Cool, in the end I think El Salvador is definitely a diamond in the rough when it comes to using btc/lightning there. I think its saving grace is that when all else fails one can fairly easily (if you have a local sim), cash out to usd using chivo atms. I really like that chivo atm has no markup over the average btc price. I think the withdraw limit was 1000usd/day at a time. I tested up to about 800usd myself.

I heard stories of people not getting their btc when buying via chivo atm, but selling to an atm in a well supported (eg. a upscale mall in Santa Ana), was never a problem.

There are also athena atms around but they charge a premium and have lower limits without extra kyc, if I remember correctly.

It looked to me like many people in Salvador were eager to accept btc, sometimes after a small education session, because they were keen to get the business. They can easily cash out to chivo/usd if they do not intend to hodl.

For buying gas with btc, I found the Puma stations (I think they are state owned) to be more accepting, but sometimes they wanted to accept chivo (stablecoin you could say), instead of onchain/lightning.

People are concerned about the volatility "because they might lose" but it never occurs to them that volatility might work out in their favor too. Oh well :p

One other thing I'll add is that all the pictures on twitter look amazing that people post, but was very humid in the coastal regions, that is something a photograph cannot capture. Having a car rental with ac was definitely a life saver.

We are still early, all of the sudden a new financial technology got dropped upon a relatively unbanked population a year+ ago. All those education efforts that are happening and NGU in due time will gradually (then suddenly?) increase adoption.

Oh and to all the plebs out there reading this and considering a visit, do yourself a big favor, learn some spanish. Joe speaks some semi decent spanish it looks like but yeah, that is definitely a blocker for people. It's Latin america, "no hablo espanol" will only get you so far.. ;)

El Salvador has really great people, not that many tourists, and thanks to Bukule really super safe at the moment. I met some locals who are seeing their own country for the first time because it's now safe to travel. I met Salvadorian expats that are returning because it's finally safe to do so.