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I took a smooth seven hour bus journey with Tica bus (a direct first class bus), from Tegucigalpa to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. I stayed one night with Marcus, an ex-peace corp American Couchsurfer who stayed on teaching English after his placement had finished. Marcus was a good host and took me out to some of the sights around San Salvador such as Puerto Diablo, a rocky cliff overlooking San Salvador and providing magnificant views of the city and surrounding countryside. That evening, whilst Marcus was working, his girlfriend, Leticia, took me out for some drinks in one of the malls. Leticia is Salvadoran and really fun - I had a great time. Later that evening Marcus and I met a couple of his friends who were studying at the university there for some drinks in San Luis, the neighbourhood in which he lives and which is full of interesting bars.
The next day Marcus and Leticia took me with them to a hostel owned by a friend of theirs, Cody, at Sunzal point, a well known surf spot with a consistent point break just along the beach from El Tunco. Cody, a Californian surfer, has owned
the hostel for several years and splits his time between working as fireman back home and running the hostel/surfing/partying. Not suprisingly it is known to be a party hostel with a large sound system, a handful of boozy resident travellers, and a very relaxed lights out policy...
That evening we hit some of the bars in El Tunco, a short walk down the beach. There is a collection of about 5 beach front bars and a few restuarants and is a favourite spot for people from San Salvador, which is less than an hour away, to drive down and party at the weekend. It was therefore full of partying Salvadorans with only a handful of travellers (mainly ripped, tanned surf dudes and babes), and a buzzing atmosphere. The people were fantastically friendly and we talked to many locals. Later that evening most of our hostel group left and Dave (Canadian guy from hostel) and I stayed out practising our Spanish with a group of girls from San Salvador. We return about 2am to find the hostel party in full swing with loud dance music blaring out the sound system and the remaining hostel residents dancing drunkenly around the hostel.
Well, if you can't beat 'em join 'em...I stayed up until about 5am and then decided to call it a night with the party still in full swing.
The following morning Marcus and Leticia returned to San Salvador but I, realising that El Tunco would be a great spot to spend Semana Santa, decided to stay. Semana Santa is the week leading up to easter and is the biggest holiday of the year in Latin America. Most people go away somewhere for that week and El Tunco is a favourite spot for Salvadorans.
The rest of that week really blurred into one with partying every day and night pretty much for the entire week. I quickly developed a routine of drinking beers at D'Roca beach bar with Anna (a Swedish girl from the hostel), people and surfing watching during the afternoons then swimming a little, and lazing around the hostel. It was so hot that I couldn't spend more than an hour in the sun with factor 60 or do anything requiring any physical effort. I did go surfing one day but I really lacked the physical stamina necessary and it was very hard work. It takes several
weeks of surfing daily to build up the strength in your arms and is something which I would like to do at some point in my trip, but not during Semana Santa when the waves are full of other surfers and collisions abound.
In the evening were various party nights including live rock and funk bands, a Salsa night, a Reggae night, and dancing Punta on the beach. One evening at the hostel Ron and Noah, two American guys, barbequed an entire pig which was served with pineapple potatoes, and corn on the cob - a really delicious feast. Various other backpackers came from the other hostels and we had a fun and fairly early finishing party.
The main highlight of my time at the beach, however, was the opportunity to meet many very friendly Salvadorans. The Salvadorans are very outgoing, confident, friendly and, thanks to the dangerous reputation of El Salvador, unjaded by the effects of tourism. I met many different groups of friends from San Salvador who welcomed me as one of their own group. One group were staying in our hostel on the Friday of Semana Santa and I went on to spend a lot
of time with in San Salvador and they quickly became good friends. Anna and I met them on the way down the beach mid afternoon carrying a cool box full of beer, which they invited us to drink with them. We did so and continued the party in the bars of El Tunco.
Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures at El Tunco partly due to laziness and partly due to not wanting to carry my camera on the beach for fear of getting robbed (which I heard about happening a couple of times but to no one I knew). There are, however, some pictures of me on facebook taken by other people.
By the Monday after Semana Santa I couldn't even look at another beer and was more than ready to leave the party hostel and do something constructive....
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tom
non-member comment
going to ES
Hi: Thanks for the information. I am going next week to ES from the US for about 16 days and have not found a lot of current information on ES. Part of my plan is to visit Playa Tunco and also Suchitoto. Have you been to Suchi? I have surfed a bit before -- learned in Peru -- but have not done any recently so it depends on whether I have enough time to build strength, as you noted, for surfing. I am hoping to stay at one of the nicer places in Playa Tunco - either La Guitara or Tekvanikal. It was also good to know about taking a nice camera and possible robberies. I have a nice Nikon D40 and I have been debating about whether to take it or go with an inexpensive one that I own....