Blogs from El Salvador, Central America Caribbean - page 2

“Welcome to El Salvador; my name is Edgar,” grinned a stocky man in his late thirties. Edgar possessed an enviable shock of black hair, and his friendly face made me warm to him straight away, which was great since he was going to be my guide for the next few days. “Is this your first time here?” His accent was thick but perfectly understandable. I nodded. “It’s good that tourists are starting to come. This is what the government wants and what I want.” He led me outside into the blinkingly bright sunshine. “Wait here, I’ll get the car. I should only be a couple of minutes.” With that he was gone, leaving me alone to take in this most dangerous of Central American cities. El Salvador was the edgiest country of my trip. The mention ... read more

"If you have made it to El Salvador you must be either totally naive or you actually have a mind of your own" What we (think we) know: El Salvador ranks number 134 of 136 in safety and security of all countries according to the World Economic Forum report ranking the travel and tourism competitiveness of 136 countries. The number of homicides by violent, well-armed street gangs — 18th Street (“Barrio 18”) and MS-13 ("Mara Salvatrucha") has dropped to below 6 a day (last year). While the gringo trail (and backpackers highway) through Central America takes a wide d-tour around it and although El Salvador has the worst image ever as a country to travel to we decided not to skip the country and we have loved every bit of it. We have been travelling for ... read more

Geo: 13.5928, -89.8275I just finished my steps for today. We had a tour that I thought would involve a lot of walking, but I had logged only a little over 4,200 steps by the time we got back to the ship so I finished the steps in the room. I have made my 10,000-step goal every day but two so far.Today, the ship docked in Acajutla, El Salvador. The notes that I made at home showed our shore excursion was scheduled from 11:00 to 3:45. When we got our tickets on board, the time had been changed. We met for the tour in the Cabaret Lounge at 12:10 for a 12:30 tour. We did not get back to the ship until 6:15. This morning once the ship was in position at the dock, a large show ... read more

After Guatemala it was on to Santa Ana in El Salvador. I travelled with Theresa who I met at Arcas and her friend Steph. We arrived in the afternoon and found a fiesta going on in the plaza with traditional dances. I discovered later that this was for the anniversary of the theatre. Fiestas are always a good time to visit! After visiting the white gothic style cathedral we went back to the hostal to make a spaghetti meal and some pina colada with fresh pineapple! The following day we hiked up the volcano of Santa Ana. It was a hard climb as it was dusty at the beginning of the walk and there wasn´t much shade around the top. However there were lovely views of the lake (Lago de Coatepeque) and the surrounding countryside. It ... read more

First of all: sorry for my super late update. I have been so lazy to put pictures or to write the blog. a lot has happened over the last few months. On my day off, I went with the shuttle from León to el Tunco. I had a great day there. I went with Guayo to lake Coatepeque and in the evening I had dinner at Casa Bonita where Devon&Greg stayed with some other people and later I went out with the girls. I stayed the night with Claudia and the next morning I got on the shuttle back to León... Before the shuttle even left (I was already in it) My boss told me that I could stay in el Tunco to cover the girl in the office here because she was going on holidays ... read more