Blogs from El Tunco, Western, El Salvador, Central America Caribbean

First of all: sorry for my super late update. I have been so lazy to put pictures or to write the blog. a lot has happened over the last few months. On my day off, I went with the shuttle from León to el Tunco. I had a great day there. I went with Guayo to lake Coatepeque and in the evening I had dinner at Casa Bonita where Devon&Greg stayed with some other people and later I went out with the girls. I stayed the night with Claudia and the next morning I got on the shuttle back to León... Before the shuttle even left (I was already in it) My boss told me that I could stay in el Tunco to cover the girl in the office here because she was going on holidays ... read more

Shuttles and tired drivers There are two reasons why we went to El Salvador the so called "murder capital of the world". One was that I wanted to add El Salvador to the list of countries visited and you have to stay at least a night to make it count. The other reason was that we didn't fancy sitting in a shuttle for 16 hours straight to go between Leon and Antigua in Guatemala our ultimate destination. Shuttles are small 10 seater mini buses that are used to well shuttle around tourists between the main sites in Central America. We had used them before and we were using one to go from Nicaragua through Honduras to El Salvador. Our journey started at 2am in the morning with a pickup from our hostel. We finally left Leon ... read more

Our Arrival The bus from La Libertard dropped us on the main road next to the entrance of the town. Cross over and walk through the barrier and you are on the road into town. Where We Stayed Casa Makoi - $20 for a double room with bathroom. Balconies, kitchen and hammocks. Small room but nice shower and we basically had a balcony to ourselves on the top floor. Where We Ate El Yate - On the corner of the road to the beach. Has a menu of pupusas to choose from (50 cent for non meat or $1 for meat), freshly cooked sauce and $2 litre Brahva beers. When you turn left from the hostel road towards town there is a lady cooking on the street. She was selling things that tasted like spring rolls ... read more

Matagalpa, Nicaragua We survived the Revolution in San Juan del Sur, but unfortunately there were fireworks and blaring techno music that lasted all night, through the morning, literally until 5 am. It was a rough night with little sleep, but we boarded a microbus at 6 am and headed back through Rivas and ended up in Managua. We tried everything in our power to avoid Managua and get off the bus prior to entering the Capital, we hadn't heard anything good about Managua, plus we wanted to avoid the 1 million people that flooded the city to celebrate the Revolution. At one point the bus stopped in Masaya, we got off with our packs, the driver asked a few locals about a bus to Matagalpa and couldn't get any info, so we got back on the ... read more

Today, after two and half great weeks, we finally left Guatemala for El Salvador. I'm currently sitting in my hostel in El Tunco on the Pacific coast, the first time I've seen the ocean since Tulum in Mexico. Due to its notorious reputation and some previous advice, I hadn’t planned to go anywhere near El Salvador but travellers I’ve met out here said it couldn’t be missed. In my first day on the coast I've been greeted by a stunning sunset, friendly locals (who sang British songs to me in a restaurant and invited me to a local festival) and a huge meal for just four dollars - so far so good. This time last week we (I'm still travelling with Amber and Rob) visited the Guatemalan mountain town of Chichicastenango. Every Sunday they hold a ... read more