So we're here in San Salvador and the wonderful hosts from our Hostal Dona Marta,
are taking us out, and we're going to go and visit a small town,
just outside of San Salvador called Panchimalco!!
Panchimalco? Is the right? Panchimalco - Good Job !! And our hosts are called Kricia and Eduardo
and we also have Eugene, from Russia, who funnily enough is from Vladivostok.
Which is one of the towns that we are driving through when we drive around the World. So we will go in for coffee !!
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We have arrived in this beautiful town of Panchimalco, which is nestled
down in the mountains of south of San Salvador,
it's a very colourful, beautiful town and it has a local artist that lives in it,
and he and his friends, have endeavoured to paint this town, make it colourful, arty,
put lots of sculptures in it, and make it a really beautiful and interesting place.
So this village is about half an hour's drive, south of San Salvatore,
and it's amazing compared to when we were here, a couple of months ago, it's just so much greener.
Rainy season as obviously just about to start, and you can really see it,
from just how green and lush everything is, looking right now
Everywhere you look in this beautiful town, there is something magnificent to see,
something so colourful, it just makes you feel happy inside to be here.
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The actual road covering in this town, is quite unusual actually looks like a crazy paving patio back home,
rather than just a tarmac, nice!!
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So we've just come across this absolutely fascinating area, that you can see behind me.
And this area here used to originally be used as an area where the village would do their washing,
and then with the introduction of washing machines, etc,
It became a dumping ground for rubbish, so in 2011 the local artist Miguel Angel Ramirez, decided that it was time to reclaim this area.
He was helped with an artist called Abraham O,
who came up with these fabulous, beautiful artistic paintings and drawings.
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So Kriscia was just explaining to me, that this image behind me,
actually represents the culture of this Country.
And this image was actually created to show the inspiration and the future of the culture of this Country.
What a lovely concept,
and dotted all the way around the 'Lavaderia'
the little washing area here, you can see tiles that have been painted, and
created by the kids of the local area, young aspiring artists, which is just fabulous.
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So we're just going down the side of the building, on a lovely cobblestoned area,
to see some of the statues and sculptures that have been made for this area,
and they are glorious, and you can see behind me as I go along,
there are sculptures, look at these just dotted around in this lovely area to the side of this display.
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Some of the sculptures have real meaning. This piece is about the moon the Sun and
the earth, and it depicts climate change.
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It's lovely to hear, that when you have one artist creating beautiful pieces,
and they actually have visiting artists from Honduras as well create some of the pieces behind me,
so it's lovely because the whole project is just inspiring beauty and creation,
it's so lovely and fascinating, you always hear the negative stuff about El Salvador,
but it's so beautiful because this is just so positive, forward-thinking and creative.
It's such a hopeful country.
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Everywhere you walk around this village, there are absolutely beautiful paintings,
like the one you can see on the wall behind me,
with Saint Romero, if you saw our San Salvador video, you'll know that he is the only Saint from El Salvador,
and look how beautiful is that little building behind us with the artwork?
Absolutely stunning, every corner you go round there is more art, statues and things to see,
truly a fascinating village here in El Salvador.
Lovely, lovely piece just behind me, the darker pieces are actually the original Mayan part,
and stone, and then they've been attached onto something more modern, to hold it
together to show how it would have been.
So just at the back of the park with all the beautiful art, we found a lovely little coffee shop,
with the viewing balcony over the surrounding hills, to give a real feel of where we are here in El Salvador,
and it's really nice, coffee and cake, what a best way to end the walk around, that's a very good idea.
So we stopped for a nice cup of coffee, because in El Salvador coffee is king,
and I just love this cup is made out of terracotta,
Delicious, and I even have a local cake, which I have absolutely no idea what it is but it looks lovely,
actually a sponge cake with coconut and lemon, how did you know? Because you ordered it!!
In this area many many years ago, there is the language of Nahuat,
and I'm just learning that there aren't that many people that speak it anymore,
but we're going to get the opportunity to meet a guy who does not only speak it, but he teaches it.
So we're looking forward to that, because learning languages is something I love learning about.
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Well what an absolutely fascinating chap! He has been telling us all about the Nahuat culture,
and showing us some instruments that he's made from bamboo
Bird noises
and some spears, and a little bit about the culture, Kricia has been amazing,
she's helped translate, because it's quite tricky actually some of the words,
for me to understand, but it's been absolutely fascinating coming here to meet this guy.
We are learning so much about the culture of El Salvador, and he even gives lessons,
I don't know we're going have time for that, but beautiful.
