Welcome to House Hunters San Salvador. Fifteen years ago, this house was nothing more than a sign on the side of a volcano. Now this house sits inside the exclusive area of Santa Elena with the added bonus of being situated very near the U.S. Embassy. Every trip to El Salvador usually includes a day spent on wondering what it would be like if we lived here which is how we ended up here.

So what do we need in our Salvadoran sanctuary? The requirements get added on quickly: hot water, cistern, large protective wall, generator, air conditioning…yes, living in El Salvador requires things you don’t think about in America. Despite being out of war for almost 20 years, public utilities still aren’t what we expect. The water still goes out and brownouts have been known to occur. Many homes don’t have hot water let alone purified tap water.

However, money buys comfort. This home is what $600,000 buys you in San Salvador’s La Montaña neighborhood. Just imagine the pool you could put here:

Bathrooms were small and closets were pretty much non-existent, but the kitchen!

Let’s not forget to mention the gated driveway that you arrive at after passing through two other gated entrances. This house has everything you want, service quarters, plenty of bathrooms, and the ability to see your neighbors frolicking in their pool.

I’m not sure how I feel about this home or others like this that I’ve seen in El Salvador. I would want to recreate the comfortable, secure feeling of living just about anywhere in America. But I do think you can take away the flavor and context of a country by trying to replicate something that isn’t really transferable. To be a good house, it needs character and personality and this house just don’t quite have it. So I guess we ended up losing on this edition of House Hunters.

r con r barril
rapido ruedan los carros
cargado de azucar del cañaveral

I can’t roll my r’s.   Never been able to.   My dad taught me this saying to help me, but you still won’t get a run of r’s out of me. I haven’t thought about this sentence in awhile, but it popped back into my head while in El Salvador.

For as long as I can remember, if I saw a farm or field full of crops I’d always ask my dad, “What’s growing there?” Sometimes he knew and would tell me; other times we guessed. Soybean was a very popular guess. Passing by this field, however, I knew immediately: Sugar cane!

Three years ago, my parents and I visited El Salvador for New Year’s. We spent most of the week touring around to areas of the country I hadn’t seen before. The sugar cane was tall and ready to be harvested. My dad told me about how sugar cane goes from plant to sugar. We stopped and looked at how sugar cane is still pressed by hand and heated to solidify the sugar. I have always liked the look of green, lush plants growing in a field. There’s something about the wispy flower on top while the cane is growing that I love.

On this trip, I took this picture on our way back to San Salvador after a night at El Sunzal, a beach on the Pacific that is known for surfing. My back was sporting a pretty nasty sunburn from not using any sunscreen and being too excited to hit the beach. We were driving through an area called Sonsonate and after the dry terrain around the beach, all of a sudden the world turned green with beautiful sugar cane just starting to come up. Ever since then, all I hear is my head is “r con r cigarro…” Maybe I can learn how to roll my r’s on this trip.

Now, I just need to find a big stack of coconuts so I can tell you about “Compadre, compreme un coco…”

Living across the street from my grandmother is Chilo. He’s the dog that might be a person. Technically he guards the car repair shop, but really he likes to screw around with the people who walk by. When you least expect it, he jumps against the solid part of the door. This is no dumb dog, not everyone gets the royal treatment; only those he thinks deserve a good scare. We greeted him when we walked out the door so we got a welcome head pop.  My friend Amy is probably rolling her eyes at this post.  She doesn’t get how dogs are awesome and always deserve to be called out. Not to mention, these are the things I most remember from my travels. Sure I hit the big sites in any new city I visit, but at least for me, those are the memories that fade the fastest. They’re not as special or unique as the situations that only you get to experience.

Sure religion plays an important part of daily life especially around the high holidays such as Easter.  Perhaps more important, however, is the opportunity to get out and see what’s going on.  Good Friday has a variety of activities and events to fill your social calendar.  In the morning, the Stations of the Cross re-enacts the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  You can walk the whole route or just meet up for a portion.  Mom and I went prepared with our bottles of water and umbrellas because the sun was ferociously beating down.  I swear I could feel my sandals melting around my feet.

The procession is impressive.  I’ve never seen so many people in San Vicente.  I learned later that it’s also an opportunity to be seen “estrenando”.  For Good Friday you are supposed to debut a new outfit.

