well back to the beach and eating all the seafood i can b-f i leave

well i was sad to leave the mountains.......and it totally sucked as because of a rock slide closing a road, I was sooooooooo close to where i wanted to go............30-40 kms as crow flys, but instead I had to make a huge semi- circle and took me over 6 hours to get to Barrio Sandiego. It is a narrow stretch of land with ocean on one side and a ocean fed river on the other which forms ?mangroves? similiar to bayous in Louisianna. I got dropped off at the end of road here, pitch black, and with directions from bus driver in spanish that I sorta understood..............took me 20 minutes to find the place, and asked 3 people and had 3 dogs loudly growling, and barking at me........i had heard from a girl in the mountains that she was only person at this place....when I arrived there was a Norwegian girl (with 2 lace thongs hanging in the room drying)..who said she was only person there for last 4 days...............and she left this morning.......nice girl, loved her beer, and apparently liked fancy panties too......haha
Well, the first night just drank with this girl, and chatted........next day got up and walked to the little town.......3 miles approx. took me 45 minutes but entire way was people smiling and saying ?hola? to me.....so friendly here as they get hardly any tourists..tough to get here and brutal bumpy road, took an hour from highway and was 17 kms i think. I walked by a little restaurant on the ocean side and had to have a beer from the long hot walk.
Chatted with this guy in English and turns out he was the owner, lived in Miami 20 yrs but born here. I left to go to other restaurant to look for breaded fish and he said he'd join me........well no ?pescado empinizado? to be found so i ordered shrimp chow mein, tasty and 4 big ocean shrimp. When bill came the guy paid for my 3 beer and only let me pay for my food, then he said "what r u doing this afternoon? i am going up into the mountains to pick up my mother.......would u like to come?"
In about 5 seconds my mind raced................what if this guy tries something,or robs me or why would a stranger offer this? Then I thought..........well, he was the owner of a hotel, I only have about 23.00 on me and i am looking way more poor and dirty than him.........sounded like a total adventure in the making to me. "sure i said.........I checked my email while he went to get the truck , 20 mins later he was honking outside internet cafe.....hmmmmmmmm, should i maybe not be going? i was thinking............My gut instinct told me to go...........and really what is worse to happen.........if my mom only knew!!!! I guess now she does, anyways, he said to me................You like beer................I looked at him and said I love beer..........3 mins later we were at his hotel and he shouted in spanish to his employee..she came back with this dirty pail....but my heavens, inside was 4 ice cold beer, unbelievable this guy opened one for himself and offered me one,how sweet was that!! The road was slow and bumpy and he said to finish beer before the highway as the might be police, and after that we drove up into mountains and saw beautiful views and rolling hills full of cattle farms, we picked up his mom at a municipal office, and as we waited for her 1 guy joked to me......100.00 and i give you el salvador citizenship. Funny they way he looked at me i seriously wonder if he was serious........i dunno? Me dumb tourist!!!
After getting his mom we stopped at a store and hopped out to pick up about 25 sheets of corogated roofing sheets..........ahhhhhhh so this is maybe why i was asked to come. Obviosly I helped him load it all then because his mom brought a co-worker in the truck, I rode in the back with this 10 ish year old boy that had ridden in back the entire time.......well it started to pour...........We got soaked but me and this little guy looked at each other and laughed, we were soaked to the bone already, so let it rain! We couldn't get any wetter and my smokes and camera were in the tuck so i didn't care
I helped him unload 4 sheets here and 5 sheets there at different houses back in this village, then I went for fried fish supper before heading back to hotel as it is at other end of a penninsula strech of land and everyything there is expensive . So i eat elsewhere and buy my beers at the little store around the block from hotel (i bought 8 beer last night for me and norway girl ...........the entire beer in the store's fridge)
After supper my spanish got me in trouble as i asked man if bus had passed or if their was another bus coming......he said in 5 minutes( he must have meant it passed 5 minutes ago) I waited 45 minutes, no bus............I started to walk back hoping to hitch a ride with a pick up truck and asked a guy........he wasn't going that far down the road, but he said he would find me a ride........Well i think so as my spanish is pretty poor but u'd be amazed what taking with your hands and a few choice words can have conversation..........with in 10 mins, this guy waited on road and flagged down a ride for me. I gave him 4.00 for the ride and a beer from my bag at that little store where he dropped me off......like 3 blocks from my hotel me and the norway girl drank beer and watched the eclipse...was amazing from the beach as no other lights, this really is a very chilled out relaxed place. I love it here.
