The Artist Trail

Many small towns in the north of El Salvador are artist communities, with each seeming to specialise in a particular form. Usually this is because of an artist who established himself in that town and that craft then flourished. In Alegria, there were a number of painters (including those dedicated to painting telegraph poles). In fact where I stayed was an artists studio with a couple of rooms rented out above - a very cool space. (Telegraph poles, I have since learned, are painted in different styles and designs all over the country.)

After leaving Alegria I popped into Ilobasco, which specialises in ceramics. It was a nice little town with the main street dominated by shops of various artists. Some of the work was beautiful but unfortunately too big to carry around which was a real shame as the cost of a beautiful large ceramic vase was $5-$10.

I then ended up in Suchitoto, a colonial town with cobblestone streets and whitewashed buildings with terracotta-tiled roofs. Set by the stunning Lago Suchitlan, Suchitoto is one of the most beautiful towns in El Salvador. Again, there are many artists here, including the two brothers who ran the hotel where I stayed.

Day and night the Parque Central was full of people going about their business, catching up, hanging out and just watching the day go by. A group of old men in their cowboy hats occupied one corner, while women, children and young men occupied other parts. Market stalls were set up at the weekend and a couple of nice restaurants lined the square, making it a great spot to have breakfast or an evening beer and watch the goings on.

La Palma

On Friday I took a day trip to La Palma, another artist community up north near the Honduran border. This town survives on the art in the style of Fernando Llort. In the early 1970’s, Fernando Llort returned from a trip to Europe where he mastered his unique style of art and settled in La Palma. Since then he set up a co-operative to teach others in the community how to replicate his style and now 75% of the town survives on reproducing this art in various forms – from crucifixes, wallets, key chains, plates, wooden boxes and almost anything else you can imagine.

They say his style is now recognised around the world as the typical El Salvadorean art style and his works are held in the Vatican, the White House and many major museums and galleries. Not to mention the murals and telegraph poles with this art plastered all over La Palma.

The town itself is located high up in the mountains and the drive up there was just gorgeous. There was a museum that had only a small display but some of the Llort originals were really beautiful. A lot of the replicas sold now are quite tacky but I figured it was good to purchase a few things to keep the community going.

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.

Buses, borders and bony dogs

The day of buses and borders was as little fun as predicted. The anticipation provoked a restless night so after only 4 hours sleep I was wandering the streets of Jinotega to get the bus to Esteli. The guidebook predicted that would take 1 3/4 hours so I thought I'd get a coffee and something to eat once I arrived there. 3 1/2 hours later I arrived in Esteli and the bus for Somoto was just about to depart. I ran to make it to that bus and another two hours later arrived in Somoto, starving. I was told the bus to El Espino (la frontera) was about to depart so I got lunch to go then got on the bus, only to be told that the bus was going sin passengers and I had to wait another 50 minutes for the next bus. My lunch was some greasy barbequed pork, rice, chopped tomatoes and a couple of tortillas. I ate a bit and gave the rest to a poor old bony dog that looked like this might be his last meal. If I had have seen how bony he was beforehand I'd have given him the lot!

Eventually the bus for El Espino arrived and we were off to the Nicaragua/Honduras border. We arrived at the border at 3pm and I was a bit worried that we wouldn't be in El Salvador before dark. There are not many places you want to be in El Salvador after dark, particularly not at a busy bus station with a big backpack on. At the border I met two English girls, Sam and Julia and we stuck together. We got a minibus for a short while before we got on another bus that took us close to the Honduras/El Salvador border before it kicked us off and told us to jump on another bus. It was now just after 6pm and dusk by the time we hit the border crossing and Sam got chatting to a local who offered to drive us somewhere. I was planning on making it to San Miguel and the girls to Perquin but we abandoned those plans and had Jose drive us to the nearby town of Santa Rosa de Lima for the night. There we found a tidy little hotel with A/C and cable tv and had another meal of greasy pork and salad before calling it a day.

12 hours of travel, 6 buses, one car, two borders - buggered!

Don't come here, you'll hate it!

I finally left the Corn Islands today. Well in fact I left Little Corn yesterday and flew out of Big Corn this morning. I could have stayed longer, much longer. But the longer I stayed the harder to leave. Particularly when Carlito and Leo and Julisa were there everyday with smiles, chats and most importantly, Island gossip (well Julisa didn't gossip but she is only five).

I hope the video of Little Corn will upload successfully now - enjoy..



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The next few days travel is strategically timed to get me to El Salvador for the World Cup semis on Tuesday. Tomorrow is going to be horrible, two border crossings - into Honduras, then El Salvador. From there I'll figure out where to go next and where I should be for the weekend finals.

