El Salvador

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicken lady, since you love answering questions, I’m curious: what are the top five most obscure questions you’ve visited.

Good question as I’m also curious.

Hmm, obscure? I can't really think of any that would qualify as obscure. It's a pretty small world, actually.

I've been to every country south of the border except Paraguay (Ironically, after retiring I considered the Peace Corp and was offered Paraguay and turned it down).

I've been to 8 or so countries in Africa, including to see the mountain gorillas. I wouldn't call that "obscure," but it was cool.

Southeast Asia, including a month in Vietnam. Australia for a month. Almost all of Europe, obviously. But that's kind of cliche. I mean, MGM lives there lol.

Probably the most obscure places I've been have been in far reaches of Latin America, I guess.

“Peace Corp” lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicken lady, since you love answering questions, I’m curious: what are the top five most obscure questions you’ve visited.

Good question as I’m also curious.

Hmm, obscure? I can't really think of any that would qualify as obscure. It's a pretty small world, actually.

I've been to every country south of the border except Paraguay (Ironically, after retiring I considered the Peace Corp and was offered Paraguay and turned it down).

I've been to 8 or so countries in Africa, including to see the mountain gorillas. I wouldn't call that "obscure," but it was cool.

Southeast Asia, including a month in Vietnam. Australia for a month. Almost all of Europe, obviously. But that's kind of cliche. I mean, MGM lives there lol.

Probably the most obscure places I've been have been in far reaches of Latin America, I guess.

“Peace Corp” lol

+1. She was going to join it, but can’t spell it!

[Anonymous]

Eh, I've lived in nine Latin American countries and it's the only one I have zero desire to return to. You could have a not terrible time, sure, but there are so many better options I don't really get why someone would choose ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh, I've lived in nine Latin American countries and it's the only one I have zero desire to return to. You could have a not terrible time, sure, but there are so many better options I don't really get why someone would choose ES.

Would you mind listing the other 8 countries and which you preferred? I'd be interested. Thanks.

-- CBL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is crazy.

LOL especially the El Salvador tourism minister.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, I've lived in nine Latin American countries and it's the only one I have zero desire to return to. You could have a not terrible time, sure, but there are so many better options I don't really get why someone would choose ES.

Would you mind listing the other 8 countries and which you preferred? I'd be interested. Thanks.

-- CBL

Sure. There were things I liked/disliked about each one of course, but if you asked me to pick my list of where I'd like to move back this would be it from "on the plane tomorrow" to "how long is this for again?"

Mexico
Colombia
Peru
Argentina
Brazil
Ecuador
Chile
Panama
El Salvador

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicken lady, since you love answering questions, I’m curious: what are the top five most obscure questions you’ve visited.

Good question as I’m also curious.

Hmm, obscure? I can't really think of any that would qualify as obscure. It's a pretty small world, actually.

I've been to every country south of the border except Paraguay (Ironically, after retiring I considered the Peace Corp and was offered Paraguay and turned it down).

I've been to 8 or so countries in Africa, including to see the mountain gorillas. I wouldn't call that "obscure," but it was cool.

Southeast Asia, including a month in Vietnam. Australia for a month. Almost all of Europe, obviously. But that's kind of cliche. I mean, MGM lives there lol.

Probably the most obscure places I've been have been in far reaches of Latin America, I guess.

Paraguay is one of the best places to serve in the PC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicken lady, since you love answering questions, I’m curious: what are the top five most obscure questions you’ve visited.

Good question as I’m also curious.

Hmm, obscure? I can't really think of any that would qualify as obscure. It's a pretty small world, actually.

I've been to every country south of the border except Paraguay (Ironically, after retiring I considered the Peace Corp and was offered Paraguay and turned it down).

I've been to 8 or so countries in Africa, including to see the mountain gorillas. I wouldn't call that "obscure," but it was cool.

Southeast Asia, including a month in Vietnam. Australia for a month. Almost all of Europe, obviously. But that's kind of cliche. I mean, MGM lives there lol.

Probably the most obscure places I've been have been in far reaches of Latin America, I guess.

Paraguay is one of the best places to serve in the PC.

