Money apparently did used to grow on trees...

I went to a museum when I was in Santa Ana, El Salvador yesterday and they had an exhibit on the history of money in El Salvador. Apparently in pre Columbian times, cocoa beans were used as currency. So money did used to grow on trees in this part of the world. The museum also had an exhibit on the jute industry and one on a huge volcano that erupted in 1917. They had a lot of old photographs of the Santa Ana area, train tracks buried under piles of lava and people hanging around the smoking caldera. It was a small museum but I usually find they (museums) are all interesting in some way.

One thing I like about hanging around near the equator is that there are always flowers around. Maybe not as many real gardens like people grow at home but there are some. Often there is colour on the side of the road. The other day there were miles and miles of wild flowers that looked like morning glories but they spread all over the ground and up trees. There was one place where someone was training them to go up a trellis. We have times at home when there is the same profusion of wild flowers but it tends to be concentrated in the summer.

Today was a travel day. The owner of the hotel we stayed in last night and the night before was a bit over the top in the accomodation line. When we arrived he figured all the internet places in the area would be closed so he phoned his cousin and had him come and drive us to an internet cafe where he left us for half and hour then picked us up and drove us to a restaurant. Yesterday I asked him how to get to the bus station to take us to Guatemala City. He insisted on driving us to the bus himself. He took us to a luxury bus. It had a toilet and air conditioning. The first bus like that since our arrival in Central America. It cost the grand sum of $12 each for a four hour trip (wow was that only 127 km--I just looked it up on Google maps). We got to the bus station at 9 and the bus was supposed to come at 10.30. It was closer to 11 when we set off. We got stuck for ages for construction and didn't get to Guatemala City until close to 4. It is in a bowl and there are LOTS of cars. I am glad we had decided to continue on to Antigua (where we are now) because the air looked like I would have to crack out my puffers for sure if we stayed there. This place is a tourist trap. We have seen very few foriegners in our travels until now. This place is wall to wall hotels, upscale shops and restaurants. We got here around 6 and the first few places we tried were already full. We got a place for tonight and may try to switch in the morning. We will see.

Thats all for now...tomorrow we will see why this burg is so popular....