Random thoughts and stories about sharing friendships and experiences in El Salvador (formerly known as Linda's El Salvador Blog)
Off the Beaten Path: Museo de Ferrocarril
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One of the core values we hold dear in our sister church relationship is the practice of doing tourist activities in El Salvador together. Visiting historic sites, parks, natural wonders and museums gives us the chance to learn about El Salvador together. It's true that wherever we live, we often have neither the time, the interest nor the resources we need to "be tourists" in our own backyards, and often visitors in El Salvador have been to many more places in the country than their Salvadoran friends have.
In our sistering situation, taking excursions together is especially important because our community is divided by boundaries. Sections are controlled by different gang groups, and families are not able to cross boundaries from one sector to another. It is very difficult to plan any kind of event in the church or in the community in which everyone can participate, but with careful organization, field trips are something most of us can do together.
The engineer invited me to take a close-up
A great new attraction for school-age kids, youth and adults is the Museo de Ferrocarril (Railroad Museum). The museum is made up of a collection of buildings located in San Salvador on Avenida Peralta, between between the Terminal de Oriente and the backside of the Tiendona market. Plan ahead because you can only enter the parking area via a right turn. Drive slowly and watch for the railway murals on the exterior wall just before the entrance. The cost is $1 per person for the museum, and $1 per person to ride the train. Pay for both right away at the entrance kiosk, along with the $1 bus parking fee. Foreigners are charged $3 to enter, but if you spend a lot of time in El Salvador and guide groups, you might be able to negotiate a deal. I called the day before (2259-4100) to let them know we were coming, and I was able to get everyone in for the Salvadoran price. It's also good to ask at what time the train rides depart so you can plan your visit accordingly.
The guide shows off the ingenious two-
directional seating for first class
The guides are well-trained and will share a lot of historic information with your group! Signs are posted in Spanish and in English at most of the displays. Sometimes the tour groups get pretty big, so ask if you can have your own guide.
The museum resides at the old train station
The round house
We started our recent visit with the train ride. Some of the grandparents in our group remembered the railway system as it existed prior to the civil war. Some remembered the short run which FENADESAL (Ferrocarriles Nacional de El Salvador) reinstated between Apopa and San Salvador from 2007-2012. I think it would be very fun to view the photos which the young people took during the visit. There were, of course, lots of selfies with engines in the background. One boy took pictures of every mechanical gadget on display. Some of the kids recorded what the guide was saying. Many of the mothers encouraged their children to take lots of pictures to use for future school projects. Everyone really had fun. The tour is interactive and the guide was really good at making it fun for the little ones.
The presidential car
View down the route the track for the train ride
A positive side note: the young guides at this museum serve as excellent role models for students who may be studying tourism and history with aspirations of seeking employment in the developing tourism industry in El Salvador.
I am not sure if I have written much about pupusas, but I do love to eat them! Since today, November 14th is National Pupusa Day in El Salvador, I decided to search the word "pupusa" in my Google photos to see what I would find. Although Google could not really tell the difference between my photos of pupusas and those of tortillas, I was sort of impressed that the search feature identified any pupusa photos at all. If you are not familiar with pupusas, I am sorry. They are delicious. The basic idea is to put soft, white cheese and other optional ingredients inside a tortilla and cook it on a griddle. Common options are plain cheese, bean and cheese, cheese with shredded ayote (sort of like zucchinni) or chipilín, or cheese with beans and pork rinds. You can really put anything inside a pupusa. Once, at a pupueria in Washington DC, I had a lobster and cheese pupusa. The masa or dough can be made from corn flour or rice flour, and depending on where you are in El Salvador
El Salvador has a trash problem. This is not a new situation. This is not a new story. If you walk around El Salvador, you spend a fair amount of time walking over stuff like this. I have been thinking about trash, storm drains, rain. I cleaned out the storm drains near my church in the US this weekend - always needed after a windy day. Our alley sometimes floods, and it's better to be proactive than to mop up water in the church kitchen. Storm drains along paved roads in El Salvador are no joke. They are gigantic openings where curbs should be and are never covered by grates. In a rainstorm, a small cow could literally be swept down into one of those things. Naturally, as a convenient hole that goes to who-knows-where, people see the storm drain abyss as an excellent place in which to sweep street trash, especially along the busy thoroughfares in San Salvador. (Someone told me once that this is actually illegal, but I still see people do it.) In small communities trash gets swe
Tales of mysterious encounters with a headless priest in the dark of night are not uncommonly told among the Salvadoran people. After the time of the Spanish invasion, when conquerors wielding swords or carrying Bibles established their power, there emerged a legend of an imaginary priest who wanders in the streets and pathways as a lost soul. He appears to those who are out walking in the evening. He is searching for his head. He, or perhaps his head, lets out screams into the night. Those who see him feel cold and are sometimes paralyzed with fear and cannot speak for days. The story of the Priest with no Head is well-known and frequently told in Tonacatepeque. Some say the ghost of El Padre sin Cabeza (the headless priest) is real. Some say the story was invented by the church in order to scare indigenous people into becoming Christians. Some who study traditional, Salvadoran tales say this legend was created by enemies of the church. A painting of the Padre sin Cabeza (headles
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