Tonight I am spending in a town called Jinotega in the northern highlands of Nicaragua. Stunningly beautiful mountain scenery all around. This is the famed coffee growing region of Nicaragua and when I went to order a coffee at the bakery this afternoon she offered me instant... when i eventually got my percolated coffee it was so weak I could just taste sugar and milk. This is not meant to be the way but it sums up my experience ordering coffee in growing regions.

Little Corn Island

This tiny little island set out in the Caribbean Sea is absolutely breathtaking in its beauty. It is 1.5 square kilometers and fringed by white sandy beaches with coconut palms providing some shade. The water is perfectly clear and turquoise and on a nice day is calm and peaceful. The middle of the island is mostly thick jungle with some swamp land. There are no roads, no cars but just a footpath for one stretch and dirt trails to find your way around the rest of the island.

Apparently people have only lived here for 50 years or so, before that it was used as farm land for some of the people on Big Corn. Mangoes, bananas and coconuts grow everywhere. Yesterday on my walk around the island I bagged some nice looking mangoes straight off the ground under the tree. A few days ago a guy sold us a beautiful and perfectly ripe pineapple for about a dollar – he probably picked it from someone else’s land. There are always kids running around selling banana bread and various other things. I usually try to buy from them to try to keep them honest – even if I’m not hungry.

A mix of Spanish and English is spoken here, depending on who you speak to. The dark skinned locals are more likely to speak English although in that hard-to-understand Caribbean accent – yeah mon! The more Hispanic people speak mostly Spanish. I have a better time with my Spanish here. According to the guidebook the population is just over 500 – and most of that is centred in Caribe Town, the pueblo on the northwestern side of the island, just past the dock.

The main (legal) industry of both Corn Islands is lobster fishing. Tourism has been taking off for the last several years but it is mostly gringos coming in to take advantage of those opportunities. Apparently things have been relatively slow for the past couple of years due to the global slowdown but it is not disastrous here. I suppose it is one of the more affordable Caribbean holidays – rustic though it is.

I can see how people get stuck here for months on end. Right now is rainy season and we are supposed to get rain every day. We arrived last Monday and before that it had been raining for nine straight days. We got here and the weather was perfect, every day. There was one day that was slightly overcast for a little while and rained for about an hour. There was also the odd night rain and one night we got a fierce storm on the other side of the island with lashing wind and rain. That lasted two hours. Otherwise perfect. Apparently we lucked out due to a nearby tropical storm that sucked all the bad weather away from here.

I was trying to base the length of my stay on the weather but if it keeps going like this I may never leave. I think I might get my name on the flight for Sunday morning. The holiday from travelling has to end at some point…

The Drug Trade

The Corn Islands are about 70kms off the coast of Nicaragua, in the Caribbean Sea. There are no other islands close by so where they sit is squarely on the route for the drug runners between Colombia and the north. Nicaragua has a hard line stance on drugs and there is an active coast guard patrolling these waters, from both air and sea.

I’m not quite sure how it all works but I guess if one of the boats is worried it is being tracked, they start dumping their cargo overboard, where some of it washes up on the shores of the Corn Islands. In fact, just down the beach from Carlito’s is a well-known spot where the cocaine washes up in little pots. Apparently Vicks Vaporub containers…

Leo, a dutch lady who has been living on Little Corn making and selling jewellery for the past 5 years, is a font of knowledge of island life, people and their stories. A year ago she was volunteering at the local school and when it came to teaching the little kids about the ecology of the beach she asked them to name some of the things they would find on the beach. Number one was shells, number two was coconuts and number three was cocaine.

I guess its no surprise that education is not respected on the island, kids don’t have to go to school and even if they do they’re not really learning anything. There are kids in first grade who are 10 and they cannot count, read or write their own name. The parents don’t care if they go to school or not.

No one wants to work either. Since I’ve been here, one and a half weeks, we’ve been through three guys who rake the beach in the morning. The first guy we thought was great but after four days he just wanted to smoke away his money. The second was a 13 year old kid whose parents asked Carlito to hire him as a favour to keep him off the streets. That lasted two days. We now have another young guy who seems to be good but who knows how long that will last. Before that there was a young guy who would steal all the ladies bikini bottoms that were hanging out to dry. When Carlito caught him he fired him but he came back begging for his job. Carlito rehired him but the knickers went missing again.

For such a small island, it is amazing that people are willing to throw away the opportunity to earn an income for something so trivial but the other side to that is that they’re all playing the cocaine lottery. Waiting for their find on the beach one day which will keep them living comfortably for a year or two.