Perquín, El Salvador

Two days ago we went to the hills where the guerillas hid and fought in Perquín, El Salvador. We met some nervous army guys and then went to the museum and up the hillside to see their bunkers and memorabilia. We met a war veteran who walked with a limp due to a grenade explosion. When he was 15 he joined because 2 years before the army killed his brother and father who were both neutral at the time. He showed us a bomb that USA pilots dropped which spread 150 meters. They had a radio bunker to update the people and the army confiscated it at one stage. As the commanders went back to base in their helicopters with the radio equipment the FMLN pressed the button and killed several commanders. He explained how they started to win after 1985 and at one stage a hundred of the army surrender. The guerillas chief told his people not to kill a soldier if he surrendered as they too were also sons of poor farmers. This won lots of international support, even so that Mexico and France both supplied two bullet proof cars for the guerillas head officers. On top of the hills we met a lady which had returned on holidays to show her children her country. She explained it was terrible in the war period and every 15 days she would need to go out in her town and everybody had to wear white and hopefully you would not be shot... For the afternoon we went down to the hot springs for a dip and a little workout before dinner and pints :) Yesterday we went for a day tour of the real Perquin with Oscar (another local ex-gurilla with a limp). His brother was forced to join the army at 18, he obvioulsy got paid but he had no choice. Oscar brought us to El Mozote and explained what he saw the day ater the massacre. The army wiped out the whole 1,000 people village, one family and one woman escaped. They seperated the village into children of different ages and women and men. The men were shot and women killed. A local guide and he explained that they saw the heads of the children being eating by the animals. The soldiers had raped the young girls before slicing their throats and they hung other children and threw some babies to the ground. They wiped the 140 children with the view of exterminating potential guerilla´s. As a result the FMLN grew stronger as all the other villages became united. The Arena still maintain it never happend and celebrate the general as a heroe, he was later killed in one of th 16 helicopters that were destoyed in the area. He explained the USA gave $2.5m a day at one stage but the guerillas generated $1m a day, even Belgium contributed to the guerillas. They often held wealthy people hostage to raise funds. When he was shot and wounded he became a medic. at one stage the guerillas captured a minister and negotiated a treaty to send him and others to Germany to get hospital treatment. After they sent 80 guerillas to Cuba to learn to read and write. Later after the war he went to Nicaragua to support their revolucion. He is very proud to see FMLN in power but will wait to see what is instore in the future. I strongly reccomend a tour with Oscar if you sepak spanish. Later he brought us to their local nature reserve, Rio Sapa in Perequin. It was amazing, nice and warm and great for diving.

After i said good luck to the guys and stayed overnight in Choluteca in Honduras and arrived in Estelí Nicaragua today. Im keen on learning spanish but i think this town is itle too quite and off the beated track so i will probably head further south tomorrow.