September 14-18
Hello everyone!
¡Feliz día de la independencia! El Salvador became a nation in its own right on September 15, 1821. The dates are a bit more complicated than that but this is the day which is celebrated by Central America’s smallest country as its birthday.
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I would say I'm trying to fit in...but I haven't
seen anyone wearing one of these... |
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| Anyone for tennis? |
As with most countries, Independence Day is a national holiday. It landed on a Thursday this year, meaning we had three days on, one day off and one day on for school. Well, that’s what 99% of the population thought. Turns out the man who has the power wanted us all to have a bit more time off…
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They became independent from Spain in 1821
but were in a regional federation until 1841 |
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| Pupusas: massive part of Salvadorean culture |
As we were drinking rather large beers in a bar in San Benito at 6pm, enjoying the fact that we didn’t have to (but probably still would due to our body clocks) wake up quite so early in the morning, a tweet was sent out. The first we heard of it was a WhatsApp message saying that school had seen the tweet and not to jump to conclusions. We did, and school did 10 minutes later. President Bukele had declared Friday a national holiday as well.
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| This decision was taken at about 6:00pm |
Suddenly we had a four day weekend in front of us. With more time to prepare, we could have used that time to go explore, maybe even to a different country. As it was, I spent most of my long weekend in my newly adopted city, getting to know its rhythms a bit better.
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| I stuck to beer, rather than shooting tequila |
This started by doing what I had originally planned to do on the Thursday: run. Every year there is an Independence Day Run on the morning of the big day. Leaving at 7am from Multiplaza, it meant that I didn’t drink too much on the Wednesday and allowed me to see how some locals celebrate their decoupling from Spain. It turns out a lot of them do this with dogs.
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| Great views in the early stages of the run |
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| This husky overtook me. Three times. It only did 5km though. |
The race was free, with the stipulation that you had to wear blue or white. It was an enjoyable enough jaunt around the midpoint between Santa Tecla and San Salvador.
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This group run at unsuitable times for me.
Entre Runners, on the other hand... |
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| That, mis amigos, is a grimace |
I spent the rest of Thursday and Friday catching up with elements of work, repeatedly trying to call Ethiopian Airlines (that’s for another blog) and kitting out my house with more things to make it more like a home.
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| These are from my garden |
I also did a bit of research, specifically into running groups. Though not the one I found at the Independence Day race, I found another running group who run each Saturday at 6am. Just like I used to do in Malawi! For this particular weekend, this involved getting an Uber to a new area of town called Santa Elena for the 10km or 15km jog.
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Bit different to the old Saturday morning
run - this one has photographers! |
I wanted to do the 10km run and practise my Spanish along the way. It’s not as close-knit as my Malawian running group - many people run with headphones, for example - but I did eventually find a man who spoke decent English. I ran with him and his mate for a while until it was time for the distance split.
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The man on the left speaks English. The man in the
middle doesn't sweat when running up steep hills. |
The English speaker persuaded me to do the 15 with the other man. I soon found out why he didn’t do the longer route. His friend who I ran with taught me a new Spanish word: pendiente. Slope. He should have added ‘very steep’. We went from bottom to top of the city in less than three kilometres.
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As usual, race organisers in El Salvador
were optimistic with their measurements |
No sooner had I finished my run, avoided having a McDonald’s and returned home, I was heading out again. Out of the city this time, though it was to a place I had been told about before arriving: El Encanto country club.
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This is actually in Zaragoza, halfway between Santa
Tecla and the beaches to the south of the country |
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One of the holes of El Encanto's golf course.
Playing a round without membership is over $100. |
This is one of the places where you can play golf. Costing significantly more than it does in Malawi, it isn’t a common hobby here. I wasn’t here for golf, however: national pride was taking over for the weekend.
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| Tennis' annual version of a World Cup |
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This big ball stopped me from getting a better view -
to be to the left of the ball, you had to pay $10 |
El Salvador were playing a Davis Cup tennis match against Denmark. I had not heard of any player from either team. I should have, actually, as El Salvador’s best player is a grand slam doubles champion and ranked sixth in the world.
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| Marcelo Arevalo won the 2022 French Open Men's Doubles title |
This was a fun experience, with wildly varying weather and quality of play. The person who told me about it had a contact: Marcelo’s brother. I couldn’t get near sitting with them as they were sitting right behind the competitors. However, I still had a pretty good view considering I hadn’t had to buy a ticket for my spot.
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You can see my friend from football through the green bars on
the right of this picture. Great view of the action! |
After the rain delay, Marcelo wrapped up the first set tie-break and proceeded to blow away his baby-faced opponent in the second set. Though they ended up losing the overall match, it was nice to see that tennis is somewhat supported in the country.
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| Though they won this match, El Salvador lost the tie 3-2 |
Amazingly, there was still one day left of this surprisingly long weekend. A group of us spent Sunday exploring a small market called ‘mercado nacional de artesanias’. It translates as National Craft Market, and is a fun, colourful insight into how you could decorate your home.
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| A colourful map of El Salvador at the mercado nacional de artisanias |
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| I restricted myself to buying sofa covers |
So an impromptu long weekend spent exploring locally, rather than further afield. Plenty of time for that, but some interesting experiences along the way. Next year’s Independence Day will be on a Friday so at least we already know that there’ll be a long weekend! Unless the president wants to boost his popularity by giving us the day before as a holiday…
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| Saturday mornings may once again be tiring |
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| Enjoying our Wednesday night |
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| Same time next year! |
Love you all,
Matt
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