Better late than never Roadtrip, Part 3

So weeks have passed by again whilst I’ve been thinking “oh must finish writing about Easter road trip” and now it’s June! And two weeks Friday we’ll have completed our first year the ABC school. How time flies.

After we left the islands we drove up to the northern more mountainous region to a small town called Perquin. The area was once pretty remote, lots of hills and was a key area in the Civil War mainly because it was a guerilla stronghold. It’s now known as the “ruta de la paz” (peace route) on tourist info but strangely only mentions the peace in terms of the nature and serene scenery.

We went round the museo de la revolucion, where former guerillas show you round, tell you what they were fighting for, how they were affected and all the awful things that happened to them and the civilians caught up in it all. Then we went round a guerilla camp in the hills and saw how they lived on the move at the time. Sure, it’s a one sided museum but very informative and a voice of the side you don’t hear elsewhere. The next day we visited the Mezote Memorial to the thousand or so civillians, mostly form the same village and surrounding area who were brutally killed by the army in December 81. After seeing the list of names of children, (some as young as a few days) on the wall of the memorial garden and then the names of all the families and the family member who died, don’t think anyone can leave there without feeling moved. (Google El Mozote for more info- it's a long story and what happened there was denied for years and to some people it still didn’t happen, despite the one survivor trying to tell her story to the world)


We also put Monty’s off road tyres and skills (and maybe kate's and my nerves) to the test again and did a bit of exploring. We had hoped to find some waterfalls but since was still dry season we weren’t so lucky.

After the few days in the mountains, we headed back down to the coast for a last bit of tropical relaxation with Kate and Gav. The usual: beach, beer, books and a little bodyboarding and surfing for Ben. All in all a great roadtrip!

So there you go, all up to date on our adventures. Looking forward to a summer of more adventures and catching up with friends and family. Hasta luego!