Walking With El Salvador

 Part 2: Off the Beaten Path at Ecoparque El Espino View looking down from Mirador Aleman  Before dawn on a recent morning, my husband and I headed up the San Salvador Volcano to do some hiking and bird-watching. Our destination was Ecoparque El Espino - a place we have heard about for years but a place we had not yet explored. We will definitely make this a recurrent destination to enjoy on our own and with delegations of visitors. Situated on the southeast side of the San Salvador volcano, Ecoparque El Espino consists of 102 acres of protected land, at an elevation of just under 4000 ft above sea level. Unlike Parque El Boquerón (featured in Part 1 of this story),  El Espino is not managed by the national park system, nor has it been developed as a tourist site with "fancy" amenities. It is owned and managed by the El Espino Cooperative, which garners income from coffee production and, since 2003, eco-tourism.  Can't pass up a swinging bridge! We wandered, carryin...

I am a plant person - a plant person without a garden or a yard or a farm. We have porches.  Porch Pot (©Linda Muth, 2023) It's pretty amazing to see what will grow on a porch.  I like to experiment with what might be considered garbage from things I get at the grocery store. Most Salvadoran produce is not hybrid, so saved seeds will germinate. Herbs are sold with the roots, so it sometimes works to cut off most of the herbs and stick the roots into a pot. I am currently experimenting with some little chunks of ginger that were no longer edible.  After a couple of weeks in the soil, the roots are sprouting nice little stalks and leaves. Ginger sprouting (©Linda Muth, 2023) Frequent travel makes porch gardening extra challenging. One option is to grow for a while and then give plants away.  One time, I left a bucket of basil, rosemary and other herbs with Pastor Santiago's mom, and it produced abundantly until Santiago cut off too much. (He told me he was grateful for...

During the first part of May, we went on vacation - in El Salvador. My husband and I and another couple from our US neighborhood decided to take a life break and do the touristy thing.  We traversed the country, from San Salvador to Auachupan to La Unión, driving along the coastal highway and enjoying plenty of good food and fun. This is a thing the four of us do together in the US, so we know that we are compatible travelers who can live together, drive a distance together, and agree on food places. In the US we do a lot of exploring of new places. Our mutual goal for the vacation in El Salvador was to relax, so we chose a mix of experiences that were tested out by my husband and me and some which were a little more unknown.  When traveling around in El Salvador, it is wise to use a guide for anything off the beaten path, to do your research, to enter neighborhoods with trusted folks and to confirm plans by phone shortly before you head out.  When the four of us travel, ...

A Brief Introduction If you have been following the story of the Mission of Healing 2021 with the northern micro-region churches of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church, you know that this year we went virtual!  Each month we are producing video and printed education materials related to a particular theme.  You can dive right into the month of April, or if you would like a little background first, you might like to explore these stories. Mission of Healing 2021: What's the Plan? Mission of Healing 2021:  Personal Hygiene Mission of Healing 2021:  Community Hygiene A few of the leaders shared photos from their first small group learning activities.  We put those into a celebratory video to share with everyone in the northern churches to build enthusiasm for this year's program. Mission of Healing in Action April's Theme is all about VEGGIES! In El Salvador, the rainy season begins in May.  April is the time to get the soil ready and begin the planting process....

Staying safely at home is what most of us are doing right now.  If you have an outdoor space, if you have a yard, if you live near a park, if you can walk on a sidewalk, you know how lucky you are to have the ability to get outside during this pandemic.  San Salvador is a very crowded city.  Social distancing might seem like a good safety measure to observe, but in tiny spaces and on narrow, ramshackle sidewalks, it simply is not practical.  The proper use of masks is impressive, but there are just a lot of people.  So, we asked ourselves, what can we safely do outside of our home?  One idea:  A walk in Bicentennial Park. Saturday morning was cool and sunny.  Well, at this time of year, every morning is cool and sunny in San Salvador.  We masked up, put on our sunglasses and hiking boots, and took the short drive over to the park. Parque Bicentenario is a 225 acre reserve located on the border between San Salvador and Antiguo Cuscatlán, along...

Exit to The Angel Sugar Mill (Refinery) Protesters gathered around the traffic circle This morning we drove to the traffic circle at the edge of Nejapa.  This morning we parked along the highway and ran through a break in the truck traffic to the center of the circle.  This morning we stood with citizens, church folk and activists.  This morning we accompanied with kindness by the police.  This morning we were surrounded by signs and flags.  This morning we listened.  This morning we were pummeled by dust and walked through the ashes of a burned cane field.  This morning we took photos and we were photographed. Dueñas Family + The Angel Sugar Mill = Environmental Predators The actions this morning were not our first acts of accompaniment with the Salvadoran Lutheran Church in this valley. In a nutshell, the aquifer in the Valley of the Angel is being depleted by industry, the people who live in and around the valley barely have any wa...