Arty Hill Towns and Lazy Playa Days


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Published: October 30th 2011
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The local buses in this part of the world are called “Chicken” buses, largely due to the amount of produce, chickens and other livestock that tend to ride alongside people on the buses. They’re cheap to ride and are incredibly overcrowded, often with standing room only. Any notions of personal space give way to the hope that you’ll get a corner of a seat for your journey. The combination of hot sweaty bodies , trapped in a confined space with minimal air circulation mixed with the aromas of goods being ferried from the market has to be experienced to truly be savoured.

The buses are US school buses that have been colourfully painted, and decorated according to the owner or drivers particular taste. Jesus is a big theme in these parts and it is common to see Jesus es mi Amigo stickers plastered over rear view mirrors and saints and crosses dangling from the dashboard.

The buses are also used by mobile vendors to tout their wares to a captive audience. The venedores board the bus and announce their daily specials to the passengers, and rattle off a little spiel about each item, hoping some bored passenger will make an impulse buy. Back stratchers. Sewing Kits. Coloured pencils. Chewing gum. Lottery tickets. Salsa CDs. A dubious wonderpill that can cure all ailments. You never know what they’ll pull out of their bags next. The only trade we witnessed was in gum and sweets, total sale value of around 20 cents. It’s hard to see how these guys make a living.

It was on two such chicken buses that we made our debut entry into El Salvador. We headed to the north-west to visit the famed Flower Route or ‘Ruta de Las Flores’. The brightly painted colonial towns of Juayua, Apaneca and Ataco are dotted along a winding road that ascends into the mountains. Weathy El Salvadoreans descend upon the towns during the weekend to sample the local cuisine (iguana and guinea pig top the menu) at the weekend food fair, peruse the galleries and explore the surrounding hillside. We arrived mid-week during a thunderstorm and missed all of the gastronomic action. We settled instead for meandering through the towns and discovering the many murals that adorn the towns’ buildings. The murals are beautifully and intricately painted in multi-coloured hues that stand in cheerful contrast to the blackened cobbled streets.

We headed south to the famous surf breaks of Zonte and Tunco, staying at the uber small and quiet Zonte. Here we met a Deb and Wade a convivial Australian couple on their honeymoon, and shared some delicious self-catered meals together. The hostel staff were extremely amicable and along with Deb and Wade we spent many nights sampling the local beers and practicing our Spanish conversational skills. We learnt several new words and phrases that weren’t taught in Spanish school! The local surf competition was on during our stay so the population of the small community quadrupled as surfers came to ride the waves. It was a perfect chance for some R&R, and a nice spot in good company to celebrate my birthday.

Keen to avoid an overnight stay in San Salvador, we organised with Deb and Wade to hire an early morning ride to take us the 45 minute ride to the bus station to catch the international bus. Our negotiations resulted in getting the local baker to take us in his pick-up truck. Two problems though. 1. We needed to leave Zonte at 3am. And 2. The truck had no cover, so we hoped for no rain. After a night of farewell drinks, and some hasty 1am packing, we caught an hours sleep before waking at 2.30am all feeling a little worse for wear. The four of us jumped on the back of the truck with luggage and surfboards, and headed off on time, wind whipping our hair into all sorts of frightful contortions. Just when we started to feel quite congratulatory about the whole experience, it started to bucket down. The baker stopped to cover us in a huge sheet of plastic and we sweated it out enroute to the bus.

Next stop Nicaragua!!



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30th October 2011

loving the blog, keep up the good work
30th October 2011

Hi Overlanders
Good photos! and you are looking great. Keep on enjoying, keep safe. love xxoo
30th October 2011

keep on traveling :)
great to see that you two are still traveling... i love to get all the updates. i'm living in berkeley, california now. it is simply wonderful out here. -sustainable john btw love the pictures of the waves/surfing!

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