The Crazy Capital

I know retirement in a van can look like one endless day of superficial choices after another but reality intervenes from time to time and when you find yourself grubbing around in your clothes cubes and find yourself reaching for the last clean pair of shorts or shirt…a visit to the laundry looms. Oh and it was time to get our teeth cleaned. In short we had to visit the capital. 

San Salvador was founded on April Fools Day 1525 by Pedro de Alvarado whose arrival at the Pipil Indians’ capital freaked them out so much they fled en masse from their capital and he occupied the space.  The Pipil left no written record of their lives and the Dpanish arrivals didn’t care one jot so not much is known about the original inhabitants. Spanish occupation and colonization followed their familiar patterns until independence in 1821. 

San Salvador was the capital of New Granada for a while and was at the center of efforts to create a Central American federation which fell apart more than once. The 19th century saw several attempts at unification from Guatemala to Costa Rica and the 20th century was all about exploitation and war. Throw in a few earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and you can see this has been a pretty intense place to live. 

Seventy percent of the country’s economic activity they say, takes place in this city of two and a half million people and after driving here a couple of days I can believe it. It was hectic and horrendous. And yet it was impossibly difficult to locate functioning laundries, and to get to Walmart took 17 assorted u-turns and roundabouts though we could see the store across an impenetrable barrier of hurtling traffic. 

We had found what sounded like an excellent dot to stay in the suburbs: it wasn’t. iOverlander descriptions: 

The reality:

I fear sometimes I am too elderly and middle class for life on the road as a bum but I found the junkyard not to my taste. Not for $15. The toilet was clean and worked perfectly. But the surroundings were just too much for us. 

Rusty sat disconsolately on the cement pad until the inevitable evening rain started. Depression set in especially when we found the loo had no lights. 

Early next morning we started down the immensely steep neighborhood,

…to find the dentist. He did a decent job of tooth cleaning for forty bucks but he was a horrible up seller. It turns out I need eight cavities (for just $35 each) and I could not wait to escape his clutches. I think he understood he had overplayed his hand as he found nothing wrong with Layne’s mouth. 

We crossed the street for a pupusa breakfast and vowed never to return. 

There’s no point in nagging on about the shoddy capital and its intractable traffic jams. How we got out without denting our home  I don’t know but we dropped all plans to go sight seeing. We had a date at the beach to recover.