Advertisement
So we have been and left El Salvador but we loved it so much that we want to tell you all about it. We arrived on 17th May and spent our first few days at the beach. We managed to catch our first chicken bus and headed for Playa El Tunco which is THE place for catching waves in Central America and is a mecca for surfer dudes. Naturally that meant we had to pay it a visit, with the intention of having surf lessons. When we arrived we checked into Hostel Papaya which was in the estury but also in view of the beach, cool little place with lots of hammocks and some nice decked areas to relax and chat to the other people that were there. The beach was volcanic so the sand was black but it seemed really busy with lots of people surfing so we were happy enough. The sea was quite rough (its all about the waves!) and rocky so not ideal for swimming. Unfortunately I managed to get food poisioning which started that afternoon so I didn´t spend much time on the beach. The next day laura went and found a place that let you
use the sunloungers for free providing you chat to the waiters and buy some food from their restaurant. Our great plan to try surfing quickly fell by the wayside with this discovery, along with my stomach and Lauras lack of inclination.
The next few days were just chilling in the hammock, sunbathing and making friends with the surfers in the hostel. However there were darker forces at work, everything seemed pretty chilled out until bed time when bed bugs from hell struck and massacred Laura´s arms... not a pretty sight and she moaned like hell to almost everyone that would listen but especially Wideboy Chris who had the particular delight of having them thrust closely in his face on a couple of occasions!! Unfortunately he agreed that they were bed bug bites and as he was an expert on most things we had no choice but to believe him. Laura bought cream, thankfully it helped.
Our next stop was San Salvador, we didn´t actually plan on staying there until we got on the bus where we were convinced by Big Matt, wideboy Chris and Aussie Steve who were heading there for Steve´s last night before returning home. By
this time it was Wednesday which apparently means it is Ladies night. We stayed at the hostel until about 11pm then headed to a bar called Mr Pub. Clearly not a lot of tourists go to the bars in San Salvador as we were met by some stunned expressions before they frisked all of the boys, checked our handbags and let us in. There were about 12 of us from the hostel, a mixture of brits, aussies, israelis, danes and americans. When inside they rallied around to make sure we had everything we needed and the owner came out to introduce himself to us and make sure we were having a good time. We stayed there for a drink then headed to the club, where again we were searched and Chris had to put his t-shirt on inside out as it had a gang logo on it.
The club was hectic and we were the only gringos in there so again we got quite a lot of stares. We were ushered to a booth right by the dancefloor and drinks brought to us. The music was rap so we danced a bit until the main event. The strippers...2 guys
all oiled up and one girl who proceeded to dance on the stage. The girl looked quite bored throughout the whole thing and the guys just loved themselves so much it didn´t really matter if there was an audience or not. However the audience LOVED IT!! They all stopped dancing and just stared at the strippers for the whole time they were dancing. In the meantime the Israeli´s had got up to dance. Imagine 2 camp israeli brothers in the middle of the dance floor doing the kind of dance that most guys do to Baggy Trousers by Madness only waving their hands in the air and with jazz hands. Hilarious. Thankfully the strippers left the stage and they started playing Salsa music so everyone got up and danced again.
The next day Laura and I got up and headed to a place called Suchitoto which is further inland and has some nearby waterfalls. We stayed in a hostel run by a californian guy called Robert who prides himself on being an expert of El Salvador. He told us about the projects happening in and around Suchitoto was is self sufficient in drinking water and has brought in its
own currency for use and discounts in the local shops.
We headed to the police station to find someone to take us to Los Torcio as we had been told that we needed a guide and that they would be able to take us. After a while sitting in the Station reading the Most Wanted posters we headed to the waterfalls. The waterfalls are different as the rocks have formed into hexagonal pillers (like Giants Causeway in Ireland), we had been told that there was no water due to the weather so we were glad there was at least a dribble of water falling over the rocks. Mainly our relief was because it was a hard climb down (cue the helpless females in flip flops and the armed guards) and we were sweating profusely by the time we reached the bottom so we were glad there was something to actually look at. The most amusing thing about this trip was the massive language barrier, we spoke no spanish and they spoke no english so communication was limited to a bit of sign language (panting and flapping around means I´m hot, and the odd scream means I need help getting
down). Thankfully they were more in tune with us than us with them.
After our exciting tour of the waterfalls we were escorted back to the police station where we met the policeman that could actually speak english. His mname was Alex and we had a quite lengthy chat about how he loves the story of King Arthur and the round table and that he would like to be a knight and live in a castle. I helpfully pointed out that he could use his machete as a sword but he didn´t seem to think that was the real deal. He is keen to help so if anyone fancies visiting Suchitoto pease let me know as I have his email address.
The original plan was to head to Honduras from Suchitoto but having looked into it we decided it was a bit of a mission to get to a country that we didn´t plan on spending much time in. So we decided to head back to San Salvador and book the Tica Bus to Managua, Nicaragua.
The bus journey took up all of yesterday and we went straight from Managua to Granada.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0412s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Rhiannah
non-member comment
You've made me laugh........
Hi Both, I'm sat at my desk at work reading your latest blog and I have to say it has tickled me - especially about the surf lessons and Laura not having the inclination - A true Ashworth I am so proud! It sounds like you are having a great time, I must admit as much as I am missing you little ashworth I am so proud of you doing this and so pleased that your embracing every minute! Lots of Love to you both xxxx