Got through the El Salvadorean immigration, hopped on a chicken bus and made my way to the smallish mountain town of Metapan. Only about 10 miles from the border, Metapan (pop 20,000ish) greeted me just as the sun was going down. Even on the bus into town I could immediately see some huge differences between the countries. The people looked at me with much more interest andwere geniunely shocked at a gringo on the bus, especially one that was sweating profusely in the heat, sweat dripping down my overly red sunburned face with the omnipresent deer in the headlight look that has become my "style" down here. The people seemed mostly friendly and very smily. I had heard from many travellers and naysayers alike, that parts of El Salvador are quite dangerous so I wanted to get a room before dark, get a bite and hit the sack after reading a bit. I got a room and decided to take a walk to the town center to nibble on some local fare. I didn't get a half a block when a crazy guy in a tuk-tuk (three wheeled covered motor powered cab that is popular in Central America) hit his brakes skidding to a halt right in front of me and said, "hey man! how you do? all good? you have to write down thompson twins for me. i love this group and no one here can find them for me cuz i don't know how to spell it. here write here. oh man, i need to take advantage of you! i love thompson twins! write down lynyryd skynyrd, i like them to, how you spell? ok, before you go, write down more, who else, oh yeah dire straights and and and bruce springsteen man write him down. oh man, thanks so much man, soon i be rocking up, man thank you so much!" the passenger was shocked and laughing hysterically because he was having a tough time beliving what was happening... but not as tough a time as I was. Then as quick as he came he was gone, but not before I told him about yelling 'Bruuuuuuuuce!'. I was laughing at that as I made my way to the center of town that was only 3 blocks away. I saw a bunch of locals around a food cart and gotthe specialty, which seems to be popular all over here so far, which is fresh cut french fries squirted with a spicy and sweet ketchup type of dressing, mayo and sprinkled with some kind of dry parmesean type chees. deliscious and only a buck. Oh yeah, the currency here is the US Dollar, so no trouble figuring that one out. Then I heard a whistle and ended up right next to a soccer field so I bought a ticket and ended up watching the local team in a professional El Salvadorean League match. Good stuff! It had some soccer hooligans yelling at the sideline judge, locals out on a Saturday night trying to look good and a game tying penalty shot in stoppage time for the local team to tie it up. Fantastic time that I just stumbled into, which are the best.
After the game I walked the streets home with some young fans that tought me one of the Metapan fight songs, to which I have already forgotten all the words. I do remember the 'ole ole ole ole' cheer but already had some practice at that one. About four pick up truck full of fans that passed me yelled, "what up man? how you do?!" and "see you soon friend!". I got to my hotel and was astonished at how nice everyone had been to me. The people here seem super friendly so far! And I missed all the photo ops because I was a little afraid of what i'd heard. One night down in El Sal, and one really good night had!
