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The Hasse family Bill, Sue,
Ben and one of his sisters, Libby (center) got to hike with members
of the community near the volcanic lake, La Laguna de Alegría.
Photo provided.
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That trip ended on the same day that my parents and sister were to
arrive, so that Sunday was an odyssey! I got up at 5 a.m. in Chalatenango
and rousted out the two guys from my village, Javier and Alex. We all
three bathed with ICE COLD water, then we started waking up the whole
crew about 6 a.m. We worked feverishly to get all the tents taken down,
all the sleeping bags rolled up, and everything accounted for. I'd planned
to leave at 7, but breakfast was ready and very appetizing, so we quickly
wolfed it down. Then we hiked 20 minutes down to town and just caught
the 8 a.m. bus into the capital.
We got on a San Miguel bus, got off about two and a half hours later
and walked into my town around 1:30 p.m. At this point I was feeling
pretty good. I had to get to the airport for my parents' 7 p.m. arrival.
The trip had taken me three hours in the past, so I figured I had a
wide margin. I called my taxi guy, Vicente, who was going to take us
from the airport to our hotel, and assured him that I would be there
early and that there would be no need for him to meet my parents and
take them to the hotel without me.
You know how in investment brochures there's always that catch phrase
"past performance is no indication of future performance"?
Well that's true all over!
I walked half an hour, waited for 20 minutes, and caught a bus that was
going all the way to Usulutan, saving me two bus changes. "Great,"
I thought, "I'm all set." Then we got to Villa el Triunfo and
a machete fight broke out between two rival gang members on the bus. So
everybody poured off the bus in a panic. Then the bus driver and the cobrador
pulled out their machetes and eventually got them off the bus. The last
I saw was one gang guy running down the road with about four other guys
with machetes chasing after him. Everyone poured back on the bus and yelled
for the driver to close the doors and hit the gas, which he did.
So the bus went fairly steadily, but not as fast as I had hoped, and
eventually it dropped me off at the Desvio de Santiago de Maria, just
outside Usulutan, a major bus stop. Normally, buses for the capital
go by every 15 or 20 minutes. It was Sunday afternoon, however, and
transport slows down. It was 4:40 p.m., but I still figured I was in
pretty good shape. But at 6 p.m. I was still waiting. Things were getting
a little tight!
Finally I figured I had to hitch. So I got picked up by a real character,
Don Fermín, who informed me that since many people call him Don
Benjamín by accident, that meant that we were Tucayo, or tuques,
which means we have the same name, and that is an automatic basis for
friendship. He was a jolly fellow, although unfortunately his pickup
was old and slow. When he stopped for gas, it was already 7 p.m. I figured
I should call my taxi guy, and realized that all three of my phone cards
had two cents on them. So when we got back in the truck, I was starting
to get a little stressed.
He dropped me off outside Zacatecoluca with another guy who was hitching.
Within 10 minutes we had a ride. Finally I get off at the intersection
to the airport a little before 8, walk for 10 minutes, find a guy to
give me a ride for about $2, and walk into the airport ... and there
are my folks waiting for me with Vicente!
All's well that ends well, but let me tell you, when we got to the
hotel, I was ready for bed!
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