Indigo

This morning Nelson and Norma came to pick me up for one last weekend outing. We headed west in their car to Chalchuapa, a town in the department of Santa Ana that is surrounded by Pre-Columbian ruins, mostly unexcavated. There are two developed sites right in the vicinity of the town, Casa Blanca and Tazumal. We went first to Casa Blanca. The ruins consist of several small to medium sized pyramids, some of which have been partially restored. More interesting was the museum, where a very well-informed guide showed us around, explaining nearly every piece in the collection.

He also showed us an indigo workshop in a space adjoining the museum. Indigo is an intense blue dye derived from several related plants native to El Salvador. Indigo dye production for export to Europe became a mainstay of the Central American economy during the colonial period, but the development of cheaper artificial dyes in the 1860s wiped the industry out almost overnight. Only recently is natural indigo being revived as a cottage industry, and the workshop at Casa Blanca has a beautiful display of natural fabrics dyed using indigo and tie-dye, batik, and other techniques.

Indigo-dyed fabrics

The grounds of Casa Blanca were also beautiful, including a botanical garden with some large and interesting specimens of matapalo, or strangler fig, a parasitic vining plant that grows up the trunks of large trees and eventually kills the host, becoming free-standing in the process. The strangler fig's growth habit results in a bizarre, twisted and braided trunk.

Next we got some lunch in town: mashed yuca (cassava or manioc), a local specialty. From there we went to see Tazumal. Here the pyramids are larger and more fully restored. You're even allowed to climb up on one of them. Our guide was an small, wiry older guy with a ponytail who I initially mistook for a fellow gringo sightseer. He was very animated, a classic civil war-era radical who lost no opportunity to denounce yankee imperialism (in a friendly way that made me feel like a comrade, not the enemy!) and to declare his enthusiasm for "his" president. On this latter point I got the same feeling from him that I got from many people, particularly African-Americans, about President Obama, at least when he first took office. Keep that feeling alive, Barack! It must be hard to fight the power and be the power all at the same time.

Norma and Nelson at the Tazumal pyramids

On the way back to San Salvador we made a short detour to see downtown Santa Ana, which I had not yet visited. Santa Ana in the west and San Miguel in the east are the other two large cities in the country besides  San Salvador, though neither of them comes close to the size or intensity of the capital. The main square in Santa Ana is surrounded by a large gothic cathedral (looking more northern European than the usual Spanish look of Central American churches), a beautifully restored theater, a grand municipal palace, and a cultural center that was bustling on this Saturday afternoon with an art exhibition, ballet class, and several classrooms with music lessons in piano, violin, and guitar all going on at once. In the hour or so we spent exploring these buildings and the park, I got a much nicer first impression of Santa Ana than I got seeing San Salvador and San Miguel for the first time.

Funny, Nelson and I were just talking this morning about wind energy in El Salvador, and I noted that aside from the day when tropical storm Agatha hit San Salvador, I've hardly experienced any wind in six months in the country, reinforcing my impression that wind technology has little to offer this country. So right now it's ripping down rain outside, and there's actually quite a bit of wind blowing. Based on the rains we've had the last couple weeks, this will probably only last a couple hours.

Yesterday was the official end of my six-week Fulbright extension, so I guess I'm now a Fulbright alum. I still have a few days of work to finish up. Monday I and a couple other UDB people are meeting with staff of FOMILENIO, an organization supported by the U.S. government-run Millennium Challenge Corporation. Among other projects, FOMILENIO is installing small off-grid solar electric systems in rural homes in the impoverished northern part of the country. We want to talk with them about possibilities for FOMILENIO and UDB to collaborate. Then on Tuesday there's a send-off event for Salvadoran students with Fulbright awards headed off to study in the U.S. And on Wednesday I'm teaching a three-hour overview workshop on renewable energy for IEEE. So it ain't over yet. Thursday I head for Honduras to spend my birthday with Basilia and her family. Basi, I miss you!