Welcome to El Salvador!!
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So the time has come to leave Suchitoto, and we have had
an absolutely awesome time, and our friends, Edwin and Caty from EC Tours have
come and picked us up, and we are off to go and see an indigo farm. Oowww
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As we are driving along, you can actually see the crops here, and they are
sugarcane, and also they are growing corn, so it's really nice as you drive through
the countryside to see all the different crops they are using.
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Well we have a really special treat, Edwin from EC Tours, has actually
arranged for us to come and visit an indigo farm, how absolutely amazing is
that. And we've just arrived on this finca, and it's just so beautiful we're
in a lovely rural setting, which is Marianne's favourite place and it's just
been so lovely to see, the countryside change and open up into the agricultural
land. It's beautiful. So on the finca that we are visiting,
Mario's just explained, that they've got a number of different crops, they have
the indigo, they have some cashew nuts, and some hibiscus and I have never seen
an indigo plant before in my life, but behind me here, there is a huge crop of
them, and indigo as we've said on previous videos, used to be the largest
crop and export here of El Salvador, but was replaced by coffee. But yeah,
it's growing right here.
As this is an organic farm, they actually grow species,
and use and farm trees, that they can use for other purposes and this tree which
is called the neem tree, which is NEEM tree, they actually use the leaves for
pesticide! How fabulous and have a look at this
beautiful grove of trees.
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And behind us, these trees are actually cashew trees.
I've never seen a cashew tree before, they're not actually in season at the
moment, but normally they have fruit and then the seed comes from the fruit like
a like a shell, crack it open and you have a cashew nut that we're all used to
eating amazing.
I was just remarking to Mario that there are so many butterflies
here, and as a tourist to this country we are fascinated by the wildlife, and the
butterflies are everywhere. And he reminded me and pointed out quite
rightly, as an organic farmer they encourage wildlife they don't use pesticides.
They don't kill all the insects and of course with that, you get all these
beautiful butterflies.
They've also got a small variety of pineapple, they don't
grow in massive, but they are incredibly sweet.
So there are three different tanks,
first of all the Indigo plants, it actually comes from the leaves are put
into this main first tank and it's left here weighed down with stones, so it's
completely submerged for 18 hours. After 18 hours in the first tank the water has
sort of like a greeny yellowy tinge, and then it's actually released into the
next tank down, and it's stirred and aerated for about an hour and that
aeration process with big paddles actually causes it to turn to a really
dark blue. You can actually see that there's a little bit of residue sediment
that's actually still there. It's then brought down into this last chamber that
you can see right behind me, and what will happen here, is it will actually
split between a liquid and like a muddy sludgy kind of mixture. It's left for
about 18 hours and then the liquid is actually siphoned
off, and you're left with like a sludgy silty blue mixture.
So after they take
the sludge from the second tank, they put it into these cloths and the liquid
drains out now, they collect the liquid because it still looks blue, and they
double filter it. They pour it back in, and eventually the liquid after a couple
of times runs clear. Indigo that you can see behind us is cropped during the
rainy season, and is actually done all done by hand by shears, they don't have
big machines that come and crop it, and they actually have a whopping 30
hectares of indigo here, and probably the largest indigo farm in El Salvador.
The interesting fact about organic farming, you have husbandry of trees and we've
just found out that the reason that they have the cashew trees as well, alongside
the Indigo, the fleshy bit, they break down and use and turn into some kind of
vinegar, and the vinegar they use to adhere the indigo to the cloth! That is
organic farming at its best! Husbandry of trees, love it!
And then I've just found
on this finca, this farm, here they have a worm farm, they make their own compost
to enrich their compost, they use these worms. It's just lovely, there are bugs
everywhere because there are no pesticides or insecticides, but every bug
is useful here.
So the sludge that we saw in the nets,
is then brought up to the main buildings here, and they actually put them into an
oven at a very low temperature, because it's very important not to burn the
indigo otherwise obviously it would change the colour, and after about 24
hours it turns into this hard dry formation, that they then mill and
crush to form indigo powder.
So the reason the Mário have the trays of
indigo brought out onto the floor in daylight so we
could see it, it's because on this organic farm they literally take it true
to the word, so what they do is, there is actually no electricity here on this
finca, and to heat and cook the indigo and to dry it out, on a slow oven they
use wood fall. So any fallen branches or trees on this land, are collected by some
of the guys that work here that's their job, so that there is fuel to heat the
ovens. The majority of the indigo gets sold to Germany, and it tends to go into
beauty products, and including hair dyes. So I told him I was happy to support the
indigo trade! Every six weeks!
So now we've arrived at one of El Salvador's
historic sites, and it's actually a mayan site, called Cihuatan.
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So in this room full of fascinating information about the Mayan culture,
we have a map her that shows Meso-America and the area in green is where the Mayans
settled, this particular Mayan site here in El Salvador Cihuatan, was actually
built shortly after Lake Ilopango, was created during the big eruption back in
around 430 AD, so this site was created about 900 AD and is one of the oldest
remaining sites that they've discovered here in El Salvador.
So the archeological sites here in El Salvador are open six days a week
they're all closed on Mondays. This particular site, the entrance is free of
charge, however the other sites in El Salvador, they charge just three dollars
entrance fee to come in and have a look around.
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So the main structure here, is where the the really important the leaders would
have had their houses on top of this structure, and it just I love these Mayan
sights, because it really gets the imagination going, of what life would
have been like back in the day here, and there's not that much known about the
Mayan culture, because a lot of it wasn't documented, as some other cultures.
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So we've climbed up to the top of the main structure, to get an aerial view.
Great views from up here, absolutely stunning all the way around
the hills and the mountains, and the the rest of the site here.
There is so much nature, we are in full blown nature, just the birds you
see flying around, it's just absolutely beautiful to be exploring El Salvador
like this.
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And this site is absolutely pristine, they obviously take their archaeology,
their archaeological his history seriously, they do absolutely immaculate
it's been really well looked after, and I can see a couple of animals in the
distance! I'm gonna zoom in the camera! Chris has got the camera and they are
goats! Yeah! we love goats.
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Along this beautiful garden of trees, I don't know how to call it!
And for anybody wondering why I've got foliage in my hair, this is actually from
the bug repellant tree and I'm just giving it a go to see if it will stop
the things buzzing around my face!
I couldn't pronounced it, that is the name of the plant!
Into a liquid and into a Uh!
and okay sorry - CUT