Juayua/Santa Ana, EL SALVADOR

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2-hour bus ride south of Tacuba…

Juayua is a cute, colorful, coffee-growing town. Cute to the point where the trees which line the street grids have been sculptured in the shape of blocks and balloons and the building rows behind them each are perfectly painted in bright, happy colors, accented with flowers.

A popular weekend spot for Salvadorians, Sundays, the parque central fills with local restaurants serving their cuisine from vendors in the street. Oversized, double-decker buses, dwarfing the town center, wait to take (Salvadorian) tourists on a “rockin’” night ride through…hmmn, not so sure, felt too much of a carnival for me. I came to this town for the trek through jungle and swim under the waterfalls and caves.

Precisely what I did. Once again, another adventurous hike, carving our way through the jungle, half the time up to our knees in water, sliding down (on my ass) wet rocks, climbing up waterfalls, gripping the rope, held from the other end by our guide (there’s a man who’ll get you through the jungle), and propelling myself forward with my legs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatimih/sets/72157594556161346/

A couple days later I traveled an hour further south to Santa Ana. This city put me close to day trips in the surrounding region. El Salvador, being such a small country, it’s easy to do this, bounce around from town to town without spending your whole day in transit.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatimih/sets/72157594554522982/

I arrived at Javier’s guesthouse (really just his house) in the afternoon, and was sick by the evening- the usual stomach sickness experienced by travelers- I blame the pupusas. Thinking this kind of stuff goes away in an evening, I woke the next morning, dizzy and dehydrated, still determined to hike Volcano Izalco.

In the end I did it. The view was spectacular, walking around the perimeter from the top in the heat and smoke, grasshopper-looking insects the size of eagles soaring just above my head, make me feel like I’ve slipped off earth and landed on a planet where humans understand their insignificance in relation to the other creatures crawling, flying, and swimming the planet.

I (and a group of about 60, 15yr old Salvadorian school kids) ran down to the craters edge of the volcano in about 20 minutes, hiked up the direct incline of loose lava rock, in the sweltering heat, police officers whistling us along, shouting “mass rapido” (I was reprimanded for stopping to take a picture)! The poor young girls slightly overweight and awkward in their age, half giggling, half crying as the boys pulled them up and along to the top. The way down was just a matter of skiing down as fast as possible. But once at the bottom, the “20 minute run down to the craters edge” turned into a 2 hours hike of relentless switchbacks on the way back up!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatimih/sets/72157594578040079/

Quite a price to pay for such beauty, glad I climbed my first Volcano, but sore and exhausted as hell, and even more sick than before. At this point, Javier was surely convinced that I was quite lame, nonetheless, he kept the chamomile tea coming as I lay sprawled out on his couch watching DVD’s for days waiting for the antibiotic to take it’s effect.

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