This second part of the trip was a bit of an all-around disaster to be honest, and I have only myself to blame.

(If you missed Part 1 of this blog post series, check it out here)

I totally ignored the main reason I’d originally decided to go to Mexico first, then to El Salvador for the Lightning Bitcoin Conference in November.  My reasoning was that, as El Salvador was where I really wanted to be, why not go there first, and then go onto Mexico (in time for the whale migration in January).

I somehow totally managed to forget that the main reason I’d planned it the other way around, was because of August to October being the RAINY SEASON in El Salvador.  Which I duly arrived smack bang right in the middle of!

What was I thinking? How had I forgotten something so important?

Perhaps it was the unexpected and last-minute trip to the Dominican Republic that had scrambled my thought processes.

Perhaps it was the excitement of being around all those Bitcoiners at Tone’s Financial Summit?

Whatever happened to my (admittedly sketchy) plans and thought processes, I chucked it all up in the air and booked a flight from DR to El Salvador, via Panama City at the end of the Summit.  I even met a lovely professor on the plane, who lived there and approved of my choice of first location.  I told him all about Bitcoin and we swapped email addresses.

I was further lulled into a false sense of security as I arrived in El Salvador, as the sun was shining and my friendly taxi driver practised his English on me.  Did I want a coconut drink? Lots of vendors by the side of the road smiling at the airport taxis as they sped past.

A lush, green countryside could be seen, dotted with fairly poor communities made of corrugated iron painted bright but fading colors.  People stood under the shade of bridges over the road, presumably to wait for a local ‘chicken bus’ as they are called.  It reminded me of some parts of the Caribbean I’ve visited.

The sun was still shining as we drove into the centre of San Salvador, the capital city, and then into the San Benito residential area, which I’d been assured by my guides was the best part of the city to stay.  I was a bit disconcerted to find a residential suburb, not the bustling inner city area I’d been expecting.  Lots of trees, nice houses behind high walls, but no shops, restaurants and definitely nobody walking around.

Why was I even contemplating staying in a city, you might ask?  I am not massively keen on cities mostly (for more than a night or two anyway).  Except for London, where I lived in my twenties and thirties, for fifteen years, so it feels much friendlier to me than most people experience.

Because I was working with a local Guide, Diego and on our two hour Zoom call, he’d recommended staying in San Benito initially, as I was really looking for somewhere to live, potentially for the next few years.  I knew there was a beach resort called El Zonte about half an hour from the city, but I also knew it was very rustic there indeed.  The city seemed like a better option initially, with regards to choices in places to stay, events to go to, Bitcoin people to meet.

Why was I looking for somewhere else to live, away from the UK?

I couldn’t go back to Greece as the ’90 days in every 180’ rules had kicked in post-Brexit.  I tried but failed to get residency while out there, there being only one option left, the Digital Nomad Visa, which had to be applied for from the UK.

However, there are strong signs that Europe is falling into a deeper and deeper authoritarian rule, with the so=called Leaders looking like they are going to impose more mask mandates and lockdowns, possibly even forced experimental injection rules on it’s member countries.

I know a huge financial cataclysm is coming, as part of the Dollar collapsing as the World Reserve Currency (as set out by many eminent macroeconomic experts and explained so brilliantly in Mike Malone’s “Hidden Secrets Of Money” videos on YouTube).  I know that the World Economic Forum are now trying, after having trained and placed ‘Global Young Leaders’ in most western Governments, to finally implement their ‘Great Reset’ also known as the ‘4th Industrial Revolution”. This is no theory, it’s laid out on their own website and we hear it talked about openly by everyone from Prince Charles and Boris Johnson, various unelected Euro politicians, to Justin Trudeau, the increasingly erratic Biden, Jacinda Ahern and the rapidly becoming monster Premiers in Australia.    

That means lots of things most ordinary people don’t want, such as more control of the ‘useless eaters’ as they call us, via AI and face recognition surveillance and a Chinese style social credit system.  Leading to less food, less energy, less healthcare, less travel, less anything that makes life fun and worth living.  Not to mention more man-made disasters, engineered pandemics and more dodgy mRNA so-called vaccines, possible even forcing the latter on people, using the social credit system and our own money, via CBDC’s to coerce us to comply.

Having been in the UK unexpectedly for the two years previously, my mental health suffered in spite of a couple of re-readings of my mate Andy’s “Bug Free Mind” books, so I wanted to find somewhere to live where further restrictions, mask mandates and lockdowns were unlikely, come Autumn.  I didn’t want to go too far, so that meant Central and South America.  Poorer but self-sufficient countries who are not under the thumb of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) who can enforce compliance with the WEF and CDC ‘mandates’ because of enormous debt owed to the IMF.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele had said several times publicly, that he would not enforce lockdowns or so-called ‘vaccine’ mandates.  The jab was there for those who wanted it but not enforced. The Mexican president Andrés Obrador has also never subscribed to the lockdown & jab mandates, according to several people I know that live there.  The latter is coming up for an election soon so will, no doubt, be replaced by a World Economic Forum puppet, but for now, all is well.

i also wanted to find somewhere warm (so that the inevitable massive energy price hikes would not be so punishing) and cheap to live, with a beach ideally, and affordable great fresh food, as I wanted to save as much of my hard earned cash (and my brother’s inheritance) as possible.  Now  invested in ‘real money’ not dodgy fiat currency, so that when the inevitable dollar currency collapse comes, I’d be set up for life.  Set up and able to help my friends and family, who will by then, need some help, being oblivious to my warnings of what is to come.

