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alegria
October 2009 
Alegria
Posted on Dec 27th, 2008
by 
J~E~S~S
J~E~S~S
This town Alegria, in El Salvador, has words of peace printed throughout. The bottom of the electric poles are painted red with white letters painted vertically to form words of peace. On one pole, the word "Paz", Spanish for "peace". On another pole, the word "dignidad", Spanish for "dignity". There are other telephone poles that say 'esperanza" (hope), and amistad (friendship). The town itself, Alegria, means Happiness.
My digital camera's batteries died before I could get a shot of the telephone poles, so this shot, from a cobblestone road at the top of a mountain, holds the memory for me. It's one of my favorite landscape shots from my trip earlier this spring.
Down at sea level, the heat combined with the humidity was intolerable. Up in Alegria, the air was crisp and comfortable. There was the most beautiful restaurant in the world also doubling as a mini zoo (vivero in Spanish) nestled in this town.
We sat in an open air patio with a gorgeous mountain-top view of the valley below. Tropical birds flew from one side of the valley to the other, and they were at our eye level.
In the vivero were many breeds of birds in cages - parrots, tucan, dove, turkey, finches, parakeets. There was a field full of caged exotic chickens with tail feathers so long they curved to the ground. There were banana trees and papaya trees. They had a caged racoon and two "zorras" that looked like foxy badgers.
There were little houses (cabanas) for rent at about thirty dollars per night.
In the restaurant a man and his son serenaded our table mariachi-style. They sang us two songs at first, and another during dessert that was so nostalgic and beautiful it nearly brought my husband's uncle to tears.
This was the restaurant that didn't want us to leave. We were all in the car, ready to go, but some men were working on the gate, welding the hinges on it, so we couldn't pass. We asked, "how long?" and the men said to wait a little bit, "un ratito". We asked another man, who jokingly said, "20 minutes".
So we got out of the car to wait, admiring the view and talking about life, and it was ready in about fifteen minutes.
Out in the town, I needed to change my baby's diaper. We pulled over at an outdoor public park with park benches, where I began changing him. I noticed guards watching us. As I finished up, I realized these were armed guards, and my husband said they were there to secure the safety of everyone in the park. I quickly packed up the baby and we left, passing all the telephone poles painted with peaceful words.
My digital camera's batteries died before I could get a shot of the telephone poles, so this shot, from a cobblestone road at the top of a mountain, holds the memory for me. It's one of my favorite landscape shots from my trip earlier this spring.
Down at sea level, the heat combined with the humidity was intolerable. Up in Alegria, the air was crisp and comfortable. There was the most beautiful restaurant in the world also doubling as a mini zoo (vivero in Spanish) nestled in this town.
We sat in an open air patio with a gorgeous mountain-top view of the valley below. Tropical birds flew from one side of the valley to the other, and they were at our eye level.
In the vivero were many breeds of birds in cages - parrots, tucan, dove, turkey, finches, parakeets. There was a field full of caged exotic chickens with tail feathers so long they curved to the ground. There were banana trees and papaya trees. They had a caged racoon and two "zorras" that looked like foxy badgers.
There were little houses (cabanas) for rent at about thirty dollars per night.
In the restaurant a man and his son serenaded our table mariachi-style. They sang us two songs at first, and another during dessert that was so nostalgic and beautiful it nearly brought my husband's uncle to tears.
This was the restaurant that didn't want us to leave. We were all in the car, ready to go, but some men were working on the gate, welding the hinges on it, so we couldn't pass. We asked, "how long?" and the men said to wait a little bit, "un ratito". We asked another man, who jokingly said, "20 minutes".
So we got out of the car to wait, admiring the view and talking about life, and it was ready in about fifteen minutes.
Out in the town, I needed to change my baby's diaper. We pulled over at an outdoor public park with park benches, where I began changing him. I noticed guards watching us. As I finished up, I realized these were armed guards, and my husband said they were there to secure the safety of everyone in the park. I quickly packed up the baby and we left, passing all the telephone poles painted with peaceful words.
Access: Public
Jessica, this is a beautiful blog; and after the pictures, it’s such a shock to hear of the armed guards—is that how it seemed to you too? As if the ones who were guarding were somehow also menacing; if for nothing else, that they reminded you that peaceful paz is perhaps a chimera?
The peace did indeed seem illusory.
However, the town was clean and free of graffiti. El Salvador has had a troubled civil war in recent years past. There are armed guards everywhere.
One day a relative was driving us on the highway, and, standing in the bed of a pickup loaded with cargo going 65 mph, there were two guards with large guns hanging off their shoulders. I asked, “what are they doing?” The reply was, “guarding the propane (gas).”
The threat of gang related attacks is real.