City of Joy

Tuesday morning I woke and decided I'd head to Alegria. Everything I'd read about this town sounded good - it was small, beautiful, friendly and happy to welcome turistas. Just what I was in the mood for.

My arrival there, I have to say, was not a shining moment. The bus was pretty full and it took me a minute or two to get on my backpack, frontpack, and the other bag and in that time people boarded the bus and the aisle was not wide enough for two, particularly not me with all my kit. Instead of getting off to let me through, the bus stayed stationary while everyone looked at me to see what I'd do. I looked at them to see what they'd do. Eventually I had to walk backwards all the way to the back of the bus, with all my gear on (I couldn't even turn around in the aisle without taking someone out). There was a lot of giggling going on at my expense and to save face I joined in with it. Dumb tourist!

Proudly, Alegria was nominated the top tourist pueblo last year and it boasts a friendly tourist office, tourist police and very friendly locals. Kind of like something out of one of those odd Hollywood movies where someone is living in a parallel universe. There were at least a dozen young men around the town square with paint all over their hands and clothes, I wondered what that was all about. Not too much later I discovered they are painting flowers and churches and all sorts of cute things on anything that stands still around town. There are one or two of them at each telegraph pole around the central park painting pretty little images.

I popped into the tourist office to find out where I should stay and was escorted around the corner (about 50m) by a lovely tourist officer. Later that evening when I couldn't open the door to the hostel (it is very problematic) I popped down to the police office where they were just closing up and another kind officer came to help me get in. Not the kind of service one would normally expect somewhere like El Salvador!

Alegria is El Salvador's highest town at an elevation of 1593m and was formerly at the heart of the coffee growing area. There are still some fincas but the main industry these days is flower growing. it is quite amazing scenery as it is located on the side of a steep mountain and the streets drop straight down with a view to the plains below, clouds lying somewhere beneath us.

The main feature of Alegria, besides the quaint town, nurseries and friendly people, is the Laguna Alegria, a crater lake a couple of kms walk out of town - very beautiful.