In the bosom of the world’s coolest dictator
A personal greeting from the World's Coolest Dictator
El Salvador makes a very surprising first impression, from the moment you disembark into the shiny new airport, quickly pass passport control with a free 180-day entry stamp and get greeted by the “World's Coolest Dictator” (and his wife) till you're waiting for an Uber outside and chatting with super friendly taxi drivers, before being whisked into town on brand new roads (with nothing but Janet Jackson on the radio for 45 mins) and walking around after dark in beautifully lit public parks. Not to be too positive, but wow!
Very glad I ended up not skipping this much maligned little country....
Chef's choice
The perfect first meal to have in El Salvador - mostly because the kid working at the street food stall recommended it, so I didn't have to make any decisions or worry about how to properly order/eat pupusa without first seeing how locals do it.
Also, pretty much any time you're sitting on a plastic stool eating street food in the tropics late at night (preferably with a little bit of a breeze blowing), life is good....
Bougie, boring box store
Visiting a Walmart in the US is always a fascinating amateur anthropological experience, and a must on my personal to do list. So I was a bit disappointed to find that in El Salvador it's a pretty ho hum affair.
It seems to be a relatively upscale outlet here, so devoid of the domestic drama and intrigue you're more or less guaranteed to witness stateside....
Palacio Nacional
Dusk yesterday at the National Palace (now a museum) on the main square of San Salvador's Centro Histórico....
All about the Benjamíns
Just how Americanised is El Salvador? Sure, I could post more McDonald's, KFC or even Taco Bell. But lots of other countries have those. Ben Franklin winking at me? That's something I haven't seen very often (ie never) in all my years of travel....
Putting the meh in Mexican cuisine
First lunch in El Salvador: Mexican style street tacos. Not bad, not amazing. $4.50 for four mixtos....
Whitewash Fail
FYI to whomever was tasked with literally whitewashing this wall: It's gonna take more than one layer of paint to cover up an important message that needs to be heard. Just sayin’.... #WhitewashFail
¡Gracias, Emperador Xi!
San Salvador's shiny new library, courtesy of the world's emerging super power - you know, the one based in Beijing, that's taken the crazy approach of building things all over the world rather than trying to bomb and terrorise everyone into submission.
Some fun facts about the library: It's open 24 hours* and kids can play Playstation and other video games for one hour, after they read for 30 minutes and pass a test proving they've actually read. Pretty cool....
*It's mostly open 24 hours. The rooftop terrace doesn't open till 8am, which I found out this morning when I showed up just after 5am so I could go to the rooftop terrace to watch sunrise. There also wasn't much of a sunrise, so it was a failure on multiple levels.
The dangers of being ‘tall’ in Salvador
Salvadorans are quite short on average, which is great for foreigners of average height, because it makes us feel much taller. There are some downsides though.
You have to duck under branches and tarps and corrugated metal roofs of street food stalls all the time, and every now and then there's a low hanging spool of razor wire waiting to really make sure you're really paying attention.
This one is a block away from where I'm staying, so I pass it all the time, but it's also conveniently just across the street from one of the city's main hospitals, if the need should ever arise....
Busty pony
Early morning outside Mercado Ex-Cuartel in downtown San Salvador....
Bon Jovi at home
I wanna go to Nashville to see Bon Jovi's comeback concert!
But we have Bon Jovi at home!
Bon Jovi at home:
King Pupper Dog
You probably can't see it without zooming in, but the best thing about this is the little crown on the top of his head....
And a close up after crossing the street (at a pedestrian overpass two blocks away, because San Salvador is not really set up with pedestrians in mind):
Pupusa 4 life
Pupusa are white cornmeal griddle cakes that usually come stuffed with some combo of cheese, bean, vegetables and/or meat, and are topped to taste with shredded pickled cabbage, salsa roja, salt and chilli.
They're 𝘵𝘩𝘦 staple food/meal in El Salvador, and you'll find them sold at street stalls from like 5am till the evening hours. You'll also find them in lots of different sizes and priced accordingly - usually from $0.25 to $1 each for basic frijoles y queso.
The ones on the left here were $0.30 each and were my very first pupusa experience, before I learned that they should be drenched in salsa roja and eaten by tearing off pieces not trying to fold in half. The ones on the right were four for $1 along with a $0.35 coffee from a food truck outside Walmart.
While they're beloved by all Salvadorans, they're not the most photogenic of foods, and these shots don't exactly do them justice. But if you'd like better photos, that's what DuckDuckGo* is for....
*Until recently I obviously would have said "Google” here, but Google search is absolute trash now. No matter what you search for you'll only get ads and shopping sites, and a bunch of AI shoved down your throat. It's a shame they've chosen to just openly go to the dark side instead of providing useful services that people actually want.
