After surviving the murder capital which was San Salvador we arrived in Santa Ana after only a hours travelling on a very nice comfy local bus for less than £1. Shame though that we got off at the wrong stop and had to walk 2km to the hostel in the midday heat with full rucksacks. First impressions was it was a dirty, dusty, busy town with ramshackle buildings and not touristy at all. It had a gritty, grimy feel to it but at the same time felt more authentic. We found our hostel that was called Casa Verde which basically was the only decent place to stay in town. Being an awkward time of Santa Semana which is a week long public holiday (Easter week) it was difficult to book bus tickets and find accommodation in any tourist hotspots that we desired so made this our stopgap. We found the place easy enough as it was in the centre of town and was greeted by the owner Carlos. Lets just say if Carlsberg made a hostel than this would be it. For less than £20 a day we got an air conditioned room with zillions of cable channels on the T.V. , a balcony, amazingly, hot water which was unheard of , a multi media room with unlimited DVD's, free fresh coffee, sweets for free, an honesty bar, 2 kitchens, a swimming pool, roof top terrace, hammocks galore, a bed that did not break your back and even a guitar so I could do the ultimate backpacker pastime of strumming away to all my other captive fans in the common area while they tried to out bullshit each other. It was so cool it took us 4 days before we could bare to face the outside world.
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| It's a tough choice, pool, hammock, sunbed or go for a beer. |
We spent our days splashing in the pool shooting 'hoops' , drinking beer on the rooftop, cooking yummy scran, plucking the guitar, watching our Peaky Blinders season 3 DVD that we had been carrying around since Borneo and other stuff, trading bullshit with other travellers and doing nothing. It was bliss.
On the 5th day we did venture out into town proper as it was Easter Friday and the town came alive with their Santa Semana celebrations which were loud and engaging. I heard a commotion outside our balcony so went out to investigate and found a throng of 200 hundred people situated outside the building all gathered in some sort of pilgrimage. Onto the balcony I strode, shirtless with my overgrown beard looking down onto the throng. They all looked up at me and started to stare and point. I called Kathy out to have a look at what was going on. Then I looked at their float and saw the figurine of Jesus on the cross, bare cheated with his beard, and soon realised what they were looking at. When Kathy came out we joked that she should shout out that I had been 'a very naughty boy' and the Messiah was not coming out today as the Monty Python sketch on the film.
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| If your not coming out to play Jesus then we are off. |
Later we ambled into the main square to check out the sawdust carpets. What this comprises of is the roads are covered in beautiful murals , mostly biblical references, made of dyed sawdust. A lot of labour goes into them and there were plenty on the go, being constructed as we breezed on by. We chilled out for a while with some chips bought off a street stall and hanged out on the square with the locals. It was a good experience as their were no tourists about so felt genuine rather than a tourists showcase. We did get a lot of long stares though but nothing threatening. Just curiosity I think.
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| Sawdust carpets. Temporary, pointless but beautiful. |
We walked around more of town but the whole place was like a ghost town. Empty. Devoid of any human life, just the swirling wind blown rubbish to accompany our stroll. We did find one stall open though and bought an onion off them for our dinner while they tried out their routine English phrases on us. A weird exchange followed where they would ask questions in English and we would reply in Spanish.
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| WHAT! No guns in the park. It's health and safety gone mad. |
That evening we had another 200 people camped outside the balcony burning incense, displaying another Jesus on a cross, some kitchen tables being carried on shoulders, and a bit of chanting breaking out into song in some parts. We went onto the balcony again to watch the action but this time with a shirt on so less stares in our direction. I asked Kathy to shout out 'I had been a naughty boy and I was not coming out' but she would not comply. Booo! We managed to secure seats on the bus next morning on Ticabus to Antigua. 6am taxi booked for the morning, a 6 hour journey time....oh what joy.....and we are off to another country which this time would be Guatemala.
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| You think the roads in England are bad, Well, this is the main high street in Santa Ana. |
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