The Travelling Teacher: El Salvador

Hello everyone!

This is part two of our A-Z list of El Salvador. Here you can find part one, 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!

Preparing to go down the Rainbow
Slide, which was very...white

Maquilishuat, the national tree

Part 1: G-M

G is for…Gauchos

Honourable mentions: golf, guayaba

My teaching Fridays were always busy, with the only non-contact time usually taken up by meetings. The message in our WhatsApp group, usually simply saying ‘Gauchos?’, was often what would get many of us through the final day of the week.

Gauchos, our common Friday hangout

Messages like this would sometimes appear in our WhatsApp group

If you were to look up ‘gauchos’ in Santa Tecla, you wouldn’t find it. The establishment formerly known as Gauchos is in fact part of a chain called Casa Parrillada. It is about a 15 minute walk from school, with an ice-cold Toña being delivered seconds later, and a cheeky punta jalapeña arriving soon after that.

It was changed from Gauchos before our arrival

I'm holding a punta, which is essentially a mini steak.
$3 at one point, absolute bargain.

The beer of choice is from Nicaragua

It was the scene of a cathartic, group breakdown that almost all new teachers had simultaneously in my first year (see P). It was the scene of the 10/10/10 challenge which would disgust about 90% of the global population, but not…the other 10. It was the setting for quizzes and games, and quiet drink sessions that specialised in ‘just one more’.

10 puntas, 10 breads, 10 beers...and a lot of sweat

Key part of the 2024 Christmas quiz, this

We made great friends here, and Gauchos was a big part of that.

We would enjoy going to other, fancier places as well...

...but Gauchos was our spiritual home.

H is for…hablar

Honourable mentions: Hija de Pooh, hoyo, hermoso, huevos

A big factor in moving to El Salvador was the opportunity to learn one of the world’s most-used languages: Spanish. ‘Hablar’ is the verb for ‘speak’. It is something that ultimately I should have done more.

More English will appear as it becomes a more popular
tourist destination, but for now a lot of signage is only in Spanish

I worked with many Spanish speakers, and sometimes
would practise with them, but probably should have
used that opportunity more often

To be clear, I did speak a reasonable amount of Spanish, in spite of the Spanish lessons promised in my contract never arising. It’s not that there’s no English here, it’s more that many who have a bit of English don’t have the confidence to use it. People apologising for their English when it was better than the Spanish I was a bit proud of, particularly in Ubers, showed a humility that epitomises this country.

Going on tours like this was a way of practising my Spanish

If I was struggling, I could always use context (these
football match prices are insane) or Google Translate

I spent many a taxi ride with Daniel chatting his ear off in my broken Spanish. I tried my very best to explain things to Manuel about our garden. I would occasionally throw in a ‘verdad’ or ‘en serio’ next to my kids when they were talking lots in Spanish, which sometimes would genuinely befuddle them. I also did go to a language school, albeit in Mexico rather than here.

The ladies of the pupuserias would not speak English

I learnt some key vocabulary from watching football on TV in bars

When I’m in control of the conversation, I am very much ‘mas o menos’ in my Spanish. Listening to others, or not having context, however, throws me off. And don’t get me started on accents and slang (see Y)... Ultimately, my Spanish is pre-intermediate, pero debería ser mejor de lo que es.

Change your life...by speaking more Spanish!

Ordering at restaurants was fine!

I is for…Iglesia

Honourable mentions: Ilopango, idiota (de conductor)

Religion is still big here. The primary school’s most popular extracurricular activities are Catholic Club and ‘Walking with Jesus’. We dubbed the latter as ‘Eating with Jesus’ as all they seemed to do in that club was eat pizza or donuts.

Iglesia de Rosario, in the Historic Centre of San Salvador

A cross and a Day of the Dead cat, naturally

It had effects in school that I didn’t like. For example, we were told not to use a slideshow from a company that the school pays for membership with because one slide had a rainbow flag in the corner, and there was a complaint about it. Another were the sex education classes that were provided; one British female teacher who is fluent in Spanish went along and found that the girls were essentially being told to prepare for life as a housewife and mother.

