About a two weeks ago myself, Deb, Nikita and Jon went to El Salvadore to do some surfing and hiking. It was an amazing time and we all had a blast on the four day long weekend.. The first day we travelled on two coaches, crossed the border and got to San Salvador. We spent the night there and in the morning headed off to the tiny coastal town of La Libertad. Now I know where all of our old school buses go to get sweet hippie paint jobs and new lives. The rickety old buses were hilariously sketchy, with people crammed in even when all the standing room was taken and 3 people to a seat. I love that everyone hops in and out of the back anywhere along the road. Want to get off? Yell. They slow down. You jump. Multiple times I was 'back door guy', stopping older locals from falling out the back door whenever the bus took off to soon. We laughed a lot at how cramped it was and ever farmer from here to San Salvador got to try out the couple words of english they new on me, then they'd say something in spanish and the bus would erupt in laughter. Joke's on the gringo. Gotta learn this language!
So yes, we surfed two days and then took more sketchy buses at fast speeds and hurtled up to the local volcano of Santa Ana for a day of hiking (pictures below). I was told the volcano had been inactive for a good 20 years, but there was steam coming out of the top and later on I heard it was evacuated a year or two ago after a little explosion. Sure, don't tell the gringos until after.. :) Anyways, the hike itself was almost as amazing as the fact that Deb chose to wear flip flops. We had an armed escort (people have been getting robbed in the area), and the guards shook their heads at Deb and whispered in Spanish. I destroyed my sneakers because someone said you can jump and ski your way down the rocks on the way down. They were right.
Speaking of jumping down active volcanoes.. I remember walking along the coast back to the first surfboard rental shop we found (re: a very poor family with two surfboards down a dark ally in a dark dusty garage). On the way back at one point I stopped, looked in-land and saw rows of half-build half abandoned houses with dug out basements, filled with water.. it was getting dark, and I said "Oh look, I wonder why Dengue Fever is common here, no stagnant pools of water, noop". About a second later a mosquito landed on my arm. About .5 seconds later everyone had dropped their surfboards and was putting on bug repellant. Dengue can very easily be fatal, and there's no real treatment as far as I know. So we booked it out of there and went surfing somewhere else the next day..
That would be the end of the story, except that I don't remember Jon putting on bug repellant with the rest of us.. Actually I feel like I remember him not worrying too much about it and openly mocking us for being paranoid. And Jon was fine the rest of the trip.. actually it was me that got the El Salvadore Stomach Fun on the last day passing through Tegus (Try getting lost and drawing a picture of a toilet on a napkin to get much needed directions).. BUT enough about my internal workings, did you know Dengue has a week or so gestation period? So Jon started feeling bad about a week ago, and was hospitalised for 4 days for Dengue fever. They just hooked him up to an IV and hoped for the best. Luckily, yesterday his platelet count bounced back and they released him. I like to think it was the snazzy card I whipped up for him, but the community praying for him probably helped too. Lucky lucky. He'll be contagious for two weeks, so I put on some bug repellent as we sat around the campfire tonight.. and he put it on too. Safety never takes a day off.
Surfing Pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56227&l=d2ade&id=594095642
Volcano Climbing Pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57592&l=06775&id=594095642
No comments:
Post a Comment