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

Arriving in Juayua at about 5pm, in torrential rain (bringing the number of times rain has been annoying to the grand total of 2!) we made our way to Casa Mazeta to check in, and I instantly hopped into the shower to get the remaining gravel out of my arm. After ending biking on a high, nothing hurt too bad, but bruising is out in force now, a couple of days later - I think I might be pretty stiff and achy for a few days. The cuts and grazes on my arm are now joined by an impressive rainbow of bruising all over one leg and shoulder, but still - maybe it will be a fun conversation starter! It turns out that maybe Juayua might have been a better first stop, as at the weekend ... read more

We had a few options for crossing into El Salvador from Guatemala but most involved returning to Antigua and were subsequently more expensive. The cheap option was to do what the locals do and take a lancha through the Mangroves to Avellana. We opted for this, it was cheaper and somewhat more comfortable than the tourist shuttle we could have taken from Antigua. At Avellana we were met by a local bus which took us halfway to Taxisco where we changed buses, we eventually arrived at the border after about two hours or so of travelling. The boat journey was fine and quite picturesque although at that time of the day there was little shelter from the sun. The buses on the other hand were quite another story. The local buses throughout Central America are affectionately ... read more

Juayua Thursday 26th August Juayua is a small town in the coffee growing area in the hills of Northern El Salvador. It's a single bus ride from Santa Ana that shouldn't take too long. But, as is becoming the pattern for this trip, we have transport problems as the pick-up taking us the short distance from our hotel to the bus station gets stuck on top of a speed hump! The longest part of the bus ride from Santa Ana to Juayua is actually the start of the journey as the bus tries to negotiate its way through the obstacle course that is Santa Ana market while belching thick black diesel fumes over any fresh produce for sale and we are raided by boarding parties of market traders. I've previously described the joys of shopping on ... read more

Hola, Gorf here again, this time from Juayua, El Salvador! It was a bit of a drawn out trip to get here, which might be a drag if you were in a hurry, but we´re not! We were able to meet some interesting people and watch life go by here. The plan was to catch a public bus from El Zonte, hoping for one of the two daily that would take us almost all the way to our destination. Great plan, but didn´t quite fit with the way the buses really run here. While we waited for the bus we watched some local guys playing a game called ´dama´. Like draughts, but their setup was using a board painted on a concrete table on the side of the road, with beer bottle tops for counters. One ... read more

Saturday Finally, Saturday was the day to get a late start. Caesar, our tour guide, picked us up for a ‘ruins and volcanoes’ tour. He was a very knowledgeable and friendly local who was very helpful in describing each site. First stop, we visited the Pompeii-style Mayan ruins of ‘Joya de Ceren’, which was buried under lava and ash after a volcanic eruption in 595 A.D. We continued our trek towards Cerro Verde about an hour away (uphill, both ways, winding roads). This road trip made me queasy and brought back nightmares of my trip to Pai. On the way up, we caught multiple great views of Coatepeque Lake, a volcanic crater lake nestled between three volcanoes. We captured numerous beautiful photos at several lookouts. Once we arrived to Cerro Verde, a national volcanic park, we ... read more