Blogs from Suchitoto, Central, El Salvador, Central America Caribbean

When I was in Santa Ana, chatting to a guy from San Salvador, he asked me if I was going to Suchitoto. I had never heard of it. He said people go to San Salvador just as a jumping off point to go to Suchitoto, they don't even visit the capital, just go to this village... After this conversation, I was intrigued, so checked out what the LP had to say about it. The general idea was that it was a quiet village, very pretty and taken over by artists, with plenty of galleries (most only open week-ends) and a few good hikes. So even if I was going to be there on a Thursday, I thought it was worth a little detour. I set off not so early (about 9-10am) from the San Salvador hostel ... read more

Suchitoto and Cinquera Suchitoto img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4105/4957089707_ec97b522d2.jpg width= 460 height= 394 align= right One of the guide books describes Suchitoto as being like Antigua in Guatemala before the tourists arrived. It has the same kind of colonial feel as Antigua with the cobblestone streets, the central square and no new buildings in the centre. It’s another of those small towns where everybody is really friendly to us and with a relaxed laid-back atmosphere. Our hotel, the Posada Del Sol, is just two minutes walk from the main square and right next to the post office {but, somehow, I again fail to find and send postcards during my couple of days here}. We meet our guide for our next couple of days, the ex... read more

On The Buses Wednesday 18th August img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1377/5120987322_b435424776.jpg" width="305" height="440" alt="Copan Cowboys" align=right / Today is another long day of travelling as we leave Honduras and head towards El Salvador. Our ultimate destination is the town of Suchitoto which is going to be four or maybe five bus rides and a border crossing away. The first panic of the day is caused by me. The driver of the eight o’clock bus decides to leave half an hour early and I’m the only one of the group who can’t be found. {Whoever heard of a bus in a third world country leaving early??} They manage to find me though and the bus waits and we get underway OK. We are travelling... read more

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 ... read more

We took a mini-bus from San Cristobal to Panajachel by Lake Atitlan in neighbouring Guatemala. It took over nine hours, which is close to the limit of time you can spend inside a vehicle and still remain in good humor. I had expected we'd be doing the trip in an over-crowded mini-bus in the South East Asian style but that didn't turn out to be so. In Central America they don't seem to operate using the Asian 'shoe horn system'. The system where the object for the bus company is to sell as many bus tickets as possible regardless of minor logistics like seating, and just hope that things work themselves out on the day. Its the rainy season now in Guatemala as it is all over Central America and as we got closer to Lake ... read more

A very long day of travelling from the border we caught a chicken bus that passed through the colorful city of La Palma and eventually dropped us off at a junction in Los Aguilares and from there took another chicken bus to Suchitoto, we asked around to be sure there will be buses. There was a threat of rain and the dark clouds gave a good contrast to the vegetation and some good photos. We eventually made it to Suchitoto and it was dark and we asked around for the best hostel, we were pointed to a restaurant the owners have a hostel called Casa Rubio, apparently no one was home so we were made to stay in the restaurant for a bit and we drank some beer, I was feeling tired and dizzy, maybe quite ... read more