CHAPTER 18. CENTRAL AMERICA & YUCATAN CONT.

After a long wait in the Guatamala City airport we have a Taca flight to San Salvador. and taxi in hot weather to the Hotel Alameda where we have a nice room and take showers. In the dining room we have a good palmito salad and fish entree before walking some in the area .

After breakfast in the room we take a very crowded bus downtown and see the Government Palace, the Cathedral (under construction), and a very nice modern department store. Back by bus to the hotel for a good lunch in the cafeteria, then wash some clothes, and take a nap. In those days we washed clothes in the lavatory, wrapped them in towels, and walked on them, so they dried fast. After our rest we walk around the hotel area some more, seeing many big fine old houses. For supper we taxi to El Greco for a good paella dinner in a pretty restaurant with a little garden court next to our table. The weather is cooler after supper so we walk about 10 blocks back to the hotel.

After an early breakfast in the room we rent a car for the day and take a ride north to the Tazumel Mayan ruins. A young boy helps guide us thru them and the interesting little museum. We drive to Lake Coatepeque and have delicious crab soup and river shrimp on the verandah. Then we try a rough dirt road toward Cerro Verde, but give up since the road is so bad, and go by a coffee farm with beans spread out to dry in the sun, and on to La Liberdad on the Pacific coast. Along the way we see many people walking, and crops of bananas, sugar cane, citrus and vegetables, and many very pretty poinsettias and bougainvillea bordering the crops.

Today we take a bus to the El Salvador del Mundo monument where shrubs are trimmed to look like animals, then two more busses and some walking to go to the university. The campus is closed and we can’t get by the guards, but there appears to be many large new buildings. It is hot, so we taxi to the Gran Hotel San Salvador for a very good buffet lunch, then taxi back to our hotel.