My next destination is the country formally known as Provincia de Nuestro Señor Jesus Cristo, El Salvador del Mundo, now conveniently just named El Salvador. This is Central America's smallest and most densely populated country, and it is the one that is least frequented by tourists... maybe because it is often deemed too dangerous. This could be something to do with the fact that it has the World's highest murder rate per capita: twice the rate of Colombia, and 50 times the rate for the UK, but who knows if these stats are actually correct! El Salvador is still well known for its recent Civil War and its guerillas, so I thought that the best way to learn about this would be to make a quick visit there.

To get to El Salvador from León in Nicaragua, everybody in town tried telling me that my only option was to take an eight hour $52 bus, which didn't even go all the way to my end destination. I was convinced there must be an alternative to this, and decided instead to head to the bus terminal at the crack of dawn for a day of local bus adventure. Just eleven hours and a bargainous $7 later I arrived in my first destination: Perquin - the headquarters of the FMLN party during the Civil War.  

Other than being lied to by various bus drivers, and being dropped in random locations along the way, I was pleasantly surprised how easy the journey was. The hardest part was running alongside the bus when it slows down and then jumping through the tiny door as the bus is still moving. Ordinarily this would not present too many problems, but in my flipflops and with my big backpack it was not all that easy! Plus the bus drivers' techniques were even more terrifying than in the other countries around here, which is really saying something. In fact, one of the first things I did when I arrived in Perquin was read the local paper and the front page news was all about a horrific fatal head-on collision between two buses!

The small town of Perquin is not really a tourist destination, and is certainly not somewhere that people usually choose to stay. For this reason there are not really any hotels or hostels to speak of. I arrived into town just after darkness had set in and the rain had began to pour, ie not ideal accommodation-hunting condtions. I found a girl of about six years old in the street and she took me to her grandmother's place as she knew she had a spare room. I thought I might as well go and take a look, but as it turned out it was not really going to be a great option (although there were not too many of those on the table). I then went to a restaurant to ask if there were actually any hostels or hostels in town... various people loitering in the central square had previously told me there were not. Fortunately, the restaurant were much more helpful and sent me over the road to another restaurant that has some dorm rooms off to the side of it. The bathroom was shared with the restaurant, and there was no running water in the shower. This was not really a great drama though, as I felt as though I'd be dirtier upon exiting the shower than I did when I entered! So, this is where I was to stay. Funnily enough there was nobody else there, and the last registration to the "hostel" was made well over a month prior to mine. No wonder there are no hotels or hostels here, there's no way anyone could sustain themselves on this income alone.  Perquin reminded me very much of being in Venezuela... no backpackers or tourists in sight.

As I mentioned, my motivation for coming to Perquin was to learn more about the very recent Civil War. This started with a visit to El Museo de la Revolución Salvadoreña (The Salvadorean Revolution Museum), which is located very close to the town centre. I was shown around the museum by various ex-guerillas, who were all very interesting to talk to. They were keen to answer any questions, and very patient when I was struggling with my Spanish. Some of the exhibits in the museum did actually have some English translations under them which surprised me, although the ex-guerillas told me that they rarely get foreigners in the museum; I would be very surprised if anyone actually found their way to Perquin without being able to speak Spanish.

The Museum has lots of artefacts, although in my opinion they are not all that well presented, and a lot more could be made of them. There was not too much information available to read, most of my information came from talking to the guides there, which is much more interesting than reading anyway. For those of you who do not know much about the Civil War in El Salvador, here is a brief history which I've managed to piece together from my time in Perquín.

The conflict was between the military-led government of El Salvador, and the FMLN (a coalition of left-wing militia who wanted social and economic reform). The government had around five times the manpower of the FMLN, and also received huge amounts of funding from the US government; with reported figures of $1.5m per day at the height of the war. The US felt there was a strong threat that El Salvador would become a Communist state should the FMLN be successful in their campaign due to growing socialist support in neighbouring Nicaragua, and the fact that the FMLN had allegedly accepted weapons from Cuba. Reagan declared that the US was "engaged in a war on terrorism, a war for freedom"... hmmm, does something sound familiar here?! Without this funding from the US, the war would not have lasted anywhere near as long, and many less lives would have been lost. The funding ceased after UN intervention in the early 90s. Between the start of the war in 1980 and the eventual peace agreement signing in 1992, the museum claims that over 85,000 people died, although the estimated figures are closer to 70,000 from other sources I've seen.

In 2009, El Salvador saw the election of its first ever president from the FMLN: Mauricio Funes. Funes is also the first ever leader of the FMLN who is not an ex-guerilla from the Civil War. He is a journalist who used to host an interview programme on TV, who lost his brother in the FMLN's fight against the government in the 1980s. The ex-guerillas I spoke with were happy to finally have someone from their party leading the country, although none of them seemed too overjoyed with Funes himself! He does however seem quite keen on cleaning up the image of El Salvador and trying to encourage tourism in the country. As much as they are trying to sort out the image of their country, they are sadly still plauged by natural disasters. And not since China have I seen anywhere with such a severe littering problem... someone should tell the locals in both of these countries that bus windows are not the best place to dispose of your rubbish!

At the site of the museum there is also the studios of the pirate radio station: Radio Venceremos, which acted as the official voice of the FMLN. It was interesting to look around this and see how they had soundproofed the premises with cardboard egg boxes, and to see all the old school broadcasting equipment (who doesn't love a bit of Betamax paraphernalia?). One of the most prolific broadcasters from the station was a man called Santiago, who seems to have remained a very popular figure amongst the ex-guerillas that I met in Perquín. You can also find various craters nearby from bombs that exploded in the local vicinity, including a non-fatal one (manufactured in the US), located right next to the radio station; they also have the shell on display.

Shortly before I was leaving a bus load of Salvadorean tourists arrived, and the museum went from being abolsutely dead to quite busy. As I was walking down the road away from the museum, one of the women who had arrived on the tourist bus asked me what the name of the museum is and what road we were on, then she even asked what the name of the village we were in was called. Maybe she thought I was a local?!

I would've liked to have spent more time in the Morazán region, exploring the history in greater detail, but unfortunately I was short on time and feeling quite depressed from just a couple of days in Perqín!