This is very true. When you go to El Salvador and start to get to know the expats, usually canadian or european, you find how much "The Sovereign Individual" has influenced their thinking and if/when you say anything positive about America they tend to say, "I think America is just an idea". Implying they are pursuing "America". You might give them the benefit of the doubt on that statement, part ways and walk back to your Airbnb in El Zonte and on the way cross paths with 3 militarized police with probably automatic weapons hanging down their chests. I always say "hola" because they usually don't seem to like that. Once I received a nodding grin with just a hint of squinting sadism. But another time I walked past one near the beach, said "hola", he was startled by that, and as I passed him with my back to him he started fidgeting with the hardware on his gun so I could hear it. The people telling you El Salvador is some new idea of America don't know what America is. It's Latin American Singapore at best, not to say that's a bad thing for them.
Then you eat dinner in San Benito, see a giant traffic jam form and someone in it decides to lay on the horn like they are Moses parting the traffic. Then you wonder if that was the guy with the automatic rifle. lol
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