Blog 33 - Pregaming Spring Break
Written in a cramped car to the Pyramide del Sol, Mexico City 🇲🇽
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Blog 33 - Pregaming Spring Break
“The person you want to be would go.” -Anonymous
Spring break is a funny time to witness at Yale. It's the couple weeks when everyone's dream trips come to fruition, when they splurge on fancy vacations with their best friends. Friend groups start planning dream destinations in the fall. They book flights in the winter and begin using their procrastination time on finding cool excursions or cities to stop at along the way. Throughout the entire month of February, campus is abuzz with the question, "Got any spring break plans?"
Why such anticipation? One, everyone can't wait to relax. Midterms are a busy time and the February is arguably one of the busiest months at Yale. Students want to forget about that p-set they forgot to finish at midnight. Two, It's the moment of truth when they can finally leave the rainy and cold Northeast, when they can finally use the million t shirts they packed for college. And three, you just never get two weeks off at the same time as some of your best friends again. Coordinating a two week trip with friends after graduation? Almost impossible. The two week spring break was actually a major factor in my decision to attend Yale.
Everywhere you look on Instagram, Yalies are in Brazil, Switzerland, Japan, you name it. Everyone's dreams are coming true - and that's something to celebrate.
El Salvador: The Pregame
On a rainy Wednesday night, Jake and I rode in a friend's car to JFK. We had no class Thursday/Friday, and we wanted to "pregame" our spring break by visiting the country of El Salvador - the smallest country in Central America.
Disaster struck. Just a few minutes outside the airport, the driver ran over this pothole and BAM! The car shook. Though he could still drive, our driver felt the tire pressure going down second by second. Jake and I saw on the dashboard a map of every tire's psi. The front left and back tires were at 42 psi, which is normal. The front tire? 20.
We clenched our feet with nervousness as we watched it go down to 18, then 16 as we inched closer to the airport. We finally arrived at departures when it was at 8 psi, thankful for the driver's dedication to get us there instead of pulling over right away. After a quick jog to the terminal, we made it to the gate - with some time to grab some McDonald's (or Maccy's as they say in Australia).
Now I must let you in on a big dilemma I've been facing, but first I'll show you some pictures of this fun Chinese-funded “library” in San Salvador, the capital:
Now the dilemma: Which way is the best to nap? Against a window or the back of your seat? For visual examples:
I ask this because my naps per day ratio was through the roof in El Salvador. Jake and I barely got shut eye during the night, so we had to make up sleep in cars (and on the red eye flight here).
I've never been a fan of naps, but there's an art to them. Before one, I find myself methodically sampling my Spotify playlists, finding the perfect music to soothe me to sleep. Sometimes it's classical music, sometimes it's French pop, and recently it's been Brazilian beats that families in Salvador de Bahia definitely dance to at dinner parties. The more of a deep-thinking mood I'm in, the more likely I'll play 2000s hits or 21 Savage/Juice WRLD beats that got me through high school. The more tired I really am, I'll play techno.
The funnest part is when I wake up, I look at my Spotify history to find the last song I remember hearing - it's a great way to figure out how much I really slept. Not only this, sometimes I'll get certain visions or ideas that I just have to write down. Yeah, naps are fun.
I've also never been a fan of breaks. I'll deny water breaks during a squash session and I can't stand the Pomodoro Technique, which mandates 5 minutes of rest for every 25 minutes worked. Jake and I are the same in that if we start something, we will work relentlessly until it's finished. We had the privilege of hiking the Volcano of Santa Ana, a crater 7,000 feet up, and we experienced the same phenomenon. For the first five minutes, we felt like this hike was a piece of cake. The next fifteen was a struggle, when we questioned if we needed a break or not.
But after that? Pure bliss. With every step I was reminded of the last time we hiked a volcano in Guatemala, feeling that flow state. I was listening to the same "Volcano Hike" playlist of mine on Spotify, which is just a glorified collection of orchestral music I played in high school. I was staring down at what felt like the same colors of sand and sizes of rocks as I saw in Guatemala. As far as we were concerned, we felt unstoppable.
