Yesterday in San Vicente, we all went to the market with our Spanish maestras. Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring my camera (too dangerous). The market is pretty big – it takes up a few city blocks, but there are no souvenirs or anything there, just the necessities for locals. Therefore, there were tons of stands of fruits and vegetables, as well as raw meat everywhere (unrefrigerated fish, beef, and chicken feet), and blocks of fresh cheese. Needless to say that the smell was pretty potent. There were also stands selling things such as shampoo, soap, rope, etc. We all bought an assortment of Salvadoran fruits and vegetables and brought them back to the training center for samples. At the center, the maestras divided us up and taught us to make 4 traditional Salvadoran dishes: fresca de arrayanes (juice made from arraynes – an acidic, pear tasting fruit), red salsa, curtido (the slaw put on top of pupusas), and yucca. I was in the fresca group. We also sampled various fruits such as lychees and jacotes. I must admit I don’t like most of the fruit here. It’s lots of little berry type things that are really sour.

In the afternoon, the pan dulce lady stopped by so that we could all have a snack. Pan dulce is a local sweet that is AMAZING. It literally translates to “sweet bread” and that’s pretty much what it is – trays of bread that are covered, filled or coated with different sweets. For example, there is a chocolate pan dulce, a pineapple pan dulce, and a miel duro (hard honey) pan dulce.

Last night there was another baile in my street. At about 7:30, the power blew in the entire town (I blame the baile and all of it’s music and strobe lights). However, they were able to get a generator and the baile proceeded undeterred. Once again, it was pretty much just an awkward group of teenagers swaying to too-loud music. There were a lot more people there, though, and the music was better than the first night. I still went to bed at about 10:30.

We have this whole weekend off to spend in our communities. Tomorrow, though, we are all going to try to meet up and go to a crater lake that is near the town of Apastepeque, where 3 other trainees are currently located.  Some relative of my family’s was telling me about the lake last night, and she said there is a pool there, so I’m just hoping that they haven’t turned this crater lake into a water park like the one we went to in Santa Ana!

One thing that has become abundantly evident in the past couple weeks is the lack of tourism in El Salvador. I haven’t been able to find a single postcard (apparently they’re only sold in the post offices), and walking around the market there were no crafts or touristy souvenirs. Just the basics of life. Also, Ashley and I spent about an hour yesterday trying to find a way to get to the nearest beach (because Tecoluca is only 30 minutes from the ocean), and we couldn’t find ANY information on Google. It’s crazy. According to the training director, lots of El Salvador’s tourism efforts are directed at Salvadorans – just trying to get them to travel within their own country. I guess that’s why they don’t really have postcards or anything.

Fresco de Arrayanes

Assorted salvadoran fruits

pan dulce