Sometimes when you can't find what you are looking for, you find happiness
Written by Kyle on Sunday, June 15, 2008 in El Salvador
Feelin' thoughtful
Last weekend, we came up with the awesome plan of staying the night on an out-of-the-way island that borders the El Salvador - Honduras border called Meanguara. It seemed like an interesting place to stay: only one town on the island with one hotel and not much to do but read a book. Little did we know how our weekend would turn out...Feelin' thoughtful
So, we started out our plan by driving most of Friday afternoon across El Salvador to El Salvador's 2nd largest city, San Miguel. In San Miguel, there are 2 things a visitor can do 1) sleep, 2) leave. So, on Friday night we did the first, followed by the latter on Saturday morning (we did have an oh-so-awesome interlude at Pollo Campero Friday night, though). Next stop, La Union.
La Union is how I would characterize a lot of port cities: hot, chaotic, dirty, and about as welcoming as a punch in the face. All morning on the way to La Union, we tried to call the hotel on the island but no one answered. Normally we don't bother calling ahead this case is different: the boat to the island leaves at 10AM and the boat back to the mainland returns at 5AM the next day.
So, with our housing situation up in the air, we decided to do the next best thing: take a booze cruise around the islands. It was supposed to leave every Saturday at 9:30 AM and return at 3 PM, and have karaoke with booze. All of that for $10! How could we beat that?
When we arrived in La Union, we immediately started to look for a place to buy tickets for this awesome event (again, they wouldn't answer their phone). We went to one dock, but it only had what I would consider fishing boats with better motors. We went to another dock and the guards there told us "No, there's no ferry". Asking around town, we finally figured out that we could buy tickets at the Channel 6 office, a local TV station. So, yes, to by ferry tickets, one needs to go to a tv station that just happens to be in a non-descript grey building with no sign. Great. Of course when we wanted to buy the tickets, we find out that we could go if we only had 30 more people with us. Seeing as we probably weren't going to make 30 friends in the next, oh 20 minutes, we headed out of town towards a beach called El Espino.
Goodbye, La Union, and your unhelpful "Information Center" signs...
El Espino was hailed in our guidebook as one of the best beaches in El Salvador and an up and coming "hot spot". The beach itself was pretty decent, with soft sand and warm waters, assuming you didn't run into the barbed wire that separated the establishments on it and you could ignore all of the sand flies biting you.
Nothing says "Come on in" like barbed wire.
The town was more like a series of half run down (or poorly constructed) one story buildings filled with plastic tables and chairs, mostly catering to rum-bottle toating weekenders and families. They at least try, though. Check out the ambiance that awaited us at our "hotel":
After a fairly uneventful and mildy disappointing beach experience we, headed back to San Salvador. Not having been let down enough, we decided to take a little detour to a little mountain town for breakfast, called Alegría (Spanish for "Happiness").
After reaching Alegria, we understood why it has that name. The weather was nice and cool, there was a charming central park area where people were selling their goods. It wasn't exciting by any means, but it was like a nice cup of hot chocolate: soothing and refreshing. We then found a restaurant for breakfast which may boast the best view in El Salvador. Besides the view, the food was excellent and filling.
Some nice breakfast views
We spent about an hour walking around town, taking in the small town ambience. Everybody was super nice to us; one road worker there gave us directions, then watched us and signaled where we should turn as we drove as to make sure we didn't miss our street. In all it was a great way to start a Sunday morning and an even better way to end a weekend that, up until then, had not lived up to our expectations.
Some Views of Alegría
So, what's the moral of this story? Well, I guess sometimes things don't turn out as expected, but if you keep searching, you can find happines. (or Alergía, San Salvador)
Comments on "Sometimes when you can't find what you are looking for, you find happiness"
Ya, when I finished I actually thought the same thing... sometimes things just flow well.
FYI, if we made you happy, you would say "me alegran". Those romantic languages are nice and tidy like that.
whew-e! look at kyle handing out the spanish tips... :)
"Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. "
This is one of my favorite quotes... happens to be by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I believe. I think you two are one of the few people I know that live by this philosophy. Life gives you some lemons and you always make the best lemonade! What a great weekend.... I'm jealous! :)
that's a GREAT quote.
It's an interesting thing about setting your life to something; for us traveling. We're at it's whims, and we have a lot of freedom to follow it in whatever direction we allow ourselves. It's a beautiful gift of life.
To be honest, sometimes when life gives us lemons, I wonder "Why do we keep getting lemons? How about some oranges now and then, hmmmm?" But I suppose that's natural every now and then.
happiness is a peeing statue.
