San Jose, Costa Rica

km 9300 (Piet just showed up. That's a handy little gps he's got)
Clayton here. I don't know what km it is, I just know it took us 19 hours on a bus with no legroom to get here. DVT, for the medics out there.
We survived San Salvador, obviously, nothing too extraordinary to speak of. We saw some cool country on the way to Eliu's house, and were very happy to meet his family. And we also met some very nice people, whom Piet introduced you to already. Viktor Linares, 43, is married with two kids, works full time, preaches at three different congregations, teaches at the bible school in San Salvador, and is also in the middle of a five year psychology degree. Stays up til 1 and rises before 5 to go to school before work. Our bus was to leave at 2:15am, Viktor dropped us off at 11pm, and thankfully he was still outside when we were told, by a guard with a shotgun, that we would not be allowed to wait for the bus in the lobby (seems like everybody's got a shotgun in Central America). Viktor seemed happy to take us all the way home again, only to make the same trip in the middle of the night. A nice guy.
Someone had said that El Salvador was a nation of thieves and prostitutes, stereotypically. We never felt in any danger at anytime, though we were warned by a stranger not to go downtown at night, "or you will be robbed" (sorry mom, but I gotta make this interesting to read, don't I?). Our first night, on the way home to the hotel, we were approached by a "friendly" lady. Something that could happen anywhere, I guess. Saw a lot of poor people, from those eating tortillas off the sidewalk, to the crippled, one of which shuffled down the middle of the street on his hands, asking motorists for what they could spare. I have little insight to offer in the light of such a mental picture, just thought you should know. How lucky are we, born healthy into a rich nation? You can draw your own lessons I guess.
Anyway, pupusa's are tortillas stuffed with cheese, beans or pork, or combinations of the three, which are then fried on a skillet. Quite tasty.
I'll leave Costa Rica for later, as we will be staying for another three full days. For now: it seems to be a rich country, prospering from a lengthy past of democracy. You can see it in the streets, the buildings, the parks, and it seems to have overflown into the female population. An explorable phenomenon perhaps...
Our plan is to arrive in Panama City by bus on Monday morning, then fly to Quito, Ecuador the same night. Looking forward to going to the beach in the meantime, though I am missing everyone back home. Hope to hear from you.
P.S. I didn't realize Piet had put those pictures up yet. In that awful one of me eating, I'm filling my face with pupusa's, for those interested. He tells me he will put on another of me eating a donut, hope these don't become a trend. (Those donuts were just what I needed however, a fantastic apple fritter, the sugar seeping all the way through, like a Robin's walnut crunch. And the regular old chocolate dip was filled to the brim with bavarian cream, delectible!) Check out the one of him drinking water from a bag, and don't miss the front of his shirt. He spilled on everybody in the bus too(ok maybe not everybody).