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Published: February 17th 2013
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So, much time has past since my last entry on Christmas Eve, since then I have left the Akazul turtle project and continued on my travels. All of the Akazul crew minus 1 person left the village together on 8th January at 6am on the first bus out of the village, a chicken bus (old American School bus) we all held tightly onto our seats and held our breath as we went over the sideways tipping, rickety bridge, with the sound of splitting wood beneath,over the fast flowing river below. It took an hour to the border of El Salvador and once through we negotiated the bus to the town of Cara Sucia (which is Spanish for dirty face). They use US dollars in El Salvador and the local buses are normally a few cents each. Once we got to the town I used my near non existant spanish to ask where the next bus to "El Imposible" would leave....the response I understood had something to do with an umbrella and "ahi" (over there). I still needed more work on the language front. Three hours wait and some papusas later and of course the obligatory staring by small El Salvadorian children
(not many tourists pass through Cara Sucia it turns out), we were on another chicken bus up a very, very steep and mountainous road, thorugh grassy fields and up into the forested hills above. We asked the bus driver to drop us of at Hotel Imposible. An hour later, after the tarmac had run out and the few houses around becoming further apart we were wondering if we were still on the right road. The bus stopped and the owner of the hotel was there to meet us at the gate and lead us inside. We were the only guests that night in a wooden Cabana with private bathroom in the woodland overlooking El Imposible nature reserve, it was beautiful. The next day we walked up the hill to the reserve and had Irma as a private guide leading us on a 10km hike around the reserve. This path is not often walked, being the longest choice so the path was often invisible underfoot due to the leaves on the path. We heard a snuffling in the bushes and then an armadillo popped out and snuffled around in the leaves looking for food, we watched it for at least 10
minutes as it wasn't bothered by us at all. It was so fast, and so noisy and had the biggest nose and funniest ears of any animal I have ever seen! I was glad to see one alive though as at the start of the walk we had come across a dead one...well just the armour plate was left...I wouldn't like to think what may have eaten that! We also saw lots of birds, butterflies, coatis and had the most amazing view over the reserve from high up miradors. After a paddle in a river on the way down we headed back to the hotel for an early night before moving on to Volcan Santa Ana and the Cerre Verde National Nature Reserve the next day. The next day started early with more buses and after the buses ran out, hitch hiking on the back of pick up trucks with locals up another steep hill. We stayed in a rustic cabana, like something out of little house on the prairie, between the three volcanos Volcan Izalco, Cerre Verde and Volcan Izalco. We had great views of Volcan Izalco, a bare cone rising up from the lucious green fields and forest
below (I think it erupted relatively recently). We had no food. There was no food available on site. So we managed to buy bread from the pan man on his bike, and then we hiked the 3km up to the top of Cerre Verde National Nature Reserve to catch the restaurant before it closed...thank goodness for that (the food was great too). We had a fire that evening, boiled some water for tea (in a pot lent to us by Pedro who kept the place spic and span and talked and talked and talked in Spanish, which was good to practice)and watched the sun go down over the volcano. The next morning we hiked up to Cerre Verde again to meet a tour to take us up Volcan Santa Ana (it's about 2400m high), a much more touristy affair than El Impossible, we were in a group of about 30, mostly dominated by Americans. It was a wonderful walk up first through jungle, then rocky cactus dominated terrain and then to the bare summit and the breathtaking views down into the crater and panaramic views of Volcan Izalco and Lago de Coatepeque far below. The next day was a 10
hour trip, including 5 buses and a taxi and a walk across the border, back to Antigua, Guatemala and the start of two weeks of Spanish lessons for me!
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Evelyn
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All looks fabulous, envy you the opportunity. Enjoy it and get as much practice with the Spanish as you can. Lots of love