We've been invited into the beautiful home of Miguel Angel Ramirez,
and he is the famous artist here, and what a beautiful and inspirational place he lives in.
You can tell he's an artist he has pieces from artists of all over the world,
and he has been visited by some of the most famous people around the world,
and we feel really really lucky, that we had the opportunity to meet him.
He has a very individualistic style of art, and it's very recognisable,
and art is very subjective,
but we feelas though we would definitely have a piece of his artwork if we could afford it.
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Kriscia was telling me that he doesn't accept payment for his teachings of art,
But what he does is accept a gift, and the gift that is required for his teaching, is a shoe with a plant in it.
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Well we've come right to the top of this beautiful property, and well what better
view, can you get of The Devil's door, than this one right here.
Well we have been so lucky to have the opportunity to walk around this house,
and inspect all these beautiful beautiful pieces of art,
and there's not very many times that I'm speechless about the detail and the quality of art,
but honestly this is just, for my style, is just absolutely perfect, and if I had a house and the money.
I would definitely fill my house, with this beautiful colourful pieces,
and if you do want to buy any of these pieces, they can actually send them worldwide.
I'll put a link below of the artists details, fascinating,
and I just have to add, the reason that these pieces of art are children is that Miguel was actually inspired,
when he first started it was in the middle of the civil war, and he was
saddened by all the children that were going through this experience,
so he chose to paint and put a stop to all the sadness, and that's why he's painted
these children with and soft smiles and hopeful gazes. Beautiful colours.
Yeas it is absolutely beautiful, actually in each picture he hides a religious vision which is his motivation to do the art.
Yeah it's like a guardian angel, over looking the children and it's just beautiful really beautiful,
yeah we love it. Breathtaking, Love it ! Love it.
And just across the road, there is a Cultural Centre, and we are the lucky ones,
we've just been experiencing the local dance, how absolutely cool is that!
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And just as we're walking back to the car, we heard the sounds coming from this church,
it's the old colonial church in Panchimalco,
and it is the oldest church here in Panchimalco, in this style.
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Walking along the streets, there's a small stand here.
So they're selling at called 'Atol de elote' which is like a sweet drink, so we're gonna give it a go and see what it tastes like.
So it's a hot drink, oh it tastes sweet, cinnamon,
and is it got is it made of corn? it's beautiful it tastes like cinnamon corn hot drink.
Sweet it is delicious!
Marianne trying to speak Spanish !!
What is that !! ha ha ?
Crazy corn!
Cheese?
Right !! Mayonnaise, mustard, worchester sauce, and tomato ketchup sprayed on, and rubbed on,
and then grated cheese on top of hot corn! I'm going in because these are all the things I love!
Oh that's good, all the corns lovely, and worchester sauce, I can taste the sauce!
Oh no it is dripping !! it it's good really good
okay so this Corn dish is called a Alote loco.
Which means a bit crazy, which is really appropriate, for Marianne .... What !!
So if you come to El Salvador, don't be shy to try the street food stands. they taste so good.
Okay, so on the way home back to our hostel, we have stopped at Pupusas Abbi
Which is the place famous for pupusas! which is one of the national snacks here in El Salvador
and we are going to try some it and the place is absolutely packed, there is loads of people here,
so we are super excited to give this a go.
We are ordering Pupusas,
So this pupusas place is in the town of:
There you go just outside of San Salvador, probably about 15 minutes 20 minutes drive out of the town.
So when you place your order here, you've fill up one of these paper forms, and you just put the number that you want.
They then give you a ticket and the ticket has a number, we are number 43,
and apparently they come out and shout the number, and thank God we are with locals,
because if they share 43 in Spanish, we're going to be here a very long time!! and very hungry!!
So I've ordered a chicken and cheese pupusa, and a bean and cheese pupusa
and it is served with some pickled vegetables is like a cabbage and it looks absolutely delicious
Oh wow pupusa loca !!!
This is definitely a lot better than the pupusas at in the market,
There's a reason this place is famous and it's busy, it is because they're delicious,
and you have to and you have to have it with the pickled vegetables it just goes so well.
So we've left the pupusas place, and now we're just going for a little walk around town .
I'm not sure where we're going,
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So just down the road from where we had the pupusas, is this viewing platform and there is the most amazing view over the city of San Salvador behind us.
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So look we've come all the way to El Salvador, and who would have thought
Minnie Mouse, she's on holiday!! obviously but she is,
selling - Chris tries to speak ..... is that right? Atol de lote ??