Not only do they have Dollar City in El Salvador, but many items still cost exactly $1 (or even $0.50), so the name isn't an anachronism like it is with similarly named chains back in the States - which is about the nicest thing you can say about these cesspools of society-destroying neoliberal consumerist excess….
El Café de Don Pedro
This place has the look and feel of a local institution, and an often packed parking lot that requires not one but two shotgun-toting parking attendants / security guards....
Late capitalism doing late capitalism things
San Salvador's Cementerio de los Ilustres (Cemetery of the Illustrious, also sometimes translated as the Cemetery of Distinguished Citizens) is everything that a connoisseur of final resting places could possibly want.
But this was by far the most interesting single sight on the grounds. Not only the first 'For sale' sign I've ever seen on a tomb, but it raises so many practical questions about how this particular transaction would work once consummated.
Gonna file this one away under 'Late capitalism doing late capitalism things'....
The Thinker (hopefully)
There's a fine line between boredom and pensiveness, especially when you're gonna be at it for all of eternity....
Dome of the Rock at home
I wanna go to Jerusalem to see the Dome of the Rock!
But we've got the Dome of the Rock at home!
The Dome of the Rock at home:
You sir, are no Che Guevara
When I went to take this photo there were two construction workers standing in front of it, so I had to ask them to move. And like all Salvadorans they were super friendly, and also started discussing between themselves who this person was supposed to be.
Their conclusion: Che Guevara.
They were totally convinced, and wouldn't listen to my broken Spanish protestation of how this guy looks absolutely nothing like Che, and I should know because I just spent five months in Cuba, seeing his face pretty much nonstop.
However, upon further reflection, the misidentification felt somewhat fitting, given the direction that their country's current 'revolution' is headed.
Who knows, maybe in the new El Salvador this will be Che from now on. In the 2020s, literally anything is possible....
El precio de los huevos en El Salvador
Price of eggs in El Salvador: $5-6 per carton of 30, so more or less the same as Panama, and 40% cheaper than Cuba.…
Salvadoran fashion
Traditional local Salvadoran fashion at the friendly neighbourhood Walmart....
Literal street art
Literal street art in one of San Salvador's nicer districts....
Escalón
A very nice roundabout / park / pedestrian walkway up in San Salvador's more upscale district of Escalón, with one of the country's famed volcanoes shrouded in clouds in the distance....
ǝɹoʇS uɐɔıɹǝɯ∀
The only realistic explanation I can think of for this sign being upside down is that it's some kind of silent protest against US policy in El Salvador and the wider region, although I'm pretty sure that that's not actually the case....
Homage to Tarantino
"If your country is small, you dream it big."
- Rubén Darío (Nicaraguan poet)
"If we walk slowly and look at that tourist taking a photo of the market, it'll make us look like the Salvadoran Reservoir Dogs"
- These guys (probably)
Good lord, that's a lot of money!
No idea what kind of cards these are, but that was an eye-watering price to see in the window of a secondhand shop in downtown San Salvador....
Putting the Mmmm mmmm in Mexican tortas
I'm no expert, but Don Jony makes a damn fine Mexican style torta. Mmmm mmmm!
Michael Moore's got some explaining to do
When you ask an AI image generator to create a mural of Michael Moore as a twentysomething Salvadoran YouTube celebrity. Nailed it.
Can't be too much longer now till Skynet takes over completely. Don't say that you didn't see the warning signs....
NB: A google image search turned up this Instagram post, but I've still got no idea who this guy actually is.
Ad blitz for the Second Coming?
This (late capitalist Caucasian American Evangelical) Jesus guy is advertising all over El Salvador these days. Seems like he might have some big second coming gig or something coming up soon. Wonder what the tickets are going for on the resale market....
Cha Cha Cha
The entrance to Cha Cha Cha, a Cuban restaurant and nightclub in downtown San Salvador....
Don't sucker punch your best friend
The Iglesia El Rosario (Church of the Rosary) is one of the more interesting architectural gems of San Salvador, or in the much more expressive and detailed words of E Stewart from Google Maps:
“If you don't see this church while in El Salvador, you need to sucker punch your best friend. This place is beyond beautiful with a very rich, relevant history. The architecture is ingenious, it's one of those places that humbles you upon arrival because you realize the builder is light years ahead of you in intellectual ability. The stained glass, the floor, the sculptures, it's so simple in design yet exceptionally brilliant in its final form. I am posting pics but they don't do it justice. They have an eye in the church, the all seeing eye, there are so many hidden gems it could easily take a few hours to decipher them all.”
NB1: This chap in the neon green kept jogging back and forth while his son took action shots of him.
NB2: Unfortunately, I'm no longer in San Salvador and never did go inside this church, so if the absurdist advice of E Stewart from Google Maps is to be followed, my best friend had better be on the lookout for a sucker punch....