Well after Alice's rather depressing blog about the history of El Salvador I'll keep it light! From Perquin we headed to the high altitude (well for El Salvador) village of Alegria. The trip required taking a mixture of pickup trucks, buses and minivans but was surprisingly easy. All through our trip we've been rating countries against one another and up till now Uruguay has been "friendliest people" but after the sheer helpfulness of the bus drivers and general population El Salvador has stolen its crown. For example when we got of the bus and asked for directions from a shop keeper she walked us all the way to the hotel and even stuck around to make sure we found the manager OK. Alegria was a very pretty little place and we spent our time wandering around and taking a walk to Laguna de Alegria, a sulphurous crater lake a few kilometers from the town. The pictures don't really show it but it was bright green and set in a beautiful little spot. The hot springs did absolutely nothing for the temperature though and so swimming was decided against. The walk itself was also really nice as the cobbled path led past lots of coffee farms and past some amazing views down over the country.

We're now in the capital city of San Salvador soaking up the Western atmosphere. The street we're staying on has no less than 3 Burger Kings, 2 Wendys, a Pizza Hut and about 15 Pollo something-or-others. Junk food baby! Unfortunately, a tropical storm has just hit El Salvador and it is peeing it down so we've been hiding out in the museums and cinemas most of the time and not really getting to see much more of the city. Some would say this is a good thing because San Salvador is supposed to be very dangerous but I just can't imagine anyone here being unfriendly enough to actually mug us - they're just so damn helpful!