On another note, on my ‘bucket list’, I have always wanted to see the mother & baby whale migration up the Pacific coast to Alaska and beyond and both El Salvador and Mexico have an active whale watching scientific community and boat trips.

So, as I’d now got it into my head that El Salvador would be cheaper to live in, rather than a beach resort in Mexico, I set off there first.

El Salvador

El Salvador is the home of Bitcoin – it’s legal tender all over the country – and Max Keiser & Stacy Herbert love it. They visit regularly and are even becoming residents, if not citizens.  Something the President vows to make much easier, as he’s hoping to attract business and financial talent from around the globe.  Following the recent massive gang arrests, there are many new tourists visiting and adventurous people moving there apparently.

But I got off to a very bad start when I couldn’t find the entrance to my AirBnB, in spite of extensive instructions from my host (who was on holiday in Europe).  It was in a gated community and the fact that a gated community was even necessary, with such extensive security that we couldn’t find out way in, spooked me a bit.

Now what I should have done next was look up the nearest 4* or 5* hotel, to book into for a few days to think my next moves over in luxury. In fact, I would recommend that to everyone travelling as the whole process is tiring and fraught with sub-conscious fears and you need a period after arriving somewhere to acclimatize, get the lay of the land and catch up on your sleep.

But I was trying to travel fairly frugally, beyond my longest flights, so while a hotel occurred to me, I did have another option.

Eventually, I asked the taxi driver to take me to an upmarket hostel nearby, recommended by my local guide.  They were wonderful, taking me in and finding me a full room with bathroom and mini kitchen.  It was at the top of the house, but Brian seized my two suitcases and hauled them up there.  I sank gratefully onto the brown leather sofa and turned on the air-conditioning.

It was spotlessly clean but the whole room was clad in dark wood and tiles and definitely sloped downwards from one side to the other.  Dark wood is not great for spotting insects approaching.  (Did I mention I have a spider phobia?  Even typing the word makes me feel a bit sick).  It was bright, having windows on three sides, but looked over a four-lane highway at the front and a large 5g tower at the back.

I went downstairs and sat in the communal dining room, overlooking a cute little outside courtyard and wondered where I could get some lunch. Brian helpfully told me that the nearest restaurants were either up or down the hill a bit.  Might as well have been on Mars.  Even an umbrella wouldn’t cut it in that rain.

Then the light changed to a strange yellowish hue and the rain started.  O my, what rain!

Being at the top of the hostel, I was right under the roof which sounded like it was corrugated iron.  It was LOUD.  It was the kind of rain that I’d only seen in Greece once or twice, where the heavens open and a lot of water falls out of the sky, and I mean a LOT.  The kind of rain that flattens plants and people alike.  The kind of rain you need to avoid being out in, at all costs.

I went back upstairs to wait for the rain to stop and fell asleep.

Several hours later the rain stopped.  It was early evening now and I was very hungry.  I’d had no breakfast, there was nothing on the plane from Panama City to El Salvador and I’d been too busy since then, finding somewhere to sleep.

I ventured downstairs again and n very halting and broken Spanish (I’d been learning on DuoLingo for weeks now but it was still woefully inadequate) I enquired about food deliveries.  After several attempts to get the local equivalent of Deliveroo going on my mobile, the young lady behind the desk told me to walk down the hill and I would find a couple of places to eat.  There was nobody about but I bravely walked purposefully down the road, dodging cars and puddles.

I found a Pizza Hut and gratefully sank into a booth to order, by pointing to my smiling waitress, a pizza and Heineken.  Never have I been happier to eat a simple pizza and drink a simple beer.  You always feel much better after a sleep and some food.

The rain had started again but it was only spitting so far, so I put up my tiny umbrella and walked up the hill again, watching out for potential gangsters and kidnappers.  I have never been more aware of my rather unfit, 60 year old state, but I figured I must look poor enough to ignore.

Very breathless, I arrived back at the hostel and climbed back up to my room.  The rain got harder again and continued all night.

Loudly.

The next morning, the ever-helpful Brian knocked on my door and asked, did I want breakfast as it was included in my room rate. 

I ventured downstairs to find some really friendly locals cooking up a storm in the kitchen and I ordered a traditional breakfast; scrambled eggs with onions & peppers, lumps of cheese, refried beans and fried plantain (yuk!), orange juice and a very weak milky coffee. 

Double yuk on the plantain and milky coffee.  The juice, eggs and beans were nice though.

I went back upstairs and talked to Diego, arranging to go to a Bitcoin meeting the next evening and have a little tour of the City. 

I talked to my daughter who was enjoying hearing about my adventures.  She said “You got this Ma!” but I was rather afraid that I did not!

I talked to my son who had just come back from Mexico and various other Central/South American countries and who had a blast.  However, he was 24 and travelling with another guy as tall and tough looking as him.

The problem was, the longer I sat on the brown leather sofa trying to be brave, the less I wanted to be there.

Should I go to El Zonte (the beach area where Bitcoin adoption started) next?

Should I stay in the City and tough it out?

Was I justified in finding everything threatening and scary?  Was the barbed wire everywhere really necessary?

Was I just too old to be doing this? Had I morphed into a permanent 5* kinda gal?

Eventually, I reached a decision just as it started to rain again.

Hard.

What do you think I chose, dear reader?  What would you have done?

Let me know in the comments below!

Check out Part 1 – Findon & Greece
Check out Part 3 – Mexico via Panama City

Warm regards

Nicola

P.S. If you enjoy my blog please feel free to share my latest post with a friend, that’s the main way I grow my audience. If you have just received a link from a friend, you can subscribe free by sending an email here!