Centro Americano smallest & most populated

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{delayed blog}
The border crossing at San Christobal was pretty straightforward. They didn´t stamp my passport though, so no reminder unfortunately. I got on another chickenbus on the Salvadoran side to Santa Ana where it was a bit of a hassle to get a local bus to take me to metrocentro where there was an ATM. I continued on by bus to Lago de Coatepeque, making it a long day of traveling alltogether. But it was defenitely worthwhile! A beautiful crater lake with chrystal clear water! I checked in at the ... and got a dormroom all to myself for seven Dollars. American Dollar that is. The last currency, the Colón, was replaced by the US Dollar in 2001. The sun had just set when I arrived so the evening I spent having dinner at a local comedor and talking to a British couple that stayed in the adjacent room. They had wanted to climb the volcanos easily visible from the lake. Unfortunately when they arrived, there were no guides and all the walks were closed behind gates. That stopped me in my plan to go hiking there, which was a little stupid I found out later, as that day the couple went, it had been a national holiday, a workers´ day...

Oh well, the two following days I was at the lake were fantastic anyway. The Sunday was busy, with hordes of people from the capital lazing, drinking and eating at the lake side. I joined the lot at the next door restaurant and observed the (wealthy) Salvadorans enjoying their day off. The swimming was fantastic, surrounded by fish in that oh so clear water. I was surprised to see how clean it was everywhere, with so many people visiting every weekend. It might have something to do with the fact that the lake is also the playground of the rich of El Salvador. An ex-president even owns an island in the lake and that Sunday I saw a helicopter fly over and land at the lake side. I had dinner next door at a little pizza place with friendly owners while a thunderstorm dropped a ****load of rain in a very short time. I managed to turn on the large flat screen TV in the communal area and watched movies with the cool(er) air flowing through the open blinds. Ahh, how wonderful traveling can be sometimes!

I moved from the lake to the capital where I needed a new load of cash. The bus going back up from the lake dropped me off at the highway bridge at El Congo on the inter-americana where I had to change buses. As I arrived at the bus station in San Salvador and asked around for a particular bank where I was hoping to change my Honduran Lemipras for a good rate,I was told by some guys I could do it right there! I followed these men who took me to a little nondescript office where I changed my money for the rate it showed on the internet! Obviously I was thrilled with this. (In fact, this was the only time I got a really good rate during my whole trip in central America!!!)

So much sooner then expected I was sitting on a bus to Juayua, on the Ruta de las flores. A beautiful cobble stoned village covered in bougainvillea. I checked into a dorm room (my only during this whole trip) adjoining a lush garden. As there was sometime left, I joined my room mate, an American girl, to the Los Chorros de Calera falls. A nice hike with a guide and the falls and pool were very refreshing with wide views across valleys covered in coffee plantations. But the falls actually being part of a dam and the amount of rubbish strewn around were a bit of a disappointment. Especially as this is supposed to be one of the highlights of El Salvador.....

And then.... I got sick.... Really sick. I did manage to do another little trip to a nearby village, with on the way amazing views towards the three volcanoes (which photos I lost,more on that later) but that wasn't until 3 days later! I basically ate a pupusa from the street that was bad!!! I spewed my guts out and emptied my bowels for a whole night and it took me three days to recover. Luckily, with American influence and what not, every town in El salvador has a proper supermarket where I was able to replenish myself with much needed vitamins etc.
Unfortunately, this meant I didn't get to visit some other places I really wanted to go to... 😞

One night however, as I was preparing to go to bed, I opened the wooden blinds that lead out onto the street to let some fresh air in, and as I did I heard the click-clacking of hoofs, so I peer through the iron bars and see this grey horse, all by itself, walking down the street keeping exactly in the middle, like if it was just walking home after a night out at the pub. Most remarkable

After my body had healed itself, I moved back to the capital as it was simply time to move on. I spent two more nights in the capital exploring and took a bus to the border of Honduras, from where I had to change bus to get through the narrow southern (and hot & dry) part of Honduras to the border of Nicaragua. I managed to do this in 1 day!!!

Now about my photo's: In Nicaragua, some 2 weeks later, my external hard drive malfunctioned, I lost ALL (!) my photo's of this Central America trip... I was able to recover most of them with some data recovery software but not my El Salvador pics.... 😞
All the pics I've left, are the ones I had already uploaded on here... goes to show: It deserves to save pics on multiple locations.

I really liked El Salvador, in fact it's my 2nd or 3rd favourite of the 7 countries, and hope to be back one day!

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Photos

Ruta de Las Flores
The lovely town of Juayua

The restaurant next door
Lago de coatepeque

Ruta de las Flores
Los Chorros de Calera

Lago de Coatepeque
A hasty picture taken from the bus

The lovely town of Juayua
The hills at the back are covered in coffee plantations

The lovely town of Juayua
Lots of colorful murals all around town

Ruta de las Flores
The lovely town of Juayua

Juayua's church
At the central park