Juayua, El Salvador - American Adventures 2015 (Part 5 of 9)

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It was time to leave Guatemala and head over to El Salvador. Many travellers skip over El Salvador and Honduras and jump straight to Nicaragua, however there is a lot of beauty and kindness in El Salvador. I didn't want to take a chicken bus so I booked a minibus to Guatemala City and then a proper pimped out bus to San Salvador the capital. I had no intention of going to San Salvador as I'm not a fan of cities and you don't get to see the beauty of a place staying in capital cities ... however it was easier to take this route and hop off early than to try getting across on multiple local buses and be stranded somewhere random (which would be a great adventure, yet I was unfortunately running out of time).

Whilst I was waiting at the top of the Guatemalan hippy village for the bus, I started chatting to this sole Russian traveller, Serjey. He was also heading to San Salvador yet when I told him my plans to jump off the bus early to Ruta De Las Flores (route of the flowers) and experience the awesomeness of the country, he decided he would do the same and tag along. At the time this seemed like a great idea, but as time went on Serjey got more and more negative and was complaining about "what if this happens, what if that happens" ... complete anti-etch philosophy.

Off we went to the border drinking carrot juice and excited about the next adventure. Customs at the Guatemalan/El Salvador border is different ... every border has its own rules. This time the officials come onto the bus and check inside everyone's purses and bags and quiz you and sniffer dogs rummaging through the baggage below deck. Still, it was a straightforward process and we made it through and were back on our route to San Salvador.

It was getting dark and it was easier to go all the way, but I still wanted to get off early and find my way to a village called Juayua. I was told by the driver that they don't stop near here, only in a town called Ahuachapan so I'd have to find my own way to Juayua from there. This ended up being the plan and the kind busman dropped myself and the Russian off here. Some locals got off today so I asked them how to get to Juayua ... they told me it isn't possible at this time and it's best to stay in a hotel. We hopped onto a tuktuk with them to the nearest hotel and checked into a sh!thole of a place (but adequate for me, I love sh!thole places during my adventures). Big ants in the room, fly sprays and the owner just empties half the bottle around in front of us and almost chokes us ... fun moments. Serjey on the other hand was very concerned, on the tuktuk he was complaining, checking into the hotel he was complaining that $6 USD a night is a rip-off, then in the room there was a double-bed and a single bent mattress and he immediately said the double-bed is his because of this, that and the other. I began to regret my decision to have him tag along and told him to stop his whinging, he's f^cking up my Chi (he didn't know what that word meant). What I didn't think about at the time was something another friend pointed out in the future .... I was sharing a room in a cheap motel with a random Russian dude with a strong accent that I know nothing about ... whatever could happen?

We went out for a wander and I loved the little town. There was a 5-aside game going on, we made friends with locals and ate Spinach and cheese pupusas ... great place. El Salvador was super cheap, I could eat dinner for $1 and sleep for $6. Again the food wasn't nutritious ... just high carb junk but tasty.

The following morning I woke up at 6am and saw Serjey had disappeared ... I lost my Russian. Then I noticed he left the bedroom door fully open and we were right next to the front door of the building ... could somebody have come in whilst I was sleeping? Did they take anything? Did they watch me? Did they touch me? I did feel a bit sore in the butt ... then I realized it was due to the bent mattress I was sleeping on ... I think. When I relocated the Russian, we hopped onto the bus to Juayua. It wasn't easy to find the right bus stop yet I realized how friendly El Salvadorians are. When I asked this particular bus driver if he goes to Juayua he told me the stop is on the other side of town, then he said for us to hop onto his empty bus and he made a quick trip all the way to the other side and dropped us off at the correct stop, then went back to pick his regular passengers up ... no charge whatsoever, just to help out .... love it.

During the bus journey I didn't sit near Serjey ... this is going to sound mean but I was thinking about how I can ditch the russian by the time we get to Juayua. I had so many ideas, from sitting on the floor and humming until he goes away, to running off the bus and not looking back, to just saying "I've been thinking, this isn't going to work between us, F^CK OFF". In the end when we got off the bus, I pretended I didn't know which hostel I was going to stay at (I did) and that he should go and find somewhere. I lay down on a park bench and closed my eyes until he left. Every 5 mins I'd look out the corner of my eye and for the 1st half hour he was lingering around me ... sometimes he'd spot that I was awake and smile and start walking towards me, but then I'd quickly shut my eyes again and turn over. Eventually he was gone and I got up to check into this hotel at 8am ... good wifi ... chillout garden with hammocks ... I checked in for a couple of nights to relax and recover ... especially the butt, whatever happened to it the night before.

