The Travelling Teacher

Hello everyone!

This is part three of our A-Z list of El Salvador. Here you can find part one and part two, and you can be reminded of editions from places as diverse as Kazakhstan, Czech Republic and Malawi here. Remember these are some personal and light-hearted perspectives on life in Central America’s smallest country. The only thing you are allowed to be offended by is the quality of the writing!

Paseo el Carmen, Santa Tecla's heart

Stunning sunrise at Lake Ilopango

Part 3: N-S

N is for…nuevo

Honourable mentions: numeroso, Navidad

A lot has changed since I arrived in August 2022. Much of it is ‘nuevo’: new. From new road junctions to shopping malls, it seems that a lot is changing at a fast pace. Whether that is a good thing is a different matter.

Las Ramblas mall, a common meetup
point that was opened after we arrived

The new Google building in the San Benito area

The increased safety has brought new investment and opportunity for El Salvador. Now the gang issue seems to have been resolved, people are wanting - possibly expecting - the government to have as much success in other areas, such as rising costs and unemployment.

The BINAES library in Centro Historico, that
resembles nothing else in Centro Historico

Ambitious plans to build a skytrain across Tecla -
not sure whether that will ever happen

I’ve had plenty of new experiences here, many of which are documented in the other letters. One intriguing experience has been earthquakes, which have happened sporadically since I arrived four years ago. The first one I remember wobbled the whiteboard in my classroom, and made me struggle to walk in a straight line for a few minutes after. Aside from that one, I wasn’t great at noticing when they would happen at work…

5.5 is definitely noticeable!

Not from the earthquake, but this is the
damage that I would notice at school

Another fun experience that was definitely new was spending evenings trying to avoid being hit by balls of fire. Bolas de Fuego is, if not unique, then certainly a rare occurrence on our planet; an event at which two teams hurl flaming projectiles at one another on a narrow street. One bounced off my head in the first year, and we learnt that you shouldn’t wear flip-flops.

Closest I got to being involved...

It's to do with the devil, apparently

O is for…obstáculo de água

Honourable mentions: Oscar Romero

This is Spanish for ‘water hazard’, and is a golfing term. Also something that wasn’t a problem for me when learning in Lilongwe, Malawi, and quickly became a problem here.

Club Campestre's 9th hole, which gives a great view of the city

El Encanto - I may have ended up in that water...

Being able to play golf was at times problematic. In part this was due to injury (see T), in part due to access. There are three golf clubs in the country, and each one requires a prohibitive joining fee (minimum $4000 for a foreigner) plus monthly payments.

Swing is all over the shop in this picture

Turns out these are prices for locals...

We thus relied on friends and favours to play at El Encanto, Corinto and Campestre. Even then, we usually paid to play at the latter two, with a round ranging between $60 and $100. In international terms, that’s probably not bad. Compared to Malawi, where a round and caddy was less than $20, it was extreme.

Arturo is the uncle of two girls who
I taught in my last two years here

We also got family involved!

Another difference is the use of golf carts. You have to have them here - as in, you are forced to have them. On El Encanto’s undulating and sometimes steep hills, it’s needed. At Corinto, a flat course on the shore of Lake Ilopango, it certainly isn’t.

I will miss Rick's invitations and penchance for playing
really loud jazz or 90s hip-hop from our buggy

Buggies aren't really needed at
Campestre, but...you have one

It’s been nice to get some use out of our golf clubs. Making them more accessible for temporary expats like myself would probably bring in more revenue for the establishments. Whether they care about that is very debatable.

Hannah showing the rest of us how to do it, as per usual

Lovely courses, would have loved to use them more often

P is for…perritos

Honourable mentions: Paseo el Carmen, pupusas, playa, Pricesmart, piscina, PedidosYa

I feel that 99% of people who would think of doing an A-Z of El Salvador would have this locked in very early: it has to be pupusas. Surely. I mean, you’re on your way to being deported if you say you don’t like them! However, my perritos - Mini and Maxi - are far more important to me than a basic food (which gets a mention in Z, don’t panic).

Maxi: living her best life

Mini: bored as usual

Two very different personalities, but both loved El Salvador

Mini and Maxi’s arrival from the UK to El Salvador was dramatic. They soon took to life in Central America, in a country that is much more dog-friendly than Malawi.

On a boat in Lake Suchitlan

Exploring the dog park in Bicentenario

On the beach at Barrio de Santiago, shortly before Mini
decided one of our friend's fingers was a sausage...

Given their nature and experiences suffered when they were young, their behaviour can be a bit unpredictable. They’re wonderful with most people after a couple of minutes. Except our cleaner, unfortunately…

We were able to leave the dogs with friends overnight, big moment

The protection needed for the cleaner,
though the dogs could still see her

They gave Hannah company when she was working from home

With other dogs, they are sadly more predictable, either barking madly or tucking tails and pleading to go home. Being attacked by two large dogs who escaped their owner - with Maxi being held in the mouth of one for quite a long time - gave them trauma about walking in the residencia for a while. This was an exception. Most dog owners were friendly and sweet with our pups, no matter how growly they were being. They would also always find the 'Mini Drag' hilarious.

Other 'I'm scared' locations included under the
bed and inside the outside sofas

The window was often a resting/watching
place - because, you know, protection

We think the dogs enjoyed weekends
away with us - this is up Cerro El Pital

One concern we had when arriving was where the dogs would go when we weren’t around. We were lucky to be introduced to Julio, a dog trainer who taught them some Spanish commands and would always say how great they were, whilst very rarely offering any evidence in the form of photos or videos.

