Mangrove tucker As well as edible crabs, the mangroves around the Tasajera island harbour delicious mud cockles which are best eaten raw with a dash of lime juice, Tabasco and Lea & Perrins (available even in Salvadorean swamps). Ada , seen here with mud cockle, has 12 sisters and lives in the pueblito of La Colorada.

Trust me, I'm a doctor! Dr Enric, one of our project doctors, practicing some voodoo medicine on the beach, left , and in more serious work mode, right , visiting a hospital in Santa Ana. The hospital photo speaks volumes about the Salvadorean economy: lack of investment in public facilities (gaping holes in the roof) and large underpaid workforce (note repetitively polished floor).

Palm trees - but no tourists Anywhere else in the world, fishing villages like La Tasajera would be filled with backpackers stringing their hammocks between the palm trunks. But El Salvador fails to pull tourists except surfers and Mormons (which, as someone told me recently, are like testicles: they always come in pairs, one's always bigger than the other, and they always get left outside.)

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