Guatemala & El Salvador; Ruta de las Flores, Hexagonal Waterfalls and 18 hour bus journeys

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Guatemala

We left the turtle project in the small fishing village of El Rosario (Guatemala) and rode to Monterrico with a bus full of kids heading to school. Monterrico is a small touristy beach town where foreigners are hounded by tour guides and children trying to give you directions to hotels for a few dollars, even though there are signs everywhere and accommodations are easy to find. The next morning, we took a lancha (small boat) full of people to a small town and took a series of buses making connections heading to the Guatemala/El Salvador border. We had to cross a very scary, rickety, old, rusty pedestrian bridge that must have been attached to the side of the (much-better built and secure) motor vehicle bridge by old welded metal. We tried to scurry across without looking down but the bridge needed serious repairs and there were many rusted-out holes in the thin sheets of metal we had to walk on. The border control officer checking our passports said he didn't even know how long the pedestrian bridge has been there, but he would never use it and only uses the car bridge- of course, telling us this AFTER we barely made it across.

El Salvador

Once across the bridge of death, we took a mini bus to Ahuachapán, located in the western part of El Salvador. It was a lot bigger than i thought, more of a big city, and full of armed guards who, while i was off searching for a cheap hostel, had harassed Step and asked him to open his bag to check what was inside. When i found few lodging options, Step went off looking for a better one and a dozen guards surrounded me in a semi-circle, machine guns against their chest, staring at me. Obviously they are not used to foreigners or had a bad experience with one. Step (with his poor Spanish) found a CHEAP room for us, but when i asked the woman again the price, she said it was $2 an hour, and not per night as Step thought. We left the hooker room and found another nearby, shelling out the few extra dollars to pay per night and they threw a TV in the deal, but all i was allowed to watch was football...

We took a bus the next morning through the Ruta de las Flores, a beautiful journey through mountainous land that was a popular coffee route by horseback, ending up in Juayúa, a cute town with brightly painted murals on building walls, and known for it's weekend Feria Gastronomica (food fair) where tons of vending stalls line the streets and they sell all types of cultural foods. That weekend we got full up at the food fair, took a day trip to the quiet colonial town of Ataco, where we bought sweet bread shaped as frogs and turtles. We traveled east to a quiet and beautiful town of Suchitoto on a bus that kept breaking down and the driver would bang under the bus with a ratchet then try to start it up again. In Santa Ana, we had to push our way through crowded streets to the bus station to change bus to get to Suchitoto, but the buses didn't have anywhere to store our bags, so to save $0.80 each, we stuffed ourselves in a single seat with our bags under feet. Very uncomfortable but good way to save money!

We had a nice hostel with an amazing view over the lake with surrounding mountains. [Apparently their used to be a village in the valley, but they put up a dam and flooded the valley, making a lake with a village lining the bottom]. One of our day-trips was to a waterfall (a "geological oddity") composed of hexagonal stone pillars and a trickle of water. As it was 15 September, it was El Salvador's Independence Day so we watched their attempt at a parade, which was stopped more than anything. Unless their idea of a parade is to stay still while the public walks by. But it was still great to see. We then traveled to San Salvador to a bus company that left for an 18hour bus journey to San José, Costa Rica, at 3 am. So we tried to sleep in the waiting area of the office but was kicked out at 11pm and had to spend the night outside the terminal, sleeping on the ground. Luckily, we weren't mugged and were fortunate enough to have armed guards around for at least part of the night... Long bus ride ahead and 3 border crossings ahead to get to Costa Rica...



^Út Í Óvissuna^

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Photos

Colorful chicken bus
Decked-out, re-painted, retired U.S. school buses used for common transport in Central America

Parade
Pre-Independence Day celebrations in El Salvador

Church in Juayua
Outside the food fair

Courtyard
And Fountain in Juayua

Fountain
Thirsty dog

Breaded reptiles
We thought it was deep-fried frogs at first but turned out to be sweet bread in the shape of frogs and turtles ... with sprinkles!

Women walking
In Ataco, local women and child

Streets of Ataco
Food stalls selling fruits and veg

Mural in Ataco
Lots of walls in Ataco and Juayua were painted colorfully like this with large murals

Ataco Fountain
In the center of Ataco

View while you poo...
The view of the lake at our hostel in Suchitoto and the bathroom

Hexagonal Waterfall
The stones were columns that were hexagonal shaped