God. Appropriately for a sunday...

At the risk of reinforcing a cliche... Central America is a very religious region. For example, in countries like Guatemala, a significant amount of TV air time and full channels are dedicated to religious programming, including in prime time... churches are absolutely full during the multiple daily services...

I was also struck by some of the very graphic imagery of Jesus´crucification as compared to that used elsewhere. Below are a few examples:

Yikes...

Detail from Leon´s cathedral ceiling

Some kind of fruit offering in Antigua, Guatemala during Semana Santa

Also in Antigua, one church has a request book for the local saint to work a miracle...

But it seems to work as per the many thank you plaques next to it

 

Oddly enough, the actual tomb is empty...

This was a sign in Guatemala inviting the local youth to attend catechism...

And of course, the processions of Semana Santa...

Alegria. In Name Only...

One more stop in El Salvador... Alegria is a pretty little village perched on top of a mountain with a great vista on the valley below. All the streets are VERY hilly, San Francisco style. There can't be more than a few hundred inhabitants and I'm the only tourist in town.

View from the main square.

Commemorating local bigwig...

View on the valley. I had a chat with this old boy and he just started talking for about 20 minutes straight... Didn't really matter whether I was really listening or indeed understood...

If you ask me the face below does not say Bienvenidos... In fact, the people here are not exactly big smilers and don't seem that open to outsiders. Maybe a result of being a somewhat isolated mountain village. For example, you can't walk into most of the shops. Instead they have a metal bar door and you give your order from the outside to a, mostly, unsmiling old woman.

Yes, it's that hot...

So hot that I decided to take a hike to a local laguna in an old volcano crater.

Another ''unwelcome'' anecdote on the way... I met a group of local teenagers on a school trip on their way back from the laguna. As I passed them, one of the boys shouted out What are you doing here. My quick answer was The same thing as you! While he′s just a teenage kid showing off in front of his friends, I cant this is exactly a welcoming part of the world. Nicaragua here I come!

A few more pictures HERE.

Old Dog Learns New Tricks: Surf Edition

The road that got me to this beach and my first surfing experience was a tortuous one... I was supposed to get off the bus that took me into El Salvador in a quaint little town called Santa Ana. But following a communication breakdown with the bus driver, it failed to stop in said quaint little town and I got dropped off instead in a rather nasty suburb of the capital San Salvador. With absolutely no backup plan...

Let´s just say that San Salvador didn´t exactly live up to its name... Crowded, exceedingly polluted, hot, dirty... I´m convinced the inner circles of hell are more pleasant. And probably safer... Anyway, after a night in a particularly horrendous hotel room (basically sublet to me by a family of cokcroaches), it was clear I needed to make a swift exit.

The sanest and closest option seemed to be El Salvador´s main surfing spot: El Tunco. Yes, that´s right people, I went surfing for the first time! And on a black sand beach no less...

That´s me surfing!!

Kidding... one of the local kids.....

The obvious pet to bring to the beach really...

Local headcount was 50% locals on vacation and 50% gringo surfers trying very hard to look cool. Snake guy is a local in case you´re wondering...

Surfing report: I managed to stand up on the board and surf a small white wave to the end! This definitely felt like snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Or at least from the cockroaches of  my San Salvadorean hotel room...