I’m typing up today’s entry in San Salvador International Airport, where I’ve had a 4 hour stop-over en route from Lima to San Fransisco. Part of me is reminiscing happily about the lovely time I had in El Salvador when I was here almost 4 months ago (and I’m thinking of Simon and Esme as I know they’re expecting a baby now – I really wish them all the best!). However, the other part of me is feeling slightly freaked out. Nearly everyone in the airport apart from me is wearing a mask over their mouths (a la ‘Wacko Jacko’), and I have only just gotten to grips with how ‘swine flu’ fever is taking over the world.
I first heard about it this morning when I was having breakfast with Martha, the housekeeper at the home of Oscar - a guy I Couchsurfed with in Lima (even though he wasn’t there – but more on that later). I was trying to make polite conversation with her in Spanish, and she seemed to be talking worriedly about some epidemic involving pigs, and planes and people dying in Mexico, but I wasn’t exactly sure. To be honest, I didn’t feel my Spanish was up to much at the time, and I was in a rush to get all my things together before the taxi arrived to take me to the airport. Therefore, rather than asking for clarification and checking out what she was saying, I just nodded weakly and smiled, as you do when you’re chatting absent-mindedly to someone who’s practically a stranger in a language that isn’t your first. Watching TV on the big screens in the departure lounge here in the airport, though, and briefly managing to get online earlier, I’ve now got an idea of what’s going on, and an indication of how seriously everyone seems to be taking it. It all seems to be quite a drama…
Remembering all the bird flu fuss and bother a few years ago, I actually don’t feel overly concerned. In fact, I kind of have my carefree head on today – if I keel over and snuff it from swine flu right now, at least I had a blast travelling round Latin America for 7 months before I went to meet my maker! Seriously, though, this has brought it home to me how I’ve kind of been living in a bubble since I started travelling - away from the news, and away from any real concerns beyond bus tickets, and budgeting, and where I’m going to lay my head each night. I’m sure the earth’s still turning and not much will have changed, but I now feel it will be quite nice when I get back to tune in a bit more, and to be more aware of what’s going on in the world at large. I’m not sure how long that feeling will last, though, if, on top of the recession, everyone back home now thinks they’re going to die like squealing pigs. Maybe I will want to stick my head back in the clouds again right away!
So, it was farewell to South America this morning and, now, after a brief return touchdown in Central America, I’ll be heading back up to the US of A. I’m not quite sure how I feel about leaving Latin America behind. I’ve spent so long here and I guess it will be a bit of a culture shock going back to speaking English, to not hearing pan-pipe or mariachi music wherever I go, and to hopefully not having to explain to every nosey taxi driver why I’m not married and why I haven’t opened my ‘corazon’ to anyone yet (I had a final dose of that en-route to the airport this morning – I’ll open my heart when the right guy comes along with the key, Mr taxi driver, and I’m afraid I don’t think you’re the one!). As you might gather, there are certain things that I won’t be missing, but they are far outweighed by the things I will genuinely be sorry to leave behind. It’s hard to summarise what these are, as they have been different in the various countries that I’ve travelled through. In general, though, they encompass interesting foods and drinks, warm and welcoming people, amazing landscapes and natural treasures, and just little things like being called ‘amiga’ (friend) and ‘mamacita’ (literally ‘little Mum’ – a strange term that translates more as ‘sweetheart’ or ‘darling’) by friendly folks that hardly know me. One day the wind will blow me back to this part of the world, I have no doubt, although perhaps not for a while (my wanderlust has been sated for the meantime, I think, and now I feel the need to settle). In spite of not being able to understand the finer points of swine flu with Martha this morning, I do feel a lot more confident about my Spanish after all this time. Although my writing and grammar could probably do with a bit more attention, I can pretty much keep up with most conversations now, and I feel I’d be fit to return here and get by as far as the lingo is concerned.
I’m happy to say that my last night in Lima was great, and it made me feel kind of bad for having a bit of a Peru-rant in my last entry. Still, there’s good and bad in every country if you scratch beneath the surface, I suppose. Luckily, things ended on a good note in Lima, where I stayed in the house of a guy called Oscar, who I contacted through Couchsurfing a couple of weeks ago. He told me it would be fine for me to stay last night but, then, at the last minute, informed me that he couldn’t be around because of work commitments in another city. However, like a real star, he said I was still welcome to stay in his place, giving me instructions about how to get there (easy-peasy from the bus station, which was a relief), and telling me that his housekeeper, Martha, would look after me, which she absolutely did. Oscar also arranged for his friend, Victor, to come and call for me early in the evening to take me out on a bit of a tour around the city.
Like many of my other wonderful hosts in other cities, Victor took great pride in showing me around, and took me to some fantastic off-the-beaten-track places (little bohemian book-stores, and old abandoned cinemas) as well as to the main attractions – elegant Italian influenced plazas and buildings, and lovely parks with fountains (central Lima was actually much more attractive than I had been led to believe). Later in the evening we met up with another of his Couchsurfing contacts in Lima – a Canadian called Steve, who was staying in the city for a while. We all dined together in a ‘chifa’ (a Peruvian Chinese restaurant – Lima apparently has the biggest Chinatown in South America) and washed down our food with the radioactively yellow drink that no true Peruvian can be separated from - Inca Kola (I’m not all that keen on this bubblegum flavoured drink that looks like alien’s pee, but, seeing as Victor ordered a large bottle for us to share, I felt I couldn’t say no). Then it was onto a small underground bar where some people Steve knew were staging some kind of digital art exhibition. I wished I could have stayed longer and hung out with them all more, as they seemed like a cool bunch. However, seeing as I didn’t have a key, and had to rely on Martha to let me in, I had to turn into a pumpkin around midnight.
So that’s my latest update. It’s a shame that I haven’t been able to find anyone to Couchsurf with in San Fransisco (there’s a big Couchsurfing community there but I just didn’t get any positive responses to the messages I sent out). However, I’ve booked myself into a fairly central and decent sounding H.I. hostel, and I think it might actually be quite nice to re-explore the city on my own. I really don’t have a clue how I’m going to spend the next 3 days yet, but I’m sure some kind of plan will form when I arrive. I’ll write more about it in a couple of days….
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