Today got up to find a little chicken pecking the floor next to me, as the girl left door open when she left...i just smiled. Only in El Salvador would you wake up to a chicken in your hotel room..........i love it!
This is whay i travel here and not Europe or Austrailia..........I walked to this restaurant I heard of where the the river meets the ocean and is fed from it.............i sat for 3 hour there. Me and the owner actually had converstaions, difficult at times and much using of hands but we had a conversation..........Iwas quite happy...................he spoke no words of english but, hello, thank u , goodbye. He was about 23 with a wife and 3 month old girl.
I ordered (sorry trent to talk about food again) an entire lobster (black and not huge w-no claws), 4 shrimp and fish fillette, all fried in garlic and lobster grilled, w-rice and tortillasm, 12.00 It was so good!!
Then I worked a deal for him to take me on his little paddle boat(carved out of a tree trunk, not a fiberglass canoe or nothing) out in the mangroves for 2 hours for 10.00. After i thought some locals make 10.00 all day. That is actually too much for 2 hour tour................but he had little baby and wife. I was glad to help him out. The boat trip was awesome. I got him to stop on the way at little store and i got smokes and beer, and he paddled through the mangroves. We went on land and he showed me some trees and corn fields . I was scared of snakes in the tall grass. He dropped me off 1 hr 40 mins later, bugger, but i said nothing. I am in town now checking email and iIran into the hotel owner from yesterday. I told him i would hire the kid that got rained on with me in back of truck tomorrow for the same price to paddle me around. This kid doesn't go to school as his parents say it's too expensive. So he has little future and sits at home bored at home all day hotel owner said.........poor little guy so maybe i'll put some money in his pocket if owner can line things up and a boat.
Well the owner invited me for supper and beer to meet him at his hotel, so he is waiting
oh, interesting thing happened as I stood to enter internet cafe. A truck with 2 police and 2 immigration guys shouted for me to come to their truck............asked for my passport and how i knew of this area and my business in this town and how long i was in el salvador. I gave my drivers lisence to him and the driver actually was on phone giving my name to someone.................so i was there about 10 mins. Every local around just watchin and gathering around......i almost felt like i was gonna get carted off to jail or something..........then they gave my drivers back............gave me heck for not carrying my passport, and drove off..............i've never had such a strange thing happen while travelling........plus as usuall, they all had big guns and wouldn't give drivers back or let me go at first until guy called in............. oh well, i am legally here and not overstaying my passport.
That is what they were checking the guy said at the end!...........no one will appreciate this but Dave Hauri.....because when we entered country we never got a stamp in our passports........we both asked 2 times, but they said no stamp and pointed us to go.........my mind was racing thinking will this be a problem as the guy kept asking where my hotel was and why was i not carrying it on me?
oh well, sadly i gotta leave this place tomorrow . Happy to meet Laura.............but sad to leave especially to go to a crappy, polluted capital city, San Salvadore. There i don't feel safe! I am meeting a person for supper tomorrow. He is picking me up and he spends hours and hours a week giving people travel help, tips, advice, so i fully believe he isn't going to rob me and i invited him for supper for all the help he gave me..........Should be good......unsure if this guy is 18 or 68, I will find out in 30 hours
well, the hotel owner awaits . Wait until I tell him about the immigration incident, and tonight I ain't missing the bus............