Enjoying time under the cross on the Peñon de Comasagua

Suchitoto's church by night

But it is important here and needs to be respected. Sundays are significantly quieter in comparison to the rest of the week. When running on Sunday mornings, I’d often see and hear gospel singing. There are churches everywhere. I even did a run once called ‘Ruta de las Iglesias’, which took in 8 different significant churches.

San Salvador's main cathedral, which has
been flattened twice by earthquakes

Cross at the top of a hill on the outskirts of Ataco, which
is a key marker in the longer trail races there

What’s interesting here is the influence of a different religious group. Stars of David are quite a common sight. A major road is called Avenida Jerusalem. As the traffic is so bad on that road (see W), people may start to reflect on Jewish influence within El Salvador. One of the country’s unsung heroes is a man called Jose Arturo Castellanos, who secretly coordinated a massive effort to save European Jews during World War II.

The road is also known as F^&£*$n'
Jerusalem for its insane traffic

Known as the Salvadorean Schindler

But if you need reminding of the influence of Christianity, look at the name of the country’s airport, main bypass…or the enormous painting in our usual AirBnB in Ataco.

Romero was canonised in 2018

This adorned our Ataco bedroom

J is for…jardin

Honourable mentions: Jerusalem, jocote, jamaica, Joya de Ceren, Julio

Even though they may not show it for most of the day, Mini and Maxi do need to release energy as Jack Russells do. This was just one of many reasons why one of our favourite parts of El Salvador was, simply, our back garden.

How it started (mango tree on the left)...

How it transformed

Not many houses here have bigger gardens than this. Not many houses here have mango and banana trees out the back and a guava tree out the front. Not many houses of people we knew also have a huge compound, or residencia, in which to walk dogs. Even though ours decided they preferred to walk on the main road to see whether the market was open (see M).

"Me? Digging? No, don't be silly..."

Maxi living her best life in one of the parks in the residencia

The garden and adjacent patio were a lovely place to have a post-work cup of tea, play a board game or just sit and listen to the many birds with their unique calls. The dogs were far more interested in cats and squirrels than hummingbirds and orioles.

This is often what our coffee table looked like

"You look for cats, I'll keep an eye on squirrels..."

As bad as our car choice was, the house we ended up renting for four years was excellent and exactly what we needed. Slightly away from school but an easy cycle or drive in, slightly higher altitude so a bit cooler, and in a very safe and friendly area with multiple parks. We paid more than most in terms of rent, but it was worth it. We probably would have had to move if we had stayed another year due to rising rent costs, mind.

We splashed out on a nice sofa, which transformed the inside of our house

Mini was not impressed when it was TV time

The house had its flaws: flooding, water pressure issues, an animal living in the roof that the landlord simply didn’t want to deal with even when it peed down the wall. But simple things like separate bathrooms, an electric oven (when it eventually arrived), a huge bed and enough space to have a ‘room of requirement’ made it a pleasant place to live. And even if the house got a bit annoying, we could always step outside and appreciate our garden.

Occasionally other animals would visit - Mini was
desperate to investigate this behind the oven...

Our water tank somehow ended up empty, possibly caused by
a crack, so many days were spent checking its levels

K is for…kayac

Honourable mentions: karaoke

I’ve always been partial to a kayak, and the lakes of Central America are ideal spots for a paddle.

Sunrise kayak trip at Lake Ilopango

Mini suffers from massive FOMO, so spends the whole time
jumping between my kayak and Hannah's paddleboard

Quite early on, we bought an inflatable paddleboard and kayak from Pricesmart. We got a lot of great value out of them, and they were a tremendous source of entertainment for everyone when the dogs were also aboard.

$100 very well spent, this

Maxi observing the water in the Gulf of Fonseca

My favourite spot for kayaking was Coatepeque (see C), but there are many other waters within El Salvador where they were used. Lake Ilopango was particularly fun, and a good arm workout when we camped there on a Grade 4 trip; the wind picked up significantly for the final group so I spent most of my shift paddling to rescue kids who were being dragged away from shore.

