Blogs from Suchitoto, Central, El Salvador, Central America Caribbean - page 2

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I took a Collectivo from El Tunco direct to San Salvador, a taxi to the correct bus station (Terminal de Oriente), and then the chicken bus to Suchitoto - a small colonial town about an hour and a half North of San Salvador. It looks like any other typical colonial town - attractive central square dominated by a large chuch, a grid based well organised street system, cobbled streets and adobe terraced houses. The people are open, friendly, and relaxed. They say Buenos Dias when entering an establishment, to people passing in the street, and to those indulging in the town's favourite past time - sitting in the street in the evenings talking. There are hardly any foreign tourists: only a handful of volunteers of several NGOs based in the town. It is a favourite spot ... read more
The funders of the design course
Design course
Design course

Central America Caribbean » El Salvador » Central » Suchitoto September 16th 2009

Guatemala We left the turtle project in the small fishing village of El Rosario (Guatemala) and rode to Monterrico with a bus full of kids heading to school. Monterrico is a small touristy beach town where foreigners are hounded by tour guides and children trying to give you directions to hotels for a few dollars, even though there are signs everywhere and accommodations are easy to find. The next morning, we took a lancha (small boat) full of people to a small town and took a series of buses making connections heading to the Guatemala/El Salvador border. We had to cross a very scary, rickety, old, rusty pedestrian bridge that must have been attached to the side of the (much-better built and secure) motor vehicle bridge by old welded metal. We tried to scurry across without ... read more
Chicken bus
Parade
Parade II


Day 4: July 28 Awoke early and left Honduras via Guatemala to cross into El Salvador. El Salvador was never in the plans until we arrived in Central America, so visiting here was unexpected. The political problems in Honduras meant we needed to make up 4 nights, so why not hit up El Salvador. One of the ladies on our tour got very ill and threw up on the bus. Poor lady. After a long day of buses, we arrived in the small town of Suchitoto. Not to many years back, El Salvador was in the midst of a bloody civil war and the country was off limits. Suchitoto itself was almost completely depopulated during the conflict as it was a base for the FMLN (one of the sides in the civil war). Today El Salvador ... read more
There no sign welcoming you to El Salvador
Suchitoto Street
Hut by the lake


We took a mini-bus from San Cristobal to Panajachel by Lake Atitlan in neighbouring Guatemala. It took over nine hours, which is close to the limit of time you can spend inside a vehicle and still remain in good humor. I had expected we'd be doing the trip in an over-crowded mini-bus in the South East Asian style but that didn't turn out to be so. In Central America they don't seem to operate using the Asian 'shoe horn system'. The system where the object for the bus company is to sell as many bus tickets as possible regardless of minor logistics like seating, and just hope that things work themselves out on the day. Its the rainy season now in Guatemala as it is all over Central America and as we got closer to Lake ... read more
the guide takes an early bath
ruta de las flores
ruta de las flores


Today we went to a colonial town about an hour outside of the city called Suchitoto. Mr. Iglesias drove us there and on the way told us about some of the buildings and history in San Salvador. When we met him on Thursday we were having a discussion with Dr. Iglesias about Dengue fever, so we hadn't talked much to Mr. Iglesias. He told us then that he didn't speak English very well. We found out today that he was being very modest. Although his English is certainly not perfect, he was able to talk with us about history, his family, his job, architecture, food, etc. He was such a great tour guide since he is a retired civil engineer and knows a great deal about the architecture of Suchitoto. Suchitoto is an old Spanish colonial ... read more
Parque Centenario - town center
At La Fonda El Mirador
View of Lago de Suchitlan from restaurant


A very long day of travelling from the border we caught a chicken bus that passed through the colorful city of La Palma and eventually dropped us off at a junction in Los Aguilares and from there took another chicken bus to Suchitoto, we asked around to be sure there will be buses. There was a threat of rain and the dark clouds gave a good contrast to the vegetation and some good photos. We eventually made it to Suchitoto and it was dark and we asked around for the best hostel, we were pointed to a restaurant the owners have a hostel called Casa Rubio, apparently no one was home so we were made to stay in the restaurant for a bit and we drank some beer, I was feeling tired and dizzy, maybe quite ... read more
LA PALMA
SUCHITOTO
LOS AGUILARES JUNCTION


Aaaaah, here were are in El Salvador. I have dashed into the little info hut to escape the outside heat!! Wow, it is cooking today in Suchitoto. OK, this is another place to add to that list of places I have fallen in love with. Ya know those spots that you just connect with as soon as you arrive. As we drove into this tiny town yesterday afternoon I just knew that we would enjoy our time here. The drive down from Honduras was amazing, and in my opinion it was the most beautiful scenery yet on this trip. Between Santa Rose de Copan in southwest Honduras to Suchitoto here in northwest El Sal... you drive through a hilly lush and undeveloped corner of Central America. Wow.. what a drive. The rain came and went... we ... read more


well, let's see, lots to get caught up on: i had my 21st birthday party! we all went out to dinner and then had a little dance party, but as a result i broke my laptop screen, so that's basically why i've gone so long without word, but after countless hours on the phone arguing with dhl in spanish, i was able to take the screen from the customs office. basically each time i had spoken to them they kept on adding new things that they said i needed, which was kind of ridiculous. and it wasn't just something lost in translation, because at one point i got too exhausted with them and asked our country coordinator to call for me, but that didn't work out well either. all in all, it was a horrible experience ... read more


So, after leaving San Marcos we spent a busy day in Panajachel sorting out various things and doing some shopping. We were delighted to discover that our television had BBC World - the first time we´d seen it for a good few weeks and interestingly there was a program about organic coffee farming and other environmental issues in Guatemala. Of course we also caught up on some real news rather than CNN 'news'! Early the next morning we set off on a long day of travelling. The first bus took us to Antigua where we had breakfast in our favourite cafe. The next one took us to Guatemala City where we had to hang around for a couple of hours for to San Salvador in a large shopping mall which felt very like being in the ... read more
Our hotel room
Our hotel
Lago Suchitlan

Central America Caribbean » El Salvador » Central » Suchitoto February 11th 2008

Arriving back in La Onion in the early morning hours of Friday the 8th. It was off to Suchitoto, the step back in time, the arts capitol of El Salvador, where every weekend in February people in droves head out of the city to experience the musical performances from global musicians...NOT. Who writes this xxxx!! We arrived to deadness, no signs of a festival except for a few posters around town. No thronging crowd, no step back in time, same old same old, with the garbage to boot. After checking the first hostel which was full, and being told our second pick had closed down 6 months ago, we eventually stumbled upon Hostel De Laguna. One of the newer hostels in town, had only been opened for a couple of months. Still no lock on the ... read more




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