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Sun, surf and sinister goings-on in El Salvador

11/19/2017

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I am now just disembarking from Honduras (review soon!)  in neighbouring El Salvador and what sounds like a highly intriguing novel:Malia needs to leave El Salvador. A surfer and aspiring engineer, she came to Central America as a Peace Corps volunteer and fell in love with Ben. Malia's past year has been perfect: her weeks spent... building a much-needed aqueduct in the countryside, and her weekends spent with Ben, surfing point-breaks in the nearby port city of La Libertad. Suddenly, a major earthquake devastates the country and brings an abrupt end to her work. Ben and Malia decide to move on.

Now free of obligations, they have an old car, a wad of cash, surfboards, and rough plans for an epic trip through South America. Just as they're about to say goodbye to their gritty and beloved Salvadoran beach town, a mysterious American surfer known only as Pelochucho shows up—spouting grandiose plans and persuading them to stay.
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Days become weeks; documents go missing; money gets tight. Suddenly, Ben and Malia can't leave. Caught between bizarre real estate offers, suspect drug deals, and internal jealousies, this unlikely band of surfers, aid-workers, and opportunists all struggle to find their way through a fallen world, in Kilometer 99 by Tyler McMahon
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Finally leaving Nicaragua - and on to Honduras

11/18/2017

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​Well after a lengthy sojourn in Nicaragua due to ill health, I am glad to say my literary travels are now once more underway :) I spent my time mainly in the company of Anne, an American mother-of-two who comes to volunteer in Nicaragua and finds both a personal and political awakening by what she sees there, and Evelyn - also American but now a long term resident of the country.

Evelyn has lived through the Contra wars in the 80s, losing her husband and daughter in the process, yet still manages to balance her jaded experiences with an optimistic and humane approach to her fellow countrymen as she considers herself a naturalised Nicaraguan. This is seen most effectively in her charitable work - notably setting up a children's orphanage, and her highly cynical view of the US and its interventions in the country.

I said in a previous post I liked this book despite myself, and I should briefly explain (a fuller review will be posted later). My key niggle was, aside from the two central female protagonists, there is a bewildering array of secondary characters who come and go, sometimes without warning, and I did find myself having to flip back on occasions thinking = who is Camilo, who is Harry Abbett, who is Olga, Dr Manuela, Patricia, Ernesto etc? Also, author Sandra George often has the tendency to put current and historical political analysis of the country into the dialogue of her characters; which occasionally come across and stilted and artificial, as well as rather didactic.

But what finally won me over was the description of Nicaragua itself - in a way a character in itself. I loved the juxtaposition of the turmoil of the past (and the present; the Recontras are an ongoing threat, as one scene graphically shows), the poverty, the political frustrations of its citizens, the lack of resources - with the descriptions of a lush, beautiful verdant landscape populated by diverse flora and fauna - and the occasional volcano... in a way this encapsulates the paradoxical cynicism, yet optimism, of Everlyn, Anne and the Nicaraguan people; living with a legacy that has left a country devastated by war, yet with a love and belief and a will to make their country proud and beautiful once more.

And so, finally I am moving on to neighbouring Honduras, with 'Island Hummingbird' an autobiographcal tale of Faye, a young girl growing up in the idyllic white beach island of Utila. Honduras however, much like Nicaragua, is a country with two sides to it and once senses that as Faye matures into adulthood her perfect existence may not last...

​Below is a picture of Honduras. More soon!

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November 14th, 2017

11/14/2017

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Apologies for lack of posts and updates for the past few months, you all must have think I'd fallen off the edge of the world! Fortunately that's not the case but I have had some health issues which have sadly needed to take priority. I thank you for your understanding and am now continuing my literary trek...

Meantime, this global traveller is convalescing in beautiful Nicaragua with 'The Good Adventurers' - a book which I am enjoying despite myself! More on that soon... 
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