“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s been over six weeks since we came back to El Salvador. And one thing is for sure: adapting to life in a new country is no joke. It can be challenging, especially with the language barrier. But we have so much to be grateful for. So many people have helped us in this process. It feels like we have a bit of a support system here already. And we have a wonderful place to stay in a gated community, a car, and even a cat—well, at least for awhile!
We are applying for residency here in El Salvador as a “plan B,” but still hoping to someday return to Canada if things get better again. That could take quite awhile though. For now, we’re here, and working on building a new life in El Salvador. We have Jeremy (from the US) and his right-hand man, Mario (a local Salvadoran), from “Escape to El Salvador” helping us get our residency. They’ve been such a huge help in assisting us to navigate the complexities and all the fine print of the immigration process.
Did you know a marriage license is only valid for…well, less than 11 years apparently! We had to apply for an updated one…oh, and don’t even think about using anything besides blue ink to sign a government-required form!
Recently we started looking after a cat, “Gatito” (little boy cat) and he’s been a fun addition to our household. His owner took him in, while she was staying in Costa Rica. He’s friendly, likes attention, and often meows until we pet him again or give him food. Within the first week of getting him, he ran away, jumping up and over the eight-foot high wall, separating our yard from the neighbours’.
We didn’t see him again for five days, and often wondered if we ever would. The girls prayed multiple times everyday that he’d come “home.”
Carlos, our driver here, has turned out to be such a good friend, and has helped us in so many ways. When Gatito ran away, Carlos made some great signs, which helped us get him back. Even though we weren’t allowed to post the signs around our gated community, the admin staff emailed and texted a picture of the sign to all the residents. Within a few hours of alerting everyone, our neighbour let us know that Gatito had just shown up at a house a street over from us. We practically ran over to get him—the girls were ecstatic!
Carlos also recently helped us buy a car, driving us all over town, and guiding us through the entire process. First he brought us to a few dealers he recommended in San Salvador. Then he took us to his reliable mechanic, who checked it over for us. The first one we had wanted to buy turned out to have a major issue—someone had disconnected the cable from the computer, so the warning lights wouldn’t light up. Yikes! Needless to say we quickly started looking at other options.
Cars here are NOT cheap. Not even when they’re ten years old. We were surprised at the limited options for cars we would consider in our price range. One common issue here in buying a used car is that a lot of vehicles have been in accidents. We finally found one somewhat in our price range that had been owned by a dentist and well-maintained.
Once we decided to purchase it, Carlos brought us to the lawyer—yes, that’s how it works here. The car salesman met us there, and we came with cash—let’s just say, that’s a lot of $20 bills! Unfortunately the guy didn’t take Bitcoin, or we would have paid that way. Now I wish I’d gotten a picture of Tom’s bulging pockets on his cargo shorts.
Then we had to go to the insurance place for the paperwork. Next stop was the inspection and “official” insurance place. Tom was doing all the driving around the city in our new car to all these places, with Carlos directing him. I was just incredibly glad it wasn’t me driving through the crazy—and I mean aggressive, and often stressful—traffic of San Salvador. Thankfully I married a guy from a big city who’s used to lots of traffic. Since getting our own car, our quality of life has dramatically improved, now that we can go places on our own.
Carlos mentioned to Tom as we were driving around that the driver and passenger in the front of the car need to be wearing their seatbelts. Otherwise you could be fined $150.
Tom said, “Ok. But it’s not illegal to ride in the back of a pickup truck on the highway?”
(Everywhere you look, people seem to be doing that here).
Carlos replied, “No, that’s allowed.”
Tom said, “What?! That’s crazy!”
Welcome to El Salvador! 😃
Our girls recently joined gymnastics classes on Wednesdays and Fridays at a gym in the outskirts of San Salvador. They absolutely love it. They’re learning how to do cartwheels, bridges, flips on the swings, handstands, and more. They had been asking to do gymnastics for a few years already. Back in Canada, it was almost impossible to get them in though, so it had never happened. We’re all thankful for this great opportunity.
We’ve noticed that a lot of foods here are more expensive at the grocery store than they would be back home. Imported foods like cereals, canned foods, healthier options of almost anything, and even wet cat food. But if you go to a fruit and veggie stand, you can get an incredible amount of food for very cheap.
A few weeks ago, I was doing the dishes on a Sunday morning when I noticed a big truck with produce on our street. I ran and grabbed a shopping bag and my wallet and went outside. Sure enough, the fruit and veggie stand had come to us!
I was able to get a huge papaya, avocados, strawberries, green peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, 20 lychee fruits, limes, apples, and even a whole free-range chicken for $24 US. Talk about a great way to do your shopping! Now I’m hooked—they come here twice a week, and even left us their number if we need anything.
A friend of ours here called us the other day about a property near Bitcoin Beach that’s for sale. He’s in real estate and wanted us to see it, cuz he knows we’re looking for land. The property is on a jungly hillside with a spectacular ocean view, and would be an amazing place to build something like our future Airbnb idea. And of course our own house too. But alas, it’s out of our price-range. Now that we’ve had a taste of the excitement getting our own property would give us, we’re going to keep looking. There are lots of other properties that we’d consider—some even on the sides of inactive volcanoes, with fruit trees and beautiful views.
The seasons are changing, just like our lives have been. Summer (“el verano”) is beginning here, with rainy season recently ending. Meanwhile our friends back home are posting pictures of the new snow in their yards. I miss the first taste of fresh snow in the yard…just not those six-month winters!
It’s exciting and at times incredibly challenging to be in a new place, doing new things. But that’s the season we’re in, and we’re embracing it, with all the fun and all the hard too 💚
Good for you, you're doing great. I hope conditions correct enough for you to return home too but in the meantime you're all making the most of priceless, culturally-enriching experiences. Thx.