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Extreme Cold Warning

12.02.2025 - 13.02.2025 sunny -24 °C
View Winter 2025 on Becca51's travel map.

It's a good time to leave Saskatchewan. The Canadian prairies are stuck in the deep freeze, the snow is too deep, and spring seems a long way off. For today, I've made it as far as the Saskatoon Inn, where I'll spend the night before heading off on an early flight to Toronto and then to San Salvador.

The Saskatoon Inn, with the paths that wind around through the foliage (is it all fake or are some of these alive??) is always a nice reprieve from the white landscape outside. I'm sitting in the restaurant as the lounge is full - it looks like there is a rancher's convention going on and they have taken over every table. Cowboy hats, boots, and buckles. The cultural experience begins and I'm less than an hour from home.

My trip this winter will take me to El Slavador, formerly one of the most dangerous places in the world, and then on to Guatemala for 5 weeks. Central America hasn't been on my radar as a destination, but a friend invited me to join her for a month on Lake Atitlan. I've always considered Central Ameria too dangerous and too complicated to get to, compared to Mexico with its direct flights, excellent transportation infrastructure, and vibrant street life. The fact that El Salvador has become one of the safest countries in the Western Hemisphere, with the drastic actions of their president (Bukele) rounding up suspected gang members and placing 2% of the population in prison without trial, helped to influence my decision. I'll try and explore more of the situation there in the next few days. Their notorious prisons have been in the news with Bukele's offer to house the criminals that Trump wants to remove from the U.S.

I'll spend three days in San Salvador, then take the bus to Guatemala City for a few days, then on to Antigua for two days, and finally to Lake Atitlan. Guatemala claims to have "eternal spring" as most of it is at a fairly high elevation. It's a destination for birdwatchers, hikers, and cultural explorers. I look forward to sharing my travels with you!

Posted by Becca51 00:21 Archived in Canada

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Comments

I'm excited to be going with you like this. :)

by Lina

Ooooh a virtual tour to a new place .... thank you for letting me know, and to tag along this way ... so country Canada is new territory for you ... reminds me of Gwenda's story of travelling to Inverell for a teaching appointment (which lasted nearly two years) in the 1950s. NSW. First step catch train. Which train? there was an option: the North Coast Express to Grafton and coach into the Great Dividing Range and on to Inverell, or train to Armidale, via Broadmeadow, and Tamworth leaving 09.30 and arriving 17:35 stay overnight and then catch bus to Inverell. Gwenda decided on the coach. The coach turned out to be no more than a rickety bus. It arrived in Inverell at 11pm at night having travelled from Central Sydney (07:15) to Grafton (17:11).
The hotel booked was shut and dark. The coach driver advised that all she had to do was go in through the kitchen and she would be looked after. She did. She was looked after and taken (quietly, and quickly to not disturb the other sleeping clients) to her booked bedroom. Next morning while seeking the bathroom and toilet she went past rooms with shotguns left in the corridor; and tigers skins; and other funny paraphernalia which she could not decipher. Having washed and returned to the dining room she found it filled with very large men, making a lot of noise - the Scottish Highlanders were there for their New Year revels, and the Shooters Gun Clubs were there for an annual state wide competition.
And there was she, one small (just five foot) Art Teacher, abroad at 24, and on her first visit to a country appointment and a country school.
She had a choice to make - the Scots or the Shooters. And there was a friendly competition for her (the only other woman in the room was the Publican).

It was no real choice, she had spent much of her teens free time attending events at the Sydney Showground on her father's members' ticket, and had attended many a Highland (New Year) Gathering.

by Dianne Allen

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