Juayua is known for a couple of things. One is the famous food market every weekend which I would miss as it was a weekday. People from all over the country come here for this festivity. The other attraction is the waterfall, "Los Chorros De La Calera". I decided to go and find this place and have a shower underneath it. Off I go in search of the waterfall, which is well signposted. I finally get to a dead end and I can hear the waterfall, and see it from above but I've no idea how to get to it. There is a gate in front of me which is locked so that can't be the way ... instead I adventure into the jungle and slide down steep terrain, break my shoes, almost snap my leg into 2 and get lost for 2 hours not knowing how to get out of the jungle. Eventually I came to this place and saw 2 peoples walking so I assumed they were going to the waterfall. I followed them without letting them know I was following them, just waiting for them go around corners then running up to do the same. But when I turned the corner they had disappeared and I was back where I started, in front of that locked gate. I was very confused yet very determined to find this waterfall, limping, bloody foot and half a shoe missing. Eventually this girl is walking over to the gate with a backpack and I can see she is a tourist. I befriend her and tell her there's no way to get to the waterfall, I've been trying for 2 hours. She says "sure there is, must be through that gate" and then she walks to the gate, and straight through it .... there was a big opening in the gate 2-people width and my eyes never saw that .... typical.

It was worth it, the waterfalls were great and I got to know this Dutch girl and we met up over the next couple of days for lunch/dinner/etc. On my final day I knew she wanted to keep in touch with me, she was keen as I made her laugh a lot ... but I just gave her a hug, she stroked me back, I wished her well and turned my back and walked away as she stared at me getting smaller and smaller and further and smaller .... the littlest hobo, make a good impression, do good deeds and move onto the next.

Most of the time I ate pupusas, I loved them. Every meal came with pupusas anyway, it's the Non-Pakistani's Chapatti but smaller. On this one occasion for lunch I went into the market and asked them for an omelette ... I needed protein. They said they don't have omelette yet I could see stacks of eggs in the kitchen ...

Me: You can make an omelette
They: We don't have omelettes
Me: But you can make one
They: We don't do them
Me: There are eggs right there, just crack a few open in the pan
They: Oh yeah, let me make you an omelette
Me: Thought so
They: Maybe we should add this to our menu, it's easy

They were clearly new to the world of omelettes. When I said I wanted a cheese and onion omelette, I expected an omelette made out of cheese and onion. What I instead received on my plate was an egg omelette with chopped onions on top and a big block of cheese placed on the side. And they brought out 2 plates thinking I ordered it for the person I was with also, which wasn't the case, so I ate them both ... including the cheese blocks.

I decided the following morning to explore more villages in the Ruta De Las Flores route. I got on a bus for Ataco, a village well known for graffiti. There is no sign as to which village you are at so as soon as I saw some graffiti on the wall I thought "Ataco" and jumped off the bus .... I was wrong. I had gotten off in a place with nothing going on and had to walk for 90 minutes to get to Ataco under scorching heat. My shoes finally fell apart so I was barefooted, got a piece of glass stuck in my eye so I was on this road not having so much fun ... but still having fun. When I finally arrived into Ataco I went to the supermarket and got tuna tins and ate with my fingers out of the tin, no more pupusas. The graffiti here was amazing and so was the coffee ... this is a well-known place for coffee and they have coffee tours along this route to show you how it's made. After a cappuccino and plantain snacks it was time to come back to Juayua.

My time in this peaceful village had ended and I know had to plan my journey to Nicaragua. The 1st step was to get to San Salvador the capital. Off I went the next day after saying farewell to maids, locals and homeless peeps I'd made friends with. It was a local chicken bus all the way and it was super cramped .... 5 people sitting in a 2-seater all over the bus. I had a mommy and a baby on my left and the baby kept punching my face so that wasn't helpful ... I was more concerned about baby puke ... that is one of my fears alongside birds sh!tting on my face (actual birds in the sky). So, baby using me as a punchbag, obese man on my right shrinking me down to nothing and gay-ass music playing through the bus speakers .... fun times for a few hours but I made it.

There's not much for me to say about San Salvador, as with a lot of cities, just dirty, smoggy and crowdy. I booked a Ticabus ticket to Nicaragua and stayed in the hotel upstairs. They give you a wake up call at 4am for your departure ... not that I sleep when I have to be up early.

It was byebye from El Salvador ... a place with many delights and super-friendly people, the most friendliest I've met throughout my whole Central America trip. A couple of other observations:

- From this point on the greeting people use is "Buenos". This makes sense to me, you don't need to worry about "Buenos dias, Buenos tardes, Buenos noches" ... I have that problem in Portugal ... is it evening? is it night? should I say good evening? Should I say goodnight? Even checkout staff at my local supermarket get it wrong and say good evening, then a shopper will grunt and say "actually it's dark so it's goodnight" and they will both chuckle and I'll tell them to hurry the f^ck up. But "Buenos" makes so much sense ... unless you literally translate it ... "Good". I may do that in English ... greet someone with "Good".

- Currency in El Salvador was USD.

That's all I got .... until next time readers 😊

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