It has been an exciting few weeks that we have just finished living through.

When it was born, the idea of Mission El Salvador 2021 was little more than a joke. There was a great deal of curiosity about what was happening in the small Central American state and there was only one pressing question.

If bitcoin is legal tender across the country, will it be possible to live with it for long without touching a sigle bill?

When we realized that the only way to check it out would be to experience this adventure firsthand and that nothing could stop us, we had no doubt: we must go as soon as possible.

Weeks of careful planning and study followed. We chose to spend over a month and a half in El Salvador, doing our job and chronicling the experience step by step. The goal is to visit it all, getting out of the big cities and tourist routes, meeting the people, living even in rural and non-civilized contexts, to understand how much this technology is really penetrating the territory and whether the population has really grasped its deep meaning. Are they experiencing it as an opportunity or is it simply another form of money to survive on? And again, are the continuous announcements of President Nayib Bukele, the Bitcoin City, the Bitcoin Bond, just sophisticated political propaganda techniques or do they correspond to a precise project that is really taking shape?

Those who follow the Bitcoin Italia Podcast also know how much we care about the narration of bitcoin as a tool to protect the human and civil rights of the people. The adventure that we are about to live gives us the opportunity to tell you the story the Salvadoran people, who did not find themselves in poverty by chance or by their own will. A dramatic and bloody story, which speaks of centuries of colonialist oppression, of feudalism imposed by a handful of powerful oligarchic families, of civil war between government troops and guerillas and finally of economic submission to the power of the United States.

Therefore, it will also be a precious opportunity to show a little known but very beautiful country. To remind us Westerners how great our privilege is by telling the stories of other human beings, exactly like us, who had the misfortune to be born in a difficult place, much more than ours. It will be a hybrid between a technology blog and a travel blog, made of colors, faces, voices and Lightning transactions. To understand if the future, the one we all would like for our children and grandchildren, can really be born on the slopes of a volcano, powered by geothermal energy, thanks to the idea of a brilliant and unknown cypherpunk scientist.

With less than twenty-four hours to go before departure, the emotion and excitement are at a stratospheric level. Before embarking, our mind goes back to the long journey that brought us here and to the many people we have to thank. To our community, the Bipers, always ready to support and encourage us, to Guybrush, our mission control, who will watch over our every step from Italy, to the many bitcoiners, much more experienced and authoritative than us, who supported us and gave us essential information in the preparation of the trip. But the biggest thank you of all is certainly due to the executive producer of the El Salvador 2021 Mission, Marcello Marigliano, for his affection, esteem, friendship and constant presence. It is mainly thanks to him that, in a few hours, we will be able to take you there where no bitcoiner has ever gone before.