The most interesting school trip

As part of the Duke of Edinburgh programme we took the students on a hiking and camping expedition to El Pital which is the highest peak in El Salvador which sits at around 2800 metres .. It is actually cold there, something that I haven´t experienced in a long time!

The first problem we encountered was the fact the roads are not roads but steep, steep dirt tracks that really can only be navigated in 4X4. We had two mini buses and a car with no hand brake. A sign of a car on a completely vertical slope forewarned us of the roads´steepness but it seemed so bizarre that any track could be that steep that we laughed at it until we hit the vertical slopes depicted in the sign five minutes later. Marek´s bus had to take several run ups to get up most of the slopes and he had the kids out pushing the bus on several occasions. Giles´ bus had run ups on the slopes as well but the biggest problem was that he also knocked a bit of metal off the bottom of the bus. Therefore, by the time we arrived at the campsite for day one, we had an extra bit on metal that was inside the bus rather than protecting the engine from the further bumps we had to encounter.

On the second day, we realized that Marek´s bus had also developed a flat so we spent ages changing the tyre and ended up with a spare hob cap which wouldn´t go back on. Now, we had gained two surplus parts of vehicles to stack up in the boot in less than a day. Luckily, we were walking for most of the day so we didn´t suffer from any more vehicle problems until later on ..(unless you include the fact that three of the students decided to hitch up El Pital rather than walk as was required as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award).

Our biggest vehicle problem however was yet to come when Giles´car broke down on a steep slope on a sheer drop that was right up the top of El Pital (yes, you can drive up mountains and volcanoes in El Salvador.. walking is a no-no here) He couldn´t go back nor forward as back was the drop and forward was a vertical slope. It took the whole 30 students to push it down the hill so he could bump start it. The funny thing here is that when Giles did get it going (albeit temporarily) he took out one of the benches in the campsite and wrecked the grass that the owner had 2 hours ago reprimanded us for driving across earlier on! We were extremely lucky here; there were some mechanics who were also camping at El Pital and the fixed Giles´car by taking out the fuel filter. We then gain our third and last piece of vehicle in two days!

The other things that made the trip an “experience” were the fact the students ate their dinner in the Pupusperia (puspusas are maize tortillas that are filled with cheese, beans or meat) despite the fact they were meant to be self sufficient and cook; some of the students hitch-hiked and got caught by us and the fact one student was caught smoking in his tent! Oh and we lost some of the groups for hours. Oh and we also had parents turn up looking for their children as the students had rang them and said they had to walk too much ( I think they missed the point of the expedition!)

Anyway, I think that was it .. it was certainly an experience . I can´t wait for the next one when we are going up the highest mountain in Honduras.