Central America - Continued

Jan 29

5 min read

After another early wakeup call and a long bus ride (with a food stop at Pollo Campero - yum!) we made it to Honduras! We dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed out for a nice little treat and an amazing sunset at The Chocolate Place. The evening was followed by a group dinner at a local spot with the worst food I had on the entire trip… but also the cheeeeapest drinks I have ever seen in my life! Naturally that meant we needed a few ;)

Facts about Honduras

Population 9 Million
It is one of the poorest countries in Latin America with more than 60% of people living in poverty
It is also one of the most dangerous countries in the world due to its high crime rates
Many people pass through Honduras on their way to Mexico/USA/Canada
Corruption is so high, despite new government not much can be changed
Also house people of the Garifuna community (caribbean)

Copan & Hot Springs

Copan was a short walk from our hotel and totally worth seeing. Our guide was great and was able to share some new and very important facts about the Mayans, especially about their number/counting system. Did you know the Mayans were the first civilization to use the digit 0? Here are some more interested things we learned:

Copan was excavated in 1930 and is one of the only Mayan cities that has inscriptions/pictographs on its pyramids. Why? Because they used volcanic stone as opposed to Limestone.
Only about 20% of the site has been uncovered so far.
When a new structure is found, the pieces are excavated, numbered, then put back together with cement.
Their number system was based on 20s. A dot means one, a bar means 5, and a 0 with a dot on top means 20.
Meaning of figures and colors
- X = a successor
- 🙂= lord
- A pile of wood = when a kingdom was established
- T = wind
- Red = sun
- Yellow = moon
- Blue = death/venus

Oh, and while at the ruins my friend Larna and I also managed to find a geocache - woop! ;)

The same afternoon we had the opportunity to head to a hot spring that included a bumpy, windy ride into what seemed like nowheresville. It was so worth it though! Various pools of different temperatures hidden in the forest - magical!

El Salvador

Another border crossing day meant another early wakeup call. This time, to get to El Salvador, we had to briefly cross back into Guatemala (shortest route). All went smoothly and we arrived at our cute little hotel in Suchitoto in time to get a little rest before heading back out on a city tour. The tour included a stop at a local art school led by a rebel nun, seeing an abuela make her famous hand-rolled cigars, visiting a fascinating volcanic formation, and learning about the natural indigo dyeing process. The day was rounded off with a pupusa dinner where we got to hand-make our own pupusas!

Day two in El Salvador we learned more about their civil war in the 80s. All info is firsthand from a rebel fighter, Rafa, who shared his story with us:

The war lasted over 10 years and killed over 75’000 people.
Background: 14 families owned all the land in El Salvador, forcing 90% of the population to act as their farm hands ( more like modern day slaves), working Mo - Sa from 7am to 4 pm for a salary of 1 Colon (11 cents) per day. This made it impossible for families to provide for their children.
In 1970 the peasants organized themselves. This is when Rafa started learning about the struggles in his country. The rebel objective was to protest to have the right to rent land for themselves and have higher salaries and better food. The ruling families didn’t like this, formed an alliance with the military, and created death squads that were in charge of chasing and capturing people of the rebel movement.
By 1975 the peasant movement was not alone. Other rebel movements joined, especially in larger cities. These movements included teachers, students, construction workers, etc. All of the different groups were fighting different fights. They realized they needed to unite, and so they formed the popular revolutionary block.
On July 30 of 1975 the first massacre took place on students of the national university. This was the government’s attempt to stop the revolution. Instead, the rebels started to better organize themselves. They created a popular militia and self defence groups. Even catholic priests joined the revolution.
In March 1977 a priest, who had been part of the revolution, was executed. This scared the people, as even religious people were no longer respected.
When Rafa was 15 he found refuge in the capitol, was a construction worker by day and studied at night. However, life in the city was getting worse, with marches and strikes happening constantly.
In 1978 Rafa took part in a protest, got captured, and was beaten up by the national guard. That was his tipping point. He returned to his town of Cinquera to join the revolution full-time. In October 1978 Rafa officially joined the guerilla rebel forces. He was the youngest member at 16.
In 1979 some people within the government were convinced they wouldn’t be able to stop the rebels. So, they had a plan to overthrow the government and remove the sitting president. This effectively ended the military regime. However, it led to 5 men ruling the country who had a separate agenda and were, in fact, not part of the revolution at all. The new government then declared war.
Until the 1980s the country used most of the land for agriculture. However, during the war everyone stopped farming, which gave nature time to regenerate. Forests started growing, providing shelter for the rebel forces.
The US government sent troops to support the El Salvadoran army and paid 1-4 million USD per DAY for the El Salvadoran government to fight the rebels. (A sum that later had to be paid back to the USA). The major points were bombed 4-6 times every day for 12 years.
The revolutionaries finally won the war upon which the UN wanted to verify the rebel fighters and honor them. However, only 14’700 were verified as the large majority of revolutionaries were afraid for their families’ safety.
After the war, the rebel forces transformed into the left wing party, and in 2009 the left wing came to power.
Only since 2011 has the civil war been included in the school curriculums.
After the civil war there were a lot of gangs and very high levels of crime until 2021 when a new president was elected. Since the new president took office, corruption and gang violence has declined drastically, with more jails being built to take in all gang-related people. This resulted in many criminals leaving the country and El Salvador becoming one of the safest countries in Latin America. (Although the new presidents’ actions can be seen as violations to international human rights laws, the local population is happy that crime has dropped drastically)
Rafa and many others, although happy that the war is over, are still not fully satisfied with the government. He personally wants to see more development in healthcare and education, and thinks the government is spending too much money on the army.

It was extremely interesting to hear all this first hand from one of the rebel fighters. Upon asking Rafa what he wanted us to take away from his story he said something to the effect of: be kind to each other.

*Fun fact: our local guide is in an indigenous speaking heavy metal band called Indezoquixtia, and was crowned the best guitar player in El Salvador!