En route to the border with Honduras we stay a couple of days in Perquin. Fantastic hostel apart from the mosquitoes which bother us all night long. Our purpose in calling here is that it was a major stronghold for the guerillas during the civil war. There is a small museum which is mainly in Spanish so what we don't understand we make up. Its quite horrific and we are surprised that even though its only been over for 20 years it didn't really show up on the radar for us. I watched a film with James Woods in called Salvador a few years ago which explained the situation somewhat. There are photos showing people dead in the streets, tales of complete villages that were massacred (not by the guerillas) and tales of children who were taken from the 'killing fields' or from their parents and moved away. There is an organisation here that seeks to reunite these children with their families still. Again, modern history that chills you to the bone.
Whilst shopping one afternoon when Adrian was lolling in a hammock I talked to Gladys, she must have been in her 70s and was a guerilla in the civil war. It was a conversation that took a long time as she didn't speak English and well, you know about my Spanish. She showed me a photograph of herself from the war, her code name was Deisy. She must have seen and done some shocking things. Gladys showed me round her house and her garden and gave me some oranges from her tree to take away with me. We talked about England and how cold it is and she told me about a friend she has who is Italian who sent her a picture of Italy in the winter. All in all it was a very interesting afternoon.
Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum but there were lots of different guns, rocket launchers and an American helicopter that had been shot down.
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