day I got there, mosquitoes and some kind of other bug had been biting me to the point where I wanted to die. I was so itchy and I didn't know what to do. All I could do was rub rubbing alcohol all over my legs and arms and then put on lotion and cry. For some reason I was the only one in my family being bitten this much. The others had a couple of bites here and there but I was covered in red itchy bumps all over. We didn't think bug spray would have been necessary but we were wrong. The last picture is a picture of me crying because of how itchy all the bites were and I was waiting for my mom to rub rubbing alcohol on me. I was so angry that my sister had taken that ugly picture of me but now looking back, I laugh at it.
December 27 We went to an island, and I drank coconut water. I now know that I don't like coconut water, but the aesthetic from it was nice. To get to the island, we had to get on a little boat, and of course, I got on the edge while the boat was probably going 40 mph to just take a picture. Like I've been saying this whole time, it was beautiful. El Salvador is beautiful.
December 28 My foot was being attacked by the biting bugs too.
December 29 We went to Metro Centro, another mall, to see my mom's family. It was a cool mall and it was pretty big. We went late, so all the stores were closed, all we could do was sit in the food court. We stayed a bit longer than I thought we would so I bought myself some Chinese food which I later found out to be was a mistake.
December 30 My sister bought this baby chick from a lady down the street for fifty cents. She named it North. I spent a lot of time with this baby chicken, and apparently, we taught it to be very close to us. You would think chicken are afraid of you but this little baby chicken loved being around people. It wouldn't play, but it would fly/jump onto your lap and just chill there. I threw up a couple of times and felt so sick. I blamed the Chinese food from the day before because it was a bit sketchy. It's such a bad feeling being on vacation and being sick because then you can't enjoy your time as much.
December 31 It was New Year's Eve, and I still had food poisoning. I tried to be strong, so we went out to eat at the pupuseria place, but all I had was a Jamaica beverage. I ended up throwing up again while we were there, and a wife of a relative suggested I get a coca cola to try and settle my stomach a bit but I didn't have spare change so she bought it for me and I am now realizing that I never paid her back. I'm sorry girl. We went back home and celebrated the New Year as a family with cider. I was finally able to eat later that night, and I ate a chicken sandwich, and it was delicious. You can see me eating it in this picture that I photobombed. I love photobombing.
January 1 I think we stayed home and only went out to eat dinner. We ate at a Mexican restaurant, and I had a quesadilla that was really good and an horchata. I couldn't finish the quesadilla though because my stomach was still sensitive from the food poisoning.
January 2 For some reason, dollar coins are frequently used in El Salvador. What's a dollar bill? I had collected a lot of dollar coins by this time. I tried to save them, but at the end, they were the only money I had left, so I spent them. We went to Plaza Mundo again, and this time we were there early, so we were able to go into stores. I don't think we did, though. We did go to Starbucks. I had a delicious mango smoothie. We were able to see more of the mall since it was earlier. We saw a big tree, and I posed for some pictures in front of it. That mall was so pretty.
January 4 We went to a little town over to visit my dad's aunt, and while we were there, we spent some time in the middle of the town. The middle of the town had some stores and a park in the middle of it. I got an ice cream, chips, and juice. I just wanted to taste the ice cream because it looked good but I couldn't finish because apparently, I was sick. I don't remember what it was, but I guess I had a sore throat if I couldn't eat the ice cream, so my relative's wife ate the rest. I then went to the little park, and it had a playground. The playground seemed for older kids because everything was a bit big. It had a very steep slide that I was too scared to go down and seesaw that I went on with my mom. Later that day, I just spent chilling on a hammock outside in the backyard.
January 6 Remember the only supermarket that I mentioned earlier? Well because it is the only actual supermarket there, we went there like every day! We went so often that I knew the whole layout of the store. I can still see it now. I hated that place because everything was so expensive! It's crazy how much the people have to pay there for their food and stuff. I thought this was the last time we were going to go there since we were leaving in two days but I was wrong. We went the next day too.
January 8 We left the house very early to go to the airport. All I remember was eating a cookie and drinking orange juice at Subway in the airport and then getting on the plane. I didn't cry this time.
In the end, I loved El Salvador. Even though I was miserable because of the heat, all the bug bites (I ended up having more than 50 bug bites, I counted), and being sick, I want to go back.