Still in San Salvador

We´ve spent the last few days in San Salvador trying to see all of the sights nearby. We have only had a moderate level of success. Despite spending a longer time here than anywhere else so far on our journey (except Los Gatos), we have only seen about half of the attractions. The city is huge and confusing and all the buses go everywhere. Salvadorenos are very willing to help, even if they do not know the answer. Thus, we have spent the majority of our time lost.

Still, what we have seen has been pretty cool. Since Joya de Ceren, we have seen the historic center of San Salvador. This included a beautiful national palace, which is still in the process of being restored. It is pretty cool to see tourist attractions when they aren´t all done up in their make up. There was an exhibit on colonial El Salvador, which was basically an exhibit on churches. There were also cannons. Stew posed as a judge in the supreme court room. Tori posed with a cannon and looked like a badass.

We also saw the cathedral which was really pretty but not too different from the others that we have seen. Santa Ana´s was newer but more impressive...at the turn of the 20th century there was a ton of money due to the rise in the coffee industry and El Salvador´s lush volcanic soil which gave the beans a special flavor and led to people getting really rich. They built a grandiose cathedral in a gothic style to demonstrate something...presumably that they were as rich and cultured as Europe. Thus, the more recent, less important cathedral of Santa Ana is better to take pictures of than San Salvador´s.

San Salvador has another important church called La Iglesia Rosario which is probably the most interesting architecture for a church that we have ever seen. The building is basically two massive arches connected by terraced concrete, filled with colored glass mosaics to let in light. It looks like a rainbow inside the otherwise concrete and metal structure. The bulding is filled with metal sculptures depicting Jesus´s life, death, and resurrection. Everything is made out of construction scraps and has a rather industrial feel, countered by the warmth of the stained glass windows. It is supposed to be in contrast to the opulence of the Catholic churches in which everything is dipped in gold and plated in diamonds. This church seemed to resonant more strongly with the local, impoverished community.

Yesterday, we tried to hike Volcan San Salvador. After waiting 30 minutes for a bus, taking 4 different buses for two hours, and being no closer to the volcano when it started thunderstorming, we decided to give up and get lunch at a mall. At least we managed to take care of some errands, like buying Stew a notebook and toothpaste. We also got to see Salvadoreno mall culture. It looks a lot like in the U.S...angsty teens and beauty queens. When we got back to our hotel, we saw a missed call from Eduardo, Tori´s brother Alex´s friend from highschool.

Ed came and picked us up from our hotel in his super cool black truck, and we got to go hang out at his beautiful house up in the hills in San Salvador. You can see the soccer stadium, including part of the field, from the park about a block away from his house. If El Salvador wins their next game against Mexico, they´ll play Honduras at home. We learned from Ed that this will be the biggest deal in a very long time in San Salvador....if this happens, we will be sure to stay out of the city, which will become a total madhouse. In contrast, Eduardo will be sure to make it to the game. Still, we´re rooting for El Salvador to make it to the world cup.

Eduardo´s house is lovely - it goes up a hill and has beautiful gardens, and the architecture is clean and modern. However, the coolest part about it was the zoo! We got to see macaws, tucans, five green and yellow parrots, an adorable cappuchin monkey that swang zanily from branch to rope to branch, three kinkyjews (yes, that´s the real name....we think that´s how you spell it), a big loveable, and relatively tame racooon, a ferrett, a hedgehog, five (mini) sharks, five dogs with really awesome names (sambucca and garbanzo are standouts), eleven cats, and more. Stew even held the hand of the raccoon! It was really fun to meet all of the animals, and it definitely made us miss having doggies around. Eduardo was so welcoming and fun to hang out with -- it was really nice to be with someone from back home.

After chilling out at Eduardo´s house for a while, it was time to see his restaurant, Citron, situated in the San Salvador´s Zona Rosa, stomping ground of the fabulous in El Salvador. The restaurant is in a former house (there´s still a living area upstairs), so it has a small (read: romantic) outdoor seating area and a little citrus tree garden. The decor is elegant with smooth, modern lines. It has an open kitchen, and we got to sit right up on the counter overlooking it. This made for an especially fun evening because we got to watch Eduardo cook and chat with him all night.

On to the food: oh my gooodness, we haven´t eaten this well since.....we don´t even know when. It was heaven. Stew said it was the best meal of his life, though he also once said that after eating In-n-Out burger. Our first course was a signature dish at Citron: yucca gnocchi in a pesto cream sauce made with four different kinds of basil and a Salvadoran flower bud. Even though the menu changes every few weeks, it´s been on the menu since the restaurant opened four or five years ago. The gnocchi were fried to perfect crunchiness on the outside, while their centers were soft and yucca-yummy. The pesto was a delicate yet flavorful compliment. We devoured it.

Oh, and the bread came with tomato garlic oil that we couldn´t stop ourselves from polishing off in about ten minutes flat. Eduardo claims that it only has tomato, garlic, and oil in it, but there must have been some kind of crazy secret ingredient. Or maybe he´s just so good that he can do things with tomato and garlic that we mere mortals can only dream of.

For our main course, Eduardo whipped up a special plate of farm-raised venison with a rich orange citrus sauce, mashed sweet potatos, a tomato-mushroom ragout (special crazy looking tropical mushrooms, that is), and venison chorizo made with lavender and rosemary (I´m pretty sure it was lavender and rosemary...). It was out of this world. We´ve both had lots of venison thanks to Stew´s family´s hunting prowess, but this was unlike any deer we had ever tasted. The meat was so tender it fell off your fork, the citrus sauce was so flavorful and awesome we drenched everything possible in it. The potatoes were sweet, delicious, and whipped to perfection. We relished every woodsy-tasting crazy looking orange mushroom on our plates.

And then we had dessert. It began with three different kinds of ice cream: bacon (Stew thought he had died and gone to heaven), corn with cinnamon, and a tropical fruit whose name has escaped us but tasted like a sort of guava-citrus combination. When Eduardo asked us which one was our favorite, we took turns declaring each one the winner. In retrospect, Tori votes for the fruit and Stew votes for the bacon....but now we´re struggling and second-guessing ourselves, so maybe the best one really was all 3. The second dessert course was cinnamon sugar churros with a chocolate hazlenut sauce and mascerated strawberries. We have decided there is nothing better in this world than a deep fried dessert with chocolate. Even though we didn´t think there could possibly be anymore room in our bellies, we somehow managed to eat every last bite.

All in all, it was a fabulous night with an incredibly gracious and welcoming host. I think it may have been the best night of our trip so far! Next time Eduardo comes to the US, we are going to show him a truly outrageous time. Thank you, Eduardo!!!

Today, we are off to beach at La Libertad to try our hand at surfing. Yippee!