There’s always the opportunity to make a quick buck, too.  Just about anyone who could carry a huacal (Salvadoran for bucket or large bowl) was offering water, sodas, or juice.  Going rate for a bag of drinking water, 10 cents.

The highlight, however, is the alfombras that are created throughout the town.  Made from sawdust or salt, the alfombras usually depict a scene from the Easter tale.  The picture of the above alfombra was actually taken by my 10-year-old nephew Oscar.   Although they take all day to create, the alfombras only last a few hours since they get walked on during the late evening Santo Intierro procession which we missed celebrating my cousin Jose’s birthday.

I didn’t know that most of them are created by school or student groups.  The tradition continues to be passed on and continued in a town and country where the old is being pushed out by the latest trends from the U.S.  Not to mention viewing the alfrombras also gives you a chance to walk around, see who else is out and greet them with a “Salud!”

Since El Salvador switched to the US dollar, you no longer have to worry about stopping at an ATM and making sure no one tries to rob you after.  Remember those loopholes I mentioned earlier?  Well, second to searching for loopholes is the Salvadoran way of figuring out who is trying to pull a fast one.

As we did some shopping in San Vicente, my aunt tried to pay for some bread with a $5 bill we gave her only to have it rejected.  The bill was a little beat up, but in the US would be accepted with no problem.  The first reason for its rejection:  the bank wouldn’t accept it from the store owner.  With more cajoling for an explanation came: “El muñeco esta muy chele.”  The muñeco?  President Lincoln’s face on the bill.  Chele?  Well, in their case he looked a little too white.  Unless Lincoln was able to spruce himself up a little, that bill wasn’t leaving our hands.  My mom and I had a good laugh about it even though we wanted to argue at the time.  Ideas and misconceptions get into people’s heads and once suspicion sets it, it’s pretty hard to sway someone in your direction.

Unfortunately, in El Salvador you constantly have to be looking over your shoulder.  Just about every store whether a pharmacy, gas station, or clothing store has an armed guard at the door.  We heard countless stories about people getting chains yanked off their neck.  You live in a state of alertness that we just don’t have in the U.S.  What surprised me though is how fast you start expecting the worst to happen.  My mom and I opened our suitcases yesterday to start unpacking and didn’t immediately find our makeup cases.  The first thing to come to our heads:  that the baggage handlers in El Salvador had stolen them.  We were criticizing and chastising ready to call Continental to complain when we realized they were in the suitcase we hadn’t completely checked.  Isn’t that terrible?

A big part of the decision to come  to El Salvador for Easter was to have the opportunity to spend more time with my grandmother and gain a better understanding of San Vicente life.  My mom’s family has called San Vicente home for over a hundred years.  Just tell someone you’re a Carranza and you’ll generally be welcomed into someone’s home.  A town full of traditions and at least 5 Catholic churches, San Vicente is also a great place to see what goes on during Holy Week.

The San Vicente of my childhood was one where I always recall being extremely hot and bored.  This time around despite the extreme heat and lack of air conditioning, I was anything except bored.

Holy Thursday kicks off the celebrations with the unveiling of the Easter altars, but is also a mad rush to buy whatever you need before everything shuts down until after Easter.  My aunt took us to a store down the street that a cousin owns to buy dry goods for Friday and Saturday.  I love stores like Lilian’s; they truly represent the social scene of any town like San Vicente.  I’m also always mesmerized by watching who comes in and what they buy.  A great store like this never slows down so you can always observe actual social behavior in action.   It’s also the place to discover new and unusual food items.  Allow me to introduce you to manteca nieve which is used for frying all sorts of food:

I have never seen that large a block of lard before.   It’s called manteca nieve because despite the extreme heat, it doesn’t melt or lose its shape unless heated up a high temperature.  My cousin sells it by the pound and cuts it up with the large spoon you see stuck in the block.

I pretty much don’t want to know when it was used on any of the foods I ate while we were there.  That would completely ruin the experience.  I did however like touching it to see what it felt like.  Just like old times, my mother reminded me to stop touching everything.   Of course, I stuck in a few pokes at the manteca.  How could I not?  And no, it’s not like butter.