Revolution Museum and Guerrilla Camp Worth the Visit

Steady rain all yesterday kept me away from the village for much of the day, but by this morning it had stopped and left behind a thick foggy mist covering the surrounding mountains.

I caught a ride in the back of a pickup--the village is a steep quarter mile trudge up the hill from Perkin Lenca--and arrived at the Salvadoran Revolution Museum early. 

Inside are photos, posters, news clippings and many artifacts from the rebels' side of the brutal conflict that ravaged the nation from the late 1970s until the early 1990s.  A highlight for me was the various maps of the conflict including one that showed the extent of FMLN territorial control.  Other maps included hand drawn ones of combat operations planned against government forces.

Artifacts include weapons, communications equipment, medical supplies, diaries and personal effects of fighters and their leaders.  Though most of the accompanying explanatory texts are in Spanish, the visitor gets a good overall picture of the history of the war from about 1975 until a U.N. brokered peace was established in 1992.

Outside the museum are remnants of American made aircraft which crashed in the area or were shot down.  Perquin was the center of a very large area of the department of Morazan which was under rebel control for much of the conflict, so it was also a major target for government air raids and bombings.

The guerrilla camp features much evidence of those raids including shrapnel stuck deep in trees, unexploded (deactivated) ordnance, and bomb craters.  Like the Viet Cong before them, the FMLN fighters built tunnels to shelter them from those raids.

The rebel camp also had a display of the party's clandestine radio station Radio Venceremos and a photo of the captured vice minister of defense being interviewed by rebel journalists.

After a day or two up here the visitor gets a good sense of how and why the rebels were able to control this area for so long.  This is high, remote, heavily forested country, and though the main road is now paved, everything off the main road is dirt (or mud, as it is now).  Is it any wonder that a weak central government, unable to outright defeat the rebels, sought material assistance in the form of aircraft and airborne bombs from the Reagan administration?

Although there wasn't truly an FMLN "revolution" in El Salvador in the strictest sense, I think it's pretty amazing what did, in fact, take place.  The FMLN and ARENA--the main government party--eventually came to an accomodation with each other, and since 1992 the FMLN has been an active participant in the political process here.  To me that seems a fair outcome after a war which obviously couldn't be won by either side--even with American assistance for one of the parties.

Still Looking for the Bus in San Miguel (Day 14)

I'm posting this from San Miguel in eastern El Salvador, gateway to Honduras & points further southeast. This town isn't as bad as Lonely Planet makes it out to be. Sure, it's blisteringly hot & humid, but so are a lot of other places.

From my perspective San Miguel has a lot going for it. For one, I'm staying in an excellent hotel just across the street from the bus station and the central district with the usual central plaza, cathedral & market is just a short walk away. True, the hotel is a bit above my budget, but at least they accept credit cards. Even better there's a Pollo Campero right across the street. Pollo Campero is Central America's answer to KFC and though this is my third trip in as many years to Central America, I still haven't tried Pollo Campero but I think I might do so tonight.

My room has all the amenities including the most important one, air con. The hotel also features free high speed internet and a nice courtyard with a swimming pool. And we have our very own hired guard, a "special forces-type" gentleman dressed in civvies who totes a very lethal looking double-barreled pump action shotgun.

My only problem, as I see it, is I'm still looking for the first class bus to Managua & beyond! But this town is small enough that I was able to invest a couple hours today on foot, trudging my way around for some 3 or 4 miles, still looking for the Tica bus--or at least the Tica bus office so I can book a seat for tomorrow or the next day.

I did manage to get a clue from a couple helpful citizens along the way, and I've been advised to show up at 8.00 a.m. sharp tomorrow morning at a certain location in town near the main road going south, etc. etc. So hopefully in about 14 hours I will know if I can get a seat on one of these elusive "avion de terra" buses!

Meanwhile, this is not at all a bad place to be. I'm not too far from the town of Perquin which was the headquarters of the anti-government FMLN during the civil war and which the Lonely Planet recommends as a destination in its own right. I may take a day or two there before I continue--depending upon what I learn in the morning.