What smells like burning?

This weekend we set out on yet another adventure in El Salvador.  It began with a 2 hour drive north of San Salvador to a little town called La Palma.  What took us there?  Not tales of a mystical palm tree, but a yet charming little town made famous by colorful murals.  

Decades ago, an artist, Fernando Llort, became famous for his wild art-form (what a surprise – it was the 70s!?!).  He taught many people how to paint his colorific style, and it’s put El Salvador on the artistic map.  Lonely Plant says 3/4 of the town makes a living from his art form.  Here you have it:

Continuing up from La Palma, we passed through San Ignacio up what I know to be the steepest mountain road I’ve ever scaled.  Our vessel of choice?  Stupidly, Sunshine, our rented Hyundai Accent.  Yeah, those don’t come in 4-Wheel drive.

Recently, there have been really heavy “winter” rains in El Salvador – typical this time of the year – and there have been torrential down pours 3-6 hours of the day.  This made our already windy path all the more “exciting”. 


Eroded dirt.  Slick roads.  Every hill and turn felt like a thrill-seeking SUV commercial, but like we were driving it in a golf-cart.  Oh, and the steep road sign was for real.  Our car started smelling like burning chocolate the road was so steep.  We made it to karaoke though...

Never a dull moment you might think about us here in El Salvador.  True, until we passed by some old Mayan ruins and had to stop.  Now we’ve seen a fair number of Mayan ruins so far on our journey, and know that these are not any of the super thrill-seeking sites.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that Cihuatán Ruins are well kept and has a great little museum (even Kyle agreed, and he doesn’t dig most museums).  It’s a great spot to follow the yellow brick, ummm, white stone path around the archeological site, play soccer old school, and say hi to the huge-o caterpillars.