So this morning we're leaving the town of Santa Ana and our friends Edwin
and Katy from EC Tours, have picked us up from our hostel and today we are
going to explore the 'Rutas de Las Flores'.
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Hola ! Bienvenidos a El Salvador !!
Thank you !!
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So we are on our way to the 'Rutas de Las Flores' and we've had a little pit stop, we've come up to this mirador
and to see this viewpoint and it's absolutely beautiful we're on the 'Rutas de la naranja'
which is the 'orange road' And it's a little pit stop before we
carry on. So if anyone was doubting if the local police or the tourists police
were super friendly and super welcoming to El Salvador?
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so we have arrived in the town of Nahuizalco and this is our starting point on the
'Rutas de las of Flores' for those of you that haven't heard of the 'Rutas de las Flores'
it's a beautiful road for about 40 kilometres,
going through wonderful villages. The coffee region of El
Salvador, with the most amazing views and Nahuizalco looks absolutely beautiful,
check out this square behind me. We're going to go and have a quick look around
this wonderful town.
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As you walk through town, somebody has spent a lot of times making beautiful
gardens and the trees have been shaped into these beautiful square formations.
It's just so beautifully planted, I really appreciate a pretty garden and
these are beautiful gardens.
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Part of the weekend celebrations here in the town, they put on this
wonderful event for the kids behind us, where they are hitting
the are piñata to get the sweets out! Amazing it's a really good atmosphere down here.
Market sounds
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So the market here is open every day of the week, but the special events outside
is just at the weekend.
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This 'name' which we translate into English is
mess! if my room is a mess it's a mess okay! so this is the name of this.
yeah a mess ! this is a mix of different spices, seeds, they
have some garlic, sesame, nuts, some leaves, they got some pumpkin seeds, and what we
do with this, we mix it, we put in the blender, and blend it, and with cut
tomatoes, put it inside with water, we use the blender, we make this sauce. Yeah, to
cook it with the turkey, chicken, beef, very delicious! yes on Christmas, we make this
turkey this sauce, so that's what for.
Christmas eve dinner! and so the next day, when everyone wake up hung over, we got
this, and now you can find those sandwich everywhere in El Salvador, it's so nice to
walk around these markets, you get a real feel for real life here in El Salvador.
From the foods that they're selling, to the people, it's just a really nice
atmosphere and if you go to any town, I would recommend walking around the local
market, it is the best way to get to know the culture of where you are. Now what
we're seeing here is 'Name' Very famous, so this is a
sausage and what they're doing, is they're separating the actual individual
sausages, tying them with corn leafs! ingenious, and when they are cooked,
the corn leaf actually burns, it gives it an even smokier flavour.
Walking around the market, the clothes are just so colourful everywhere has just got colour.
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This is way better than the one we had last time - sour guava and
it's absolutely delicious, normally I don't buy things in plastic
bags with straws, but it's beautiful Edwin, thank you very much for the drink!
Cheers !!
It is pumpkin seeds roasted, and then ground, and we use it for
fruits like mango, orange, jicama, with any fruit but also we can make a chicken
sauce, or this crab sauce, but you can cook it ! you can use it for anything! so
I'm going to let you try this, and just try it! okay, let's give this a go.
It is good, salty, seed, yeah! delicious, and also with the drink that we have here,
if we have this juice with this powder in vodka, we have our
national drink, or national cocktail, that we call 'chichi mako' we don't have vodla, but we will put it anyway !!
Would you like to try some? Why not? It is OK Kids ... there's no alcohol in it!
mmm - it just enhances the flavour a little bit, it is like putting seasoning and you drink - exactly.
That's what it is.
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What I love, walking around, is all the ladies carrying things
on their head and apparently it is only the ladies, the guys carry things in a
different way, but it's some serious balancing skills! I'm not sure that I
would be able to carry anything on my head.
Look at all this beautiful fruit, so the Loroco flower - El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras.
Just the one to produce loroco it grows from these countries, where El Salvador is
the main consumer of loroco, because the pupusas, it's in the mix inside the pupusas?
the pupusas and cheese, so this mixed with cheese, Pupusas! you can make pizza with this, individual
make a big pizza with this, a sauce for cooking, like to make chicken with loroco sauce,
and if you don't get the opportunity to actually eat it, I would describe it like asparagus,
really delicious, and then all along one side of the main square here
there's loads of food places. So if you're looking for something to eat, great way
to eat some local food. Next to the main square here is a wonderful church, it's
Sunday, so actually there is a service going on in the church as we speak.
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So we just found out that this town, is actually one of the largest
concentrations of the indigenous people, and just going into the church, we had
one of the best surprises ever! There was a wedding, so we got to see the bride and
groom. I love weddings!
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Edwin was just saying that obviously when the Spaniards came over, all the
boat builders and the carpenters actually helped build the churches and
if you look at the roof here, it actually looks like but the outside of a wooden
boat, how they would have put it together, and then if you look at the windows they're
actually like portholes!
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And just off the square, they even have a museum dedicated to the history of these
beautiful People, the Nahuitl People! here they have traditional crafts that can be
found nowhere else in Central America, because they're specific to the Nahuitl people,
including for a hot day a nice woven fan !!
They have got beautiful bracelets, artwork, handbags, handmade crafts all the way
along this side of the square that you can see behind me, beautiful
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It's a shoe, or sandal and made from a tyre !!
Recycling at its best! oh that's quite heavy, it is quite heavy!
There you get fit wearing these shoes, They are for exercising ! Tread the globe,
Treads a flip-flop!
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What's amazing, is they've actually got jewellery, that is made out of different
types of seeds, amazing I've never seen that before, and the seeds are actually
collected by older people in the town, and they bring them to the jewellers here
that makes the jewellery, so it actually supports not that the jewellry makers but
the older people that just collect the seeds and bring them in. Love it !!
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And next to the main square!! cut oh
They've got beautiful bracelets, artwork, oh I smacked Marianne in the face! cut