Yes, Paraguay is amazing. But it’s probably best Chicken Bus Lady didn’t go. If she melted down over a few days in El Salvador, there is no way she could have handled two years in Paraguay.

But had she gone, it would been a matter of weeks before she was on here claiming to “Out Guaraní” the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am fascinated by this thread. It is reminding me of my early 20s in DC when I'd bump into the global non-profit / Peace Corps crowd who just LOVED to humblebrag (although we hadn't invented that term then) about their travels, each competing with the other to tell stories of the "real" "authentic" travel they had done. Usually they were wearing some kind of Guatemalan textile while they did it. Dreads optional; makeup not allowed ever.

Anyway, these folks especially loved to point to tourist spots and say "that's not the REAL Mexico/South Africa/India." Woe betide you if you had gone somewhere touristy, even by accident! And then there were gradations of judgment in case you had been to the country they knew the most about. Did you stay in hostels? Ohhh, well THEY had lived with a family / camped in the jungle / squatted in an abandoned building / whatever. Do you speak Spanish? Ohhh, well THEY had gone and married a native speaker and now use all the street slang and innuendo that you will never master. You think you actually KNOW Guatemala! Ha! Not until you've spent a year living in the countryside with no running water can you even PRETEND you know ANYTHING about Guatemala! They, and only they, could be authorities on the country they'd been to.

Oddly, their advice often differed greatly from that of people from the actual country, who (gasp!) sometimes enjoy visiting their own tourist spots themselves, and (double gasp!) would sometimes complain about crime, politics, trash, and other problems.

And FYI I did some pretty adventurous travel myself back then, including riding many second class "chicken" buses in Latin America, but quickly realized that there was no competing with these people in the Authentic Travel Olympics (tm). And it's definitely not good to ask them for travel advice because they will sneer at anyone else who does not meet their exacting standards for Who is the Right Kind of Traveler.

Also, as someone who has worked with asylum-seekers, I find the comments about them upthread to be absolutely abhorrent. First of all, there is no neat divide between "economic migrants" and "refugees." Second, a lot of them are actually reluctant to even share the full details of the horrors they have escaped from. It's much more common for someone to say "I came to the US for a better life" and only later to reveal the fact that they were threatened, raped, had family members killed by gangs, etc. And the lawyers who advocate for these people are required to provide evidence of these threats in immigration court. So yeah, someone who claims to "know" these countries better than anyone else and then who also sneers at anyone who would consider going there for being the "wrong" kind of traveler is just really...special.

Wow. This whole thread is wildly entertaining but this one post is the only thing that is 100% spot on. I feel like this thread is just those same folks from their early 20s who got older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After 10 pages of this, I think I’m team chicken bus lady. MGM (marriot gold malta) seems so mean! Chicken bus is just humble bragging.

Chicken buses are great fun (sometimes) and necessary (sometimes). No big deal. I do a lot of fieldwork in developing countries and whatever transport the locals use is often the most convenient when you just need to get from A to B. Like CBL, it's something I started doing in grad school and just got used to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After 10 pages of this, I think I’m team chicken bus lady. MGM (marriot gold malta) seems so mean! Chicken bus is just humble bragging.

Chicken buses are great fun (sometimes) and necessary (sometimes). No big deal. I do a lot of fieldwork in developing countries and whatever transport the locals use is often the most convenient when you just need to get from A to B. Like CBL, it's something I started doing in grad school and just got used to.

Ha ha, right. It’s no big deal. Not sure why CBL needed a Peace Corps volunteer to escort her from Roatan to the Honduran mainland.

[Anonymous]

OP did you go? Considering ES too. The cheap tickets are tempting.

[Anonymous]

I too would love an update!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wow, a lot of diverse opinions! Our family has been to Costa Rica and Nicaragua and we liked both places. This time, I am taking my 70-year old mom along so I am a little more risk-averse. We are hoping for pretty beaches and also hiking. Not planning on going to restaurants or stores except for groceries. In any case, thanks to the PPs and welcome any other advice or suggestions!

OP - if you want to go you should go!! I've been twice and I'm so glad I did (granted it was 15 years ago). The first was with my in-laws (pre-kids). I had an advantage because they are both former Peace Core, had lived there and knew where to take us, knew people so they were our guides and had a great inside view of the country.

