For those of you who had money on us staying in Xela and opening some kind of expat store/food outlet or teaching English: sorry, didn’t happen! We have finally moved on, and this report of the last weeks’ activities comes to you from the pretty town of Juayúa on the Ruta de las Flores in El Salvador. There are just as many dogs barking here but overall El Salvador makes a cleaner impression than Guatemala and the roads are wayyyyyy better. 

So what have we been up to, apart from climbing volcanos as described in a separate article?!

• We have been having some childlike fun on slides and ziplines

• We went to a 1st league football game between Xela and Petapa on the last day of the season (German friends: comparable to the FC Kaiserslautern – Erzgebirge Aue game we once went to; Americans: comparable to minor league baseball). A forgettable game but great action from the fans in La Curva !

• On Pentecoast we visited the colourful, creepily decrepit churchyard in Xela and watched the parade going through town. 

• We traveled onwards to beautiful but touristy and expensive Antigua and felt smug about not having studied there as a the daily Q88 for avocado/carrot/mole/rice icecream would have driven us even further over budget

• We crossed the border into El Salvador and holed up in the cosy Casa Mazeta Hostal from where we keep exploring this corner of the country. Today’s highlight was the local food fair with plenty of grilled meat. No, we didn’t try the iguana asada but check out the pineapple drink!