This is me working at Ilopango

This is me forgetting about work at Coatepeque

Away from the water and running, there were other sports we enjoyed whilst living in El Salvador. Hannah’s social circle often revolved around tennis and padel, and we were able to play a bit of golf when invited (see O). We also regularly played football on Tuesdays until injuries took over (see T), and sometimes watched the local team, whose name changed as often as they scored goals.

Tennis tournaments at the US Embassy

Ziplining in Apaneca

One sport I didn’t do that surprises people in El Salvador is surfing. They have built much of their tourism on the waves of the Pacific, after all. Didn’t interest me, and seemed expensive to learn. In the sea, I stuck to boogie boarding.

I never actually made it to El Tunco, the main spot of Surf City

Punta Mango: great spot for boogie boarding

But I would always take the lake over the sea, and always take a paddle in my kayak, blaring classical music whilst looking in awe at the scenery, feeling like I was in The Lost World.

Dogs living their best life at Coatepeque Lake

Paddling at Isla de Zacatillo, in the Golfo de Fonseca

L is for…lluvioso

Honourable mentions: lesionado, local, Los Chorros, laguna

Between November and probably about May, it doesn’t rain here. It more than makes up for it in the other months of the year.

In clear weather, there's a volcano visible...

Looks fun, doesn't it?

That precipitation (lluvioso is Spanish for rainy) can cause precipitous problems in the country, ranging from soggy trainers when mistiming a run to school closures and landslides.

I had signed up for a trail run at Comasagua in 2022. It was cancelled
due to awful weather, so I did it in 2023.

These announcements meant school closures. With one exception,
in September 2022, this meant online learning.

One particular annoyance with rain was its potential to limit outdoor activities. When the school field was being renovated, we would play football each Tuesday at a nearby school called Santa Cecilia, which had an all-weather 3G pitch. Except they wouldn’t allow anyone to play on it if it rained…

School swimming pool after a stormy night

States of emergency were commonplace during heavy rain

Heavy rain becomes a little bit more precarious when combined with storms. We experienced a couple of these whilst living in El Salvador.

One of quite a few tropical storms: the
2026 version was called Cristina

We were lucky compared to others

For most of the time, however, the weather was glorious. It would get hot, but nothing too intolerable. Generally it would be warm and sunny for a good part of most days. When that blue sky showed itself, it would elevate life and everything around it.

Hiking Picacho, the spike at the end of San Salvador Volcano (Boqueron)

Dogs once again not appreciating a photo, this time
at Cerro El Pital, El Salvador's highest point

M is for…mercado

Honourable mentions: maquilishuat, mango, Montecristo, Museo de los 1000 Platos

The twice-weekly market hosted in the grounds of the Ministry of Agriculture quickly became one of my - and the dogs - favourite pastimes. Cheap, fresh, local produce, all less than 200 metres from our house.

Saturday morning market

The colours, the smells: I'll miss this place

The market introduced me to many new foods (see Z). It also helped me practise my Spanish, particularly when asking for specific fruits and vegetables, and refusing the shocking practice of putting every single thing in a plastic bag. Even a large watermelon that wouldn’t fit in the plastic bag, so ended up ‘in’ a ripped plastic bag.

Lots of fresh produce, even more plastic bags

It's not just fruit and veg: meat, fish and cheese, as well as non-perishables
like chocolate and honey, are sold at the market. And pupusas, because of course.

The fruit and veg from here was delicious, cheap, and massive. Papayas from Suchitoto for less than a dollar. Huge watermelons and pineapples from further south for $2.50. I always complain about prices of fresh produce in other places around the world: we’ve been spoilt spectacularly in El Salvador and Malawi.

Biggest watermelon I've ever seen, this one

Papaya became a staple part of the diet

Just look at the size of that piña

The market happens on Saturday and Wednesday mornings. The dogs would want to walk there every single day, particularly in the last year - their morning walk would be to the gate, which they would discover was shut on other days, so they’d immediately turn to go home. The skip in their step when the gate was open was a welcome change of pace from their other ‘walks’.