Country Wanderings

June 13, 2010

Today Lara (my roommate) and I made the hour and a half drive to the town of Suchitotto, situated on El Salvador's largest lake (but an artificial one). Since I was tired from the week, I was hoping that we kept it a rather low key day and that is exactly what we did. We got to see a little bit of the colonial town before hiking a mile outside of the town to see the waterfalls, Los Tercios. The guide who went with us shared about the history of the town -- a place torn apart by the civil war years ago.

Because the rainy season is only just beginning, the water falling over the rocks was not a ton but it was still beautiful. Many of the rocks were cylinder shaped or pillar-like, giving the waterfalls their own unique structure. I was able to go and stand at the very edge of the waterfalls and look down at the river below. Walking towards the falls it looked as if one might just drop off the end of the world. I of course was careful so as not to drop off. Standing there though reminded me that I feel as if I am on the brink of change in the light of the things that God has been revealing to me. He wants to change my heart and attitudes and even the way I relate to people. I am standing on the edge, getting ready to jump into all that God has for me, no matter what the risk is.

After the hike we went down to a restaurant on the lake and there we settled down for the afternoon, making time to read and journal. I will mention that I was going to that which I never do and order tilapia instead of my customary grilled chicken. I had placed my order and everything when I suddenly thought to ask the waitress if the fish came with eyes and head. It did so I quickly cancelled my order and returned to the regular chicken. At least I attempted to try something new though. I loved the view from the restaurant and the breeze and it was perfect some time of reflecting and praying about what God has been teaching me.

Anytime I drive somewhere new, I am met with surprises on the road. My first surprise today came when all of a sudden in the left hand lane there was a barrel and I had to get over to the right. Immediately after that I saw that there was now oncoming traffic in that left lane. The problem was that there had been absolutely no warning. No signs were in place mentioning that it would be a good idea to move over. No caution signs warned drivers to maintain there position in the right lane. There was simply no communication as to what the barrel stood for and so I saw the whole situation as potentially dangerous. On the drive home, we saw that there had been a landslide closing down the other two lanes and that was the reason for the traffic merging together. The changes were much more clearly marked coming the other direction.

Another discovery in my driving was that the small towns do not mark which streets are one way. It seems that you have to guess and hope that you are correct. I am sure that there are some rules, maybe rules that apply to every little town, but I have yet to figure out what they are. Thankfully I did not appear to go the wrong way on any street and all was well.

Upon our return to the city, we lost power for about 45 minutes. It came back on for a little and then went back off. I had resigned myself to an apple and granola bar for dinner since there was no electric and I did not want to open the fridge. But then the power came on and stayed on. From what I am hearing there was a blackout in all of El Salvador and Honduras. I have no idea of the reason but it reminded me of my many days of power outages at camp in Honduras. The challenge here in San Salvador is that I do not expect the power outages and so I am not as prepared. It took me a while to find a lighter to light the candles and then I broke it so hopefully we will have power until I can get to the store and find some matches. I am reminded that I have much to be thankful for though in that power outages are a rarity these days in my life.