In the beginning...

There was Chispas.....


Well, not really. But I have to start somewhere, and I don't have a picture of el vecino borracho pounding on the door next to my new homestay at one in the morning following a 20 hour journey that only involved two planes, a bus and a cab.
I do have the culprits that helped put me to sleep from San Salvador to Guayaquil.

However, they were too busy for comment.
The problem was that I had a horrible backache. It started after my car ride from SLT, CA to Houston, TX.
Although, the section from Pasadena to Houston, following a ghost encounter at this house of ill repute, really did me in.

Or it may have been the accident with the farmer that left hay and cow manure covering the Volvo inside and out...
At any rate, it was pain. I tried jogging with the pups the day after getting in to Houston, and a half mile into feeling swell I took a step and it was no bueno. One of my bestest friends calls me the machine when I make trips like these, thirty hours nonstop, but this time I was really feeling the aftermath.

So I was up most of the night packing and could barely get out of bed and stand straight the morning of my 5 am flight to El Salvador. I was so relieved on the bus ride to Cuenca, through heaving rain and turn after endless turn, that the night bus was mostly empty, and I could sprawl out and relieve my back, only moving a handful of times for the roadside pickup who disputed the requested fare from the moment he dripped aboard until I left the bus with my bag to grab a cab.
And there we were, windshield wipers unable to keep up with the water rushing down, headlights failing to identify street signs, lack of signs at all, street names unfamiliar to the one am cabby, my awful spanish and poor handwriting, a call to the cab director in desperation and finally identification of an address written in marker on the wall by the gate. I asked the driver if she might wait; it was so late, and I hadn't called to explain. It was still pouring and there was the neighbor, pounding on the door beside me, slurring something about 'open the door', 'my love', 'please' and 'wet' that made me wonder if the doorbell would be answered at all.