The chicken bus that took us to our first stop in El Salvador, Tacuba, was full of people who had never seen a gringo in the flesh before, and certainly hadn't seen a blonde one. It was like travelling with a film star, the amount of attention we got. Though I'm sure there were more old men in hats asking Celia to sit next to them than the average starlet gets.

The house we stayed at was lovely, with a cat and a dog, and a duck for company. The family who looked after us were lovely as well, the mother Lydia talking to us in slow Spanish so we could understand. On saturday night we stayed up drinking with a veteran of the civil war, an ex model who had had his ARM SHOT OFF (then re-attached by god, apparently), and a member of the rich elite, who was starting his life in politics.

On Sunday we went out for our walk into El Impossible national park. It turned out that Manolo (the war veteran and english speaking member of the household) was busy or hungover, so his 63 year old father would be taking us on the walk. We started to get a little nervous after Osiris (great name) made Daniel translate for the other two that we all had to move from tree to tree, and always hold on to something. After Daniel slipped the first time, and was only saved by the tree he was holding onto, we realised how correct he was. After Osiris fell for the 2nd time, while walking back to where he left us while looking for the path that he'd lost, we realised we may not get out alive.

We abseiled down a 20 foot rock face, using a big stick as support, to get to a pool for lunch and swimming. It was at this point that it started to rain. The torrential rain was fun. For one thing, it turned climbing back up that rock face from adrenaline pumping to terrifying. For another it turned the earth to mud, which was kind of nice. It hadn't been enough of a challenge up until that point. After that it was simply a matter of staying upright for long enough that you could move forward a bit before you fell again. When a log that Celia was standing on slid 50 feet without warning Daniel was about to beat Osiris. Celia is still alive, though, and so is Osiris. We made it back to the car, and the photo of us smiling is of that moment of jubilation - Daniel's sandal is off because his foot is bleeding.

While in the car, we decided that we'd roughed it enough for the moment, and needed some pampering. The following day we left for San Salvador, and the mall, where we spent three happy, happy days. We saw X-men 3, the Da Vinci Code, and ate enough fast food to put on all the weight we lost on the walk. We even cashed in a gift, and stayed a night in the Intercontinental!