Wow! I'm goin' for the three-peet! tres posts in tres dias.

There is a presidential election here on Sunday. Here is a quote and a link to a better analysis than I could possibly give you. (I am reminded of the warning I got in Lebanon: If you think you understand Lebanese politics, they probably weren't explained to you correctly. Same here!

From Tim's El Salvador Blog   www.luterano.blogspot.com

The second round of El Salvador's presidential election will be next Sunday, March 9.   The second round includes the two highest finishers from the first round voting -- Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the  FMLN on the left and Norman Quijano of ARENA on the right.   The winner of this fifth post civil war election will take office on June 1.

You can also read this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/drug-traffickers-threaten-central-americas-democratic-gains/2014/01/03/bdbc17f8-73cc-11e3-9389-09ef9944065e_story.html

But you have to read the comments to be reminded of Elliot Abrams' ugly reputation in Central America.

Meanwhile, life goes on! I did some shopping and made some friends at the local Mercado Merliot. 

And there's a place to eat Right Next Door!

Blogging twice in two days!! I think I'm finally getting the idea! The other thing is that my technology has finally settled down to work reliably, and everything is all in one place. The photos I am posting today are from trips that we took a few weeks ago, during the dark times when my laptop was misbehaving (and I thought I had lost some of these)

We have visited the little town of Panchimalco twice. The first was on he occasion of the opening of an art center founded by Miguel Angel Ramirez, and we went with Ken & Diane Templeton (and Emperatriz, of course!) Miguel Angel has developed a program of art education for the children and young people of the village, and on Saturday mornings or vacations, it is not unusual to see groups of kids with sketchpads exploring the scenic environment that he has created around his studio. This day was for speeches not sketches, though.

The second visit was with Diane, who was hoping to commission a special portrait of her (soon to be) granddaughter, Emperatriz (Em for short)(I like that!). So here was more time and open space to roam the studio area and the town. Of course there were colorful doors and windows, and a few people too!

Work in progress

Finished

Shrine to Msgr Oscar Romero, a martyr of the revolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero 

This painting, by one of the young artists' atelier, is about 8 feet high and at least 15 feet wide

The church in Panchimalco

This tree was probably here before the village

The Guys Under the Tree

A Nahuatl cultural historian

and bird caller

And happy salesman!

The Tree

an artist

Carol and artist (his work is in the background)

an artist

Street scene (well, I had to take this!)

Miguel Angel Ramirez

From under The Tree. It was quite a day!

Well, the Blogger folks say that they have streamlined the process of writing and editing one's blog. So far I have not found that to be the case, but as I am writing now, I must have done something right!

Since last I wrote some things have changed a bit. I'm writing on the fully-functional sleek titanium MacBook Pro that I bought from a friend in Beirut. He bought it in Cairo, so it has an English/Arabic keyboard, which was very amusing for Nery, the repairman hero here, who got it running again.

I have also been out and about with my new Sony camera with a super zoom, and discovered that the school print shop has a terrific Epson ink jet plotter. There are several 20x30 prints waiting to be framed, some of which you will see here shortly.

In the last post (ages ago) I mentioned that I had been booking a trip; for a long weekend, we went to Antigua, Guatemala. It is the former colonial capitol which was destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt several times. They finally gave up and moved the capitol to Guatemala City (we spent a little time there too). Fortunately, Antigua reinvented itself as a tourist destination, became a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is now a very popular place to visit by Guatemalans and gringos alike.

We traveled there on the biggest bus I have ever been on. A double-decker, with luxury seating below and economy above, we headed out for Guatemala City after school on Thursday (in the economy section). As we approached the border, I was thinking that it had been a long time since we crossed and international border on land (probably on the road to Damascus (It might have been The Road to Damascus, not sure). As it turned out, we had to cross the bridge on foot! I think it was probably the Central American version of the Allenby Bridge into Israel. The bridge was under repair, and open only for cars, carefully one at a time.  So we crossed over the river and boarded a mirror-image bus on the Guatemalan side. They even managed to have the movie playing at about the same spot!

A van from the Hotel Soleil met us in Guatemala City and zipped us off to Antigua; we got in about 10:00PM. We finished up the snacks that we didn't eat on the bus, had a small nightcap, and dropped off to sleep.

Friday was a walkabout day and I will let the photos do the talking for now.

 On Friday, this street was clogged with cars. I joked with a watercolor painter that at least he could leave the cars out. Happily, Saturday was a no-car day!

Clearly, Antiguans like their colors! Some walls have acquired a natural patina of age, but others have had it applied. Either way, the result is a very carefully protected ambience of color and age. Even the fast food restaurants (McD's Domino BK) are patina-ed outside, and are limited to very small outside signs. No golden arches. In fact, it was easier to spot them by the legions of delivery motorbikes outside.

And, yes, I was with Carol, and I do have some photos of her. Next post.