Kyle Stork, you are no Nathaniel Hawthorne....
Im a salvadorean student, 20 years old, studying in Panamá right now, been here for 2 months, and wow guys!!! Both of you together seen to be like the perfect couple, you have a different view to see things and you obtain this gift by traveling and trying to learn about different cultures. Keep it like that guys. And Welcome to El Salvador, and Im proud to say that my country is really warmfull and cozy to you all foreigners. I thought Panamenians were going to treat me good here but no way. I miss Central America, excluding Panama.
Thanks for the compliments! We love traveling like we do, and it's a huge bonding experience for us, as I'm sure you'd guess.
El Salvadorans have been very welcoming and friendly. It really does feel like a close knit society where you know everyone. We seem to run into people we know at the mall, restaurants, wherever, and we've been here less than 2 months!
Kudos to you both for creating such an interesting and rewarding weekend adventure!
Thanks! We like to keep things interesting. :)
San miguel, that's my home town, its been about 10 years since las time i was there and i hope you guys are enjoying every moment of it.
Nice! We liked San Miguel, but we didn't have too long there, less than a day. It was cute and friendly from what we saw.
Hi there guys; Since I saw the video of El Salvador vs Panama the soccer match I have been checking all your stuff, and it looks amazing. I'm from La Union and feel really sorry about your experiece there. Like a puch in the face? :), well if I was there I could show you guys where Infocentro is let me share a pic of La Union http://picasaweb.google.com/orlandodec91/ElSalvador2007/photo#5216961997523139298 you can see Infocentro there, to tell you the truth when I go to La Union I don't guide myself trhough the streets names, I just walk around to find stuff :), and I don't know how I do find them (right around the corner). After El Sal where are you going next?, and let me tell you, if you survive El Salvador you will be ok anywhere :). Take care you guys and careful up there, whish you the best.
Ok, well a "punch in the face" was exaggerating a bit, but it definitely wasn't a welcoming town when we went. I don't think a lot of tourists pass through there, so we got a lot of strange looks. We did get some fruit there and the vendor was super nice to us, so not everything was as bad as I made it out to be...
Thanks for the photo - we actually walked by there because our guidebook said that internet cafe was an information center, but it was closed.... :( We then set out on a mission to ask for help at other internet cafes, and one was no longer where our guidebook said, and the other was only open in the afternoons.
Nothing personal against La Union, we just had a hard time knowing where to find information. The police were really friendly, but didn't totally know where to go either. We did have a yummy lunch down by the dock though - they made a tasty beef stew. :)
I forgot where I read that you guys had like some death situations?, Can you guys explain what happened, cause I'm planning to go to El Salvador and stay couple months in there and provably your experience might help me to aware of the danger overthere. Thanks guys and saludos.
As far as we have experienced, El Salvador is a safe place and we haven't felt threatened at any point yet while we are here. The most dangerous thing here is probably driving...
luckily no life or death situations at all for us. Seeing Indiana Jones was probably the most frightening thing - not because the movie is that scary, but there was a bit of an earthquake that shook the movie theater. We were on the 4th floor at Gallerias, but it just shook for 10 seconds and then stopped - nothing too deadly.
cute story with a cute ending =D. what's orlando talkin bout u guys almost died? i need to catch up! lol
haa haa, yeah, no near death experiences. Except Kyle's cooking.
Just kidding. He likes to think he cooks better than I do, sometimes he's right...
Oh oh!, I don't want to start a rumor that probably it not true and make people worry for nothing, I'm not sure if I read that or not, I guess I had too much El Salvador vs Panama in my mind. :).
ha haaa - yeah, most of the anger and crying is about the soccer game. Except if you count Kyle and I fighting over who is a better driver.
Just kidding. He can't deny that I AM!!!! haa haaaa
Pollo Campero rocks! Sean is building one right now in Chicago - small world...
Unfortunately, from what I've heard, the Pollo Campero in the states doesn't compare with that in central america. If they have laminated menus with pictures like they do here, though, I'm in.
yummy Pollo Campero! You should totally try to get a chicken hook-up at a grand opening!
i love the story, im from la union and have not been back for about 5 years im thinking about taking a trip back after reading the story.... after being in the USA for about 25 years you tend to vacation in Miami, New York, Las Vegas ex... but i will be going back to El Salvador soon... thanks guys y'all ROCK>>>>>>
This is quite possibly the best writing I've seen yet! You guys make me very ... alegra? Ok, fine, contenta. ;)
by Rachel Z at June 20, 2008 08:58 AM