We went to a coffee plantation near Ataco town. There, this young gentleman Gustavo – all of 26 – gave me a tour of the coffee factory and painstakingly explained how coffee is made step by step.

At the end, we sat down to have a cup of coffee and went thru his life history. Grew up with his mother and brother. This, I have found to be fairly common in Latin American countries. Parents separate after having kids and the kids stay with the mother.

I asked him how much studies he had done. It seems he did finish high school but no more. This is another recurring theme I am finding with folks here.

His mom worked in the coffee factory. He joined at the age of 14 to help with money while going to school. And then his brother joined too. The three live as a joint family and live off the earnings from the coffee factory.

We promised to keep in touch in the future.

While having lunch with Gabriel in Ataco, I noticed this small car by the street side. He let me know that these cars are often used as taxis in small towns.

“You know, this is an Indian car,” he said.

I was very surprised.

“Is it a Nano?”, I asked. But then, a Nano is a two door car I thought.

Got down from the restaurant and checked out the car brand.

Got a shock of my life. It is a Bajaj!!!

All my friends from India, have you seen anything like this from Bajaj in India ever? Or for that matter, have you ever seen any Bajaj car in India ever?

Technically called Conception de Ataco, it came across to me as the most vivacious town of them all.

The Albania Cafe, to be precise. In USA, we would call this an amusement park. One interesting activity I found was biking on ropes. The tire basically has flanges (like a railway car wheel) that keeps you on the rope and then a hanging wire that the bike is tied to ensuring no fall. I am sure riding it over vast spans of air with the tree line hundreds of feet below it is exhilarating. And incredibly fearful for me.

There were these sisters (from the church) literally yelling at the top of their voices on the loudspeakers. From the tone of their voices, they seemed to be sternly commanding one and sundry to atone their sins. When I asked Gabriel, he said – “No way – they are gently saying prayers for all the city people”.

Go figure!

I do not think I am still pronouncing the name of the place correctly. Formed nearly half a millennium ago, this is atypical of the various colonial towns I have seen so far. The kids were just getting out of school and size wise, it seemed bigger than the previous two I went to.

I finally blurted it out to Gabriel when I saw this bus in Salcoatitan.

“Gabriel, why are there so many school buses in El Salvador? What is this bus doing at this time here in this town? And none of the passengers look like school kids”.

I was half expecting a story like we had experienced in Gustavo, Alaska. The one school bus in that island ferried us from the tiny airport to the one hotel that was there.

Turns out I learnt a very interesting story.

School buses from USA that are discarded are often sold to El Salvador. In fact, you can even see the school name on this bus. They fix the buses up and then use for inter-city public transportation!! Many of them are painted over. But some like this, are not!!

Over 3000 feet above mean sea level, this was a cool and quiet town. There was a zen-like peace in the center park. This place is famous for its local food: cassava salcochada cooked on firewood. I did not get a chance to try it since I spent only about an hour in the town.