Eating, Reptiles and Eating Reptiles

The food in Salvador was pleasantly surprising too. The national dish without doubt is the pupusa, they are cooking them on the streets and in pupusarias  everywhere! It's made using a corn meal dough and then filled with something. Usually a combination of beans, cheese, pork and possibly a vegetable (less likely obviously). But usually it's quite well blended (including the pork) so it's more like a paste. Anyway this is one plus the usual cabbage salad which I highly approve of.

My next trip was to another small town called Juayúa (why-you-ah) because I heard they held a food festival in the plaza every weekend! Sold. No sooner had I arrived I was consuming this skewer containing several animals. 

After lunch I saw some locals who appeared to be eating ping pong balls. Turns out they were turtle eggs and I was invited to try one. I decided to since it's unlikely I'll ever get a chance again. The guy pulled off a part of the shell, added salt, chilli and lime and then I was instructed to down it like an oyster. Ultimately it had no flavour and was like consuming a raw egg but the texture was definitely thicker. Although I'm sure it has given me magic powers, improved my fertility or cured some kind of ailment in advance. 

When I returned the next day I got the gallina en chicha which is chicken cooked in a sweet alcohol. The bowl on the left contained chicken, sausage and some vegetables cooked in the chicha. The small plate contains the obligatory double carbs plus some avocado. The meat was tasty but the sauce was just super sweet which is not my thing. 

After that I wandered around and saw some weird things. These white things are apparently fruit. The texture was similar to an apple or radish but the flavour was non-existent. Pass. 

I then got a bag of what I thought were dates. I asked the woman at the shop and she said they were seeds from a palm tree (I assumed it was dates since Spanish is just a shit language to describe things) but it turns out I was wrong. They were literally large seeds soaked in salt water so they were dark and swollen up to look like dates. Completely inedible. Will not make that mistake again.

The next day I went to visit some of the nearby towns. I stopped for lunch in Ahuachapán (yep weird names in these parts) and had a rather unremarkable chicken soup at the market, but I did get to experience this cucumber chilli concoction which was super delicious. 

Also I got to consume a fair amount of coconut in my travels and this is how they serve it here. Bagged up and ready to go. They even put the coconut meat in there for you. And yes, drinking from a bag is an art, and no, I have not yet mastered it. 

When in the plaza the first day I had noticed this guy just casually hanging in the plaza with a giant snake. Turns out he was the owner of a local reptile place. 

I decided to visit since it was just a block behind the plaza and cost $1 (they use US dollars here) and I heard you could hold a snake for another dollar so I decided to go all out. 

He also had some cool chameleons. I literally bypassed the cage thinking it was empty but thankfully the guy came and pointed them out to me.

And he also had the creepiest ugly frog I've ever seen (with the exception of the turtle frog - Google it. You'll probably gag though so be warned). This is apparently a pac-man frog. Gross.

But it wasn't all hideous creatures. Luckily for me the hostel I was staying had recently unknowingly adopted this kitten. So I spent several hours a day playing with it or watching the dog try and eat it. Quite amusing. 

So my first town was Ataco where I wondered round a bit and climbed the standard Latin American hill with a cross on it. The weather was lovely and it was a nice little town for wandering. 

Also, as all small towns in Latin America go there was a Jehovah's Witness office just in case Catholicism is no longer working out for you. 

Then in Ahuachapàn I found this amusing sign in the plaza prohibiting 'immoral acts'. 

They also had some rather fancy trees. 

And of course, several churches. But more interestingly I realised that all tourist attractions have a sign with a QR code. Pretty cool. In fact I felt like El Salvador was quite set up for tourism, but sadly lacking the tourists. Visit it people! I'm going to say it was probably my favourite Central American country.