This past weekend, I finally got to do the only hike we offer that I had not done yet; Volcan Cosiguina. If you look at the map of Nicaragua to the right(click to enlarge), Volcan Cosiguina forms the peninsula you see at Nicaragua´s upper left corner where Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua come together. From atop Cosiguina, you can look over the Gulf of Fonseco to Honduras and El Salvador. The volcano is huge but inactive. The crater stretches over a mile...

El Salvador is a country in crisis! They don't have change ... how can you operate a business with out change. Wherever I go and try to pay with a $10 bill, the cashier freaks out because they can't make change. A $20 bill causes paralyzing fear. Perhaps we need to print more $1's for them or something. It's not all bad though as this gives me an excuse to go to real businesses like Subway and get lunch to break my 10's and 20's. The biggest danger I have observe...

Today I just made a day trip to Suchitoto, a small colonial town that was hit pretty hard during the war. The FMLN guerrillas hid in the nearby mountains and caves near here and caused havoc. I went with some of my friends from San Salvador in a pick up truck. On the way back we were stopped by the police at a checkpoint. Were we speeding? Would they want to see 'papers'? Nah, they just wanted a ride a couple miles down the road. Why they didn't have their own t...

I am in San Salvador, the ultra modern capital city and the nightlife here is, borrowing an expression from one of my British friends, "proper amazing". They use the US dollar so for the first time in over two months, I am using good ole American greenbacks. There are more guns here than at an NRA convention as well over 18,000 are employed as armed security guards. They are standing around guarding everything. The shopping malls, coffee shops, Wendy's... "biggie...

After leaving Monterrico, 5 chicken buses later I was in El Salvador! And I crossed the border correctly this time which should mean no bribing of border officials later. I am still a little confused though as my tourist visa says I can stay for 90 days but the border guard only wrote 30 days on my passport stamp. This is a small country and 30 days should be plenty. Once in El Salvador, I was warned on the bus to wear sunglasses. "Ojos azules atraen a mujeres y ...