We arrived at mid-day in El Salvador, the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. Organized crime in El Salvador is a serious problem. There are an estimated 25,000 gang members at large & another 9,000 in prisons. Criminal youth gangs dominate life in El Salvador; an estimated 60,000 young people belong to gangs. So why are we here and should we go off the ship to explore? Since we won’t likely ever come back this way we decide to brave it, and with our new Aussie friends we negotiate with a taxi driver to take us on a 5-hour tour along La Ruta de las Flores (the flower Route) which goes high into the mountains, among the largest coffee plantations & visits the 3 small colonial towns: Nahuizalco, Apaneca and Ataco. The towns are quaint, the air is cool and fresh, the coffee is delicious and the sights are beautiful. We see armed guards everywhere...but the scariest thing is our taxi driver. Along narrow mountain roads barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass each other, he starts nodding off. He crosses first into the on-coming lane then over steers to correct and almost wipes out 2 peasants walking along the side of the road. He speaks little English, and I’m in the front seat to translate for the 3 in the back. I suggest we stop for coffee and he agrees. The drive back was better because he was pumped full of caffein, but we were late for “last call” before the gangway is pulled so he goes at break-neck speed criss-crossing to pass traffic and make up time. At one intersection he doesn’t see a bus pulling out in front of us and almost tee-bones it, swerving at the last minute to avoid a collision. Of course there are no seatbelts in his car which has just about every warning light illuminated in his dashboard. It was a near miss! We made it back, kissed the ground, took an obligatory photo with the taxi driver then boarded the ship for a cocktail to lower our blood pressure & celebrate life! Gracias a Dios!
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