San Salvador isn't a complete waste of space. Yeah, there's a ridiculous amount of crime. It's amazingly dirty at times and is still reeling from the earthquake two years ago. But there are redeeming qualities.

I walked into the center with a Scottish guy I met at the hostel. It's absolutely a place I wouldn't want to be as the sun was setting, but in the daylight it's ok. There's a beautiful new cathedral in the middle surrounded by markets and clean-ish parks.

"The inside is stunning."
This bizarre building a few blocks away that looks like a 1950s airplane hangar is actually a church. And the inside is stunning. It has one of those arching ceilings with flat walls across its width (think the Sydney Harbor Bridge enclosed in concrete). But along the curved part of the ceiling there are these stained glass windows that cast amazing colors of light across the interior. I tried to take some photos. We'll see if they do it justice.

I finally met up with Karla and John, the quite cool young couple here who found the website and invited me to dinner. Very nice of them. John's a consular officer (i think) at the embassy and works with El Salvadorans who want visas to the US. Trouble is I guess most all of them want to go work illegally there and he has to refuse them. I couldn't do it. I guess these poor people pay like $100 for the application... then ride in buses for hours to the interview at the embassy... and get told "no" after a two minute interview. I guess that's just how things are, but how sad.

"This one is at least twice as big."
Karla's gonna take me on a little tour of the embassy today... which is friggin' huge. I thought the embassy in Guatemala was big. This one is at least twice as big, occupying like 25 acres. John said it's the model for all the new super-secure embassies the US is building around the world. I've always wondered just what goes on at these places, so this'll be fun.

If I stick around another day I may go on one of those canopy tours. Karla invited me to go with her and a friend. You've seen these things, where they strap you into a harness and send you flying out on a rope through the tops of the trees. Being horribly afraid of heights, it could be interesting. I'll take pictures.