Julio has two places - this is his dog training centre in the
city, but he would often take our pups to his house in Sonsonate

Anxiety sometimes shows itself with chewing...

...and other times with attempted dominance...

Mini and Maxi have had a great time in El Salvador, thanks to it being a much more pet-friendly country. It remains to be seen how they will cope in the Dominican Republic without a garden…

Sunbathing: a popular pastime

Our friend Charlie created this amazing
piece of art of Mini and Maxi

One of us likes being in a hammock...

Q is for…Qué le vaya bien

Honourable mentions: queso

I’ve had the spelling checked by a Salvadorean, as it’s a phrase you hear a lot. ‘Go well’, or ‘Hope things go well’.

We made many Salvadorean friends here

I liked that my school promoted Salvadoreans to important jobs,
it's not something I had seen in previous jobs

The people of El Salvador have been a huge positive to our stay here. I could count the number of negative experiences I’ve had with people on one hand, and most of them were just doing their job. The vast majority of people here have been friendly, generous and incredibly patient.

My attempted repayment to El Salvador?

Patriotism is high here

The country has been through a lot over the last 50 years (see X). Qualities such as resilience, humour and kindness, which we have seen in abundance during the last four years, would have been needed to get through that challenging time.

Being invited to run up and around our
local volcano was a great experience

Sharing is a big thing here, including access
to lovely places such as Corinto

We’ve been invited to play golf at exclusive places (see O). We’ve had neighbours organise a car battery replacement and bake us banana bread. I’ve been bought pupusas when running on top of a volcano. Hannah has been rescued on a busy road by a load of men jumping out of a truck and pushing our car across three lanes of high-speed traffic (see F). There are many more examples. People make a place, and the people of El Salvador have made this a great four years.

Enjoying our view from Zona Suiza

Our mechanic Alberto kindly invited us
down to this beach for the day

R is for…Rinconcito Cubano

Honourable mentions: rodilla

This is a small Cuban restaurant in Santa Tecla that makes possibly the tastiest food you could possibly eat.

Best. Food. Ever.

I enjoyed getting a cake and coffee at the Biscuit Factory. The
dogs didn't like it so much, because they wouldn't get any.

There are many international cuisines available in El Salvador, though Thai and Vietnamese options are sorely lacking, and Ethiopian food hasn’t made it here yet.

Swiss fondue. A thing here, for some reason.

Seafood is obviously very popular at the coast

What surprised me here - and would have been my pick for A if my school had a different name - is how Americanised the country is, and food options reflect that. I genuinely think there are more Wendy’s in El Salvador than in the US. Many of the Salvaorean diaspora are returning after fleeing the war or gangs, which is surely the only reason that Denny’s exists here.

Burgers are everywhere - we would go for Aaron's

So. Many. Wendy's.

Living in a more digitally connected country than Malawi, many of these options are delivered via an app called Pedidos Ya. Most countries have an equivalent to this by now, and Thursday takeaways became a common routine for us.

Great when delivering our food, less so
when cutting us up when driving.

A funny sign for our favourite pizza place

Going out here isn’t particularly expensive, though the clampdown on driving under the influence of alcohol to a zero-tolerance level changed habits slightly. Uber is so cheap here that it didn’t really change much for us.

El Xolo is one of the city's more expensive
restaurants - nice but not worth the dollars.

This Italian was part of our pre-run tradition in
Ataco, in the northwest of the country

As the local food was a bit…well, pupusa-heavy (see Z), having different options from much of the world allowed us to enjoy a wide variety of food. I’m now dreaming about that masa…

'The Argentinian' in Santa Tecla - marvellous

But nothing will beat that Cuban...and when
the dogs were allowed just a tiny bit...

S is for…Santa Tecla

Honourable mentions: Santa Ana, surfing, Suchitoto

Our hometown for four years. Bizarrely, I was a bit apprehensive about this. Before moving here, I’d only lived in capital cities when living abroad. I didn’t realise that Santa Tecla merges into San Salvador. Same same but different, you might say.

It has also been called 'Nuevo San Salvador'

It was the country's capital from 1855 to 1859

Tecla, as we call it, can be a charming place. It was the old capital for a hot minute in the nineteenth century, so has some historic buildings. It has parks (see E) and two large sports complexes. It has a central strip, Paseo el Carmen, that pedestrianises on Friday and Saturday nights for a variety of food trucks to set up. It has a great market (see M) and lots of shopping options. It’s not overwhelming…well, except for…

Paseo el Carmen from Chaplin's Bar

There was a Christmas fair in the park, Cafetalon, each year

Tecla also hosts a (possibly necessary but) stupid one-way traffic system, which resulted in it being quicker for me to cycle than drive to school. Its buses drive like idiots (see W) and spit out plumes of smoke, causing lots of air pollution. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of land pollution, whether it is litter or the smell of urine from behind the buses that parked near our house. Any peaceful walk can be punctured by the sound of loud music blaring out of a speaker, whether from a walker, driver or a shop (see Y). Not to be confused with the fun drumming that added to the atmosphere in the video above...

Standard traffic blocking

The lovely little church

It has its own football team, whose name changed from Santa Tecla FC to Inter FA and then to Inter Santa Tecla, and whose colours changed…well, a lot. The stadium, Las Delicias, has a great name and even better views. Both are far better than the team that grace its pitch.