The top was sick - we got a cool view of the crater and snapped some pics, listening to some college students from Wake Forest converse a few feet away. But honestly, we were more excited to buy $1.50 popsicles sold by this cheery salesman on the summit. Nothing like it.
A New Favorite Food
Everyone has certain icebreaker questions locked down. I bet if I asked you your favorite food, favorite thing about your college, what pets you have - you have a surefire answer ready to go. For the last few years, I've always defaulted to "羊肉串儿" (yang rou chuan er), or cumin lamb skewers, as my favorite. They're my favorite memory from China - when I was 7 years old I found a stand selling them on a beach, and I fell in love. A few times its reign in my head has been questioned, like that first meal in Delhi or those tacos in Puerto Escondido.
But pupusas - the national food of El Salvador - is putting a dent in my belief in lamb skewers. Pupusas are a thick, stuffed corn tortilla. Inside is a hearty blend of cheese, beans or pork. It's normal for meals to include 3 or 4 of these, with tangy coleslaw and salsa on the side. They're the definition of a comfort food - something you can just eat casually and make even better with some hot sauce. Just imagine splitting one in two with the side of your work, watching the steam rise up and seeing the cheesy goodness that's stuffed inside the tortilla. Not only that, it's $1.50 each!
Before coming, I had zero idea what they were. On the plane to the next destination, I missed them more than anything in this country. I said the word "pupusa" in the last few days more than I've ever heard it (let alone said it) in my life. It's criminal that this food hasn't gone past the boundaries of El Salvador, and it's on my shortlist for dishes to learn making. So please, do yourself a favor and go to your nearest Salvadoran restaurant just to try it. You won't regret it.
Why Visit El Salvador?
There's one another moment I want to share - the transition from volcano to beach. In our ride down to El Tunco, a beach town, Jake reminded me that we were going from 7,000 feet to 0 feet in just a couple hours. And we sure felt the difference in our ears as our car speeded down the curvy highway, with the ocean in sight.
But I felt something more than the altitude difference. It was anticipation.
El Salvador's been through a lot. After a brutal civil war in the 80s-90s and huge crime waves in recent years, the country has seen millions of migrants leave to places like the United States. Less than two years ago, the streets Jake and I walked in San Salvador were unsafe and run by cartels.
But they've recently elected a new president named Nayib Bukele. He's built a massive prison and arrested anyone with gang affiliation - as a result, crime has dramatically decreased, and El Salvador has the lowest homicide rate in the Western Hemisphere, beating the U.S.
And Salvadorans love him - 87% according to approval rating polling. Everywhere you go, little shops and tiendas sell jerseys with him on it. They tout Bitcoin as the smartest invention on Earth. If you say you love Bukele to anyone, they will glee in agreement.
When walking down the beach town of El Tunco to see the sunset, I had never felt this much excitement in the air, in the ambiance. Everywhere I looked were families sitting together, friends drinking beers, and kids playing in the water. It seemed inconceivable that just two years ago, many of these people were worried about going out in the streets at night, hoping they wouldn't be the next victims of gang violence. I was grateful at the chance to see them so happy, and I felt right at home.
I hope to God everyone in their life gets a chance to experience a place like El Tunco. It fits into that category of "small yet fun beach town" that’s rare to find in travel books. Cities are everywhere, no matter what country you go to. Beach cities and mountain towns are also everywhere. But there's just a handful of Latin America beach towns that are one-street-sized and backpacker friendly, where strolling down you think, "Oh my God, life is so fucking good right now."
Like Mazunte in Mexico, or Palomino in Colombia, the town is just one street of cafes, surf rental shops, and bars. A meal costs $4 and beers are $1.50. Not only that, the hostel culture is excellent, full of solo travelers who just came here to surf and meet some cool people. You run into hostel friends in the club, dancing your ass off to reggaeton like one does in El Salvador. I relent that there's no way to describe this feeling through text, just knowing that you've found a hidden gem at its prime, before they pave the roads and build hotels and shove Airbnbs. You just gotta see it for yourself.
So that was El Salvador - the land of the happy. Couldn't have asked for a better pregame, and thankful for everyone that made it amazing. Here's to the start of Spring Break! 🥂🍾🍻