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Published: February 28th 2009
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No Machetes
We crossed from Guatemala into La Hachadura at probably one of the most pleasant border crossing we had done. The staff was friendly, it didn’t take much time (well relatively) and it didn’t cost anything. We were on the Carretera Littoral which runs along the Pacific Coast. Neither of us were sure why but driving along we both immediately liked El Slavador. Perhaps it was the weather and the Pacific Coast. Or perhaps it was that the people walking down the highway didn’t walk with machetes and there didn’t seem to be quite so many guns as Guatemala.
New Year's Eve & Turtle Eggs
We headed down the highway towards a port town called La Libertad where we heard there were some nice beaches around. We pulled up outside a hotel and decided we would stay there as it was New Year’s Eve after all. That night we went for a meal but found loads of the restaurants to be closed. We found one with a friendly but really pissed owner who was our source of entertainment for the evening. Translating, most of the time unnecessarily, what was on the menu he offered us the specialities
of the house. Unfortunately, that included turtle eggs. Given our turtles adventures in Monterrico we declined as politely as we could though Jess could still see his wife devouring the eggs behind Rich and it was making her extremely nauseous. After our meal we headed back and were well asleep by the time the New Year came in though did wake up to loads of fireworks and firecrackers though in Central America we hear firecrackers the whole damn time.
Beachfront Camping
The next day we doubled back on ourselves slightly as we had heard of a campsite four miles to the west of in the small beach town of El Tunco. After some trouble finding it and driving down a narrow cobbled street we drove right next to it where the owner was sitting outside and invited us in. The campsite was one of the nicest we have been to on our whole trip. There were a couple of palapas for rent and we pulled our van up where we had a great view of the sea and could walk to it in about fifteen seconds.
There was something we still really enjoyed about El Salvador. All
the people we met were incredibly friendly and would make a real effort. Our time in El Salvador was spent pretty much entirely at the campsite where spent about a week in total. We hired boogie boards one day which was hard work just to get out as the waves were big and continually crashing down and washing us back in. However, we both managed to catch one big wave each. We even tried a surfing lesson but the teacher said the waves were too big so we only got as far as lying on the board and catching one wave. Beyond our boogie boards and the surfing lesson we really didn’t get up to much in El Tunco. We got up and went for a swim each day, which in reality meant getting pounded by the waves every morning, and just generally ‘chillaxed’ at our campsite. After much effort we managed a trip to the supermarket to stock up but that was pretty much it.
Locked Out AGAIN!
After our week of relaxation we decided it was time to get a move on as there was more of Central America to offer us provided we could be
bothered to get up and go. We headed north towards Honduras and the border crossing at El Poy and stopped in the capital, San Salvador, to get some money. Unfortunately, we locked our keys in the van which was a total pain in the arse. Luckily though we managed to speak enough Spanish to the girl in the bank who called up a locksmith who was there is fifteen minutes and charged us $14.
After the fun of being locked out we pressed on and tried to make it as far to the border as we could. By the time it was dark we were desperately trying to find somewhere to stay. We finally saw the Hotel Mayaland that was in a great location overlooking the hills. We went in and asked if we could camp and were actually refuse though we’re not entirely sure if they understood and think with a little more persuasion we could have slept in the van. However, we were both tired and the place was really nice so we paid the $25 for a room and rested up for the evening
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