The second time I went back with my mom, who at the time, was a Spanish teacher and we went on her Spring Break. We had my in-laws good friends take us around. We stayed in the nicest hotel in San Salvadore which was (in 2006) was $120.00 American dollars. Everyone is so friendly

The things I recommend 1. Learn about the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the Jesuit Priests. Fascinating history and museum display

2. Suchitoto - interesting Colonial town. We said at a nice inn right on Lake Suchitoto

3. Go to the pupupa restaurant on top of a volcano overlooking San Salvadore (can't remember the name). To this day, my husband and I say they were the best
pupusas we've ever had and what a view.

4. Take a hike and see the coffee bean fields

5. Surfing (if you're into this)

Note: we did a lot of things off the beaten track like see the medical clinic in a tiny village where my MIL worked at or the school my FIL helped get up and running or driving around the city

Sorry. Having a Peace Corps volunteer show you around is apparently disqualifying.

PP here - ha! Ok, kinda true

I'm kidding. I'm referring to a response to one of my prior posts, where some obnoxious troll gave me grief for saying I got to know Honduras by visiting a relative in the Peace Corps there.

PP here. No one trolled you. Rather, I offered a counterpoint to your bizarre and obsessive need to depict El Salvador as difficult, unclean, and having unattractive beaches. It is none of those things. I really wish you would stop maligning the country, which happens to be the homeland for some of the kindest and hardest working people in the DC area. You said you were leaving the thread, but then you couldn’t help yourself and you came back for more. It’s very strange.

Anyway, as I said above, El Salvador is a wonderful and authentic destination, and very easily could meet OP’s stated desires for a family trip. In addition to broad, sandy beaches (of course be careful of rip tides, as anywhere in the Pacific), there are mountain hikes, waterfalls, colonial towns, and volcanic lakes to explore. There is also interesting history, including the Oscar Romero museum that another poster mentioned, as well as another dedicated to the country’s civil war and related violence that I found instructive. Please accept that not everyone needs or desires the calm Caribbean waters of Roatan, or needs the handholding of a Peace Corps volunteer to enjoy the authenticity of Central America. We understand that you do, and that’s fine, but please stop forcing your brand of travel on others and disparaging a hospitable country and people in the process.

Oh, stop trolling please. I'm not "maligning the country" and I didn't say a damned thing to malign the people. In fact, I said I loved our visit and we had a great time. You really have no idea who you are talking to AT ALL. You can try all you want to paint me as someone who doesn't know what they're talking about or to make it out as if you know so much more than me and have more "authentic" experience and knowledge of Central American than I do -- but you don't, trust me.

The only point that I've been trying to make is that if someone is looking for a beach vacation in Central America for spring break, which is how I interpreted OP's question, there are better options than El Salvador. OP has clarified that, yes, she wants to bring her 70-year-old mother for a beach and hiking trip. So, I challenge you, Oh Wise and Sanctimonious One, to identify the "broad, sandy beaches" of El Salvador where OP and her mother could enjoy an authentic Salvadoran experience surrounded by the locals. Because, see, you are talking to someone who is fluent in Spanish, has explored the entire friggin' region by chicken bus on trips lasting months as a time.

It's possible to love a country and love a people while at the same time be honest about what a landscape looks like and to think that a certain location probably isn't the best choice for a certain kind of trip.

In short, get the hell off of your high horse.

I already mentioned a nice beach near San Salvador: San Marcelino. Beautiful Pacific beach with plenty of nice seafood stalls. There are many others of course. Just ask the thousands of Canadians who flock annually to the Decameron on the coast near Santa Ana. And you claim to like the country and its people, but you just think the beaches suck and the country as a whole is dirty and not appropriate for most “North Americans”? Because those are kind of incompatible sentiments. Reading between the lines, it seems quite clear you have a superiority complex and think OP and her decrepit mother should stick to Puerto Rico or Punta Cana or whatever. We get it, you’ve said it a million times. So please let OP decide for herself at this point. Your chicken bus storiea are neither original nor exciting, thanks.

NP here. I'm not the poster you've been trolling and arguing with, but honestly you sound like an idiot. Please stop. You clearly have an axe to grind.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea why people with means insist on vacationing in sh*thole countries.