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Published: September 8th 2010
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The crew, Santa Ana
Church on the Parque Central Our next destination was Santa Ana. In Ataco we jumped on a public bus with Lolita’s daughter (Lolita had looked after our bags in her restaurant while we ventured out in the rain to find accommodation). Lucky she was with us, because the next bus we needed was sitting across the square as ours stopped and she rushed us over to that one just before it pulled away. That bus took us to Santa Ana, the second largest city in El Salvador.
When we arrived in Santa Ana we got off the bus in the centre of all the action - street markets with all their colour and smells and cars, buses and people. Towns in El Salvador are generally laid out in a logical street pattern with the central park (parque central) in the centre of the grid and streets named and numbered by their orientation (East-West or North-South) and proximity to the parque central. All sounds very straight forward, so you’d think if we had a map of the centre of town and knew the exact address of the posada where we planned to stay then it would be simple. Alas, we stumbled around lugging our packs in
Our new mates, Santa Ana bar
That's Carlos our Casa Verde host on the left every direction. First because we didn’t know where we were when we got off the bus and second because there are no street signs anywhere! Even when we finally reached the exact block we wanted we couldn’t see our posada, Casa Verde. Luckily after walking back and forth a number of times we realised we were beside a green (verde) wall and spotted a small sign above a door. And so we finally put our packs down and met our host, Carlos.
Casa Verde was a great find, with the best stocked communal kitchen (even better than at home) and Carlos offering yummy locally made helados (icecreams) from the freezer. Keith’s favourite was zapote and Tessa was a bit of a fan of the chocolate. I got to sample bits of both when I was extra nice to them. Carlos and his cousin took us to a local reggae pub so we checked out the city life in El Salvador with local beers (too many), yummy snacks, and great Central and South American music. By the end of the night we had full stomachs, beer and whisky breath and a souvenir serviette complete with scribbled band and track names!
The beautiful Lake Coatapeque
The crater lake from the mirador We took a local bus to a lake, Lago de Coatapeque, for a day. It’s a beautiful huge crater lake that is a bit of an exclusive holiday spot for wealthy locals, for New Zealanders its almost the 'Lake Taupo' of El Salvador. Access to the lake edge is a bit limited, so we got off the bus at a mirador (lookout) up the hill and walked down to the lake, then had to pay at a restaurant to get access to their pier for a swim. I had a bit of a lounge around in some bananas, which were quite comfortable, even if they seem like they're growing upside down (shouldn't the bananas be hanging?). Then back on another public bus to Casa Verde to plan the next stage and cook up a mega feed of veges in the kitchen!
The next day we would be off to our next destination, but instead of our plan to catch a bus for the first leg, Carlos (from Casa Verde) arranged a ride for us in a truck with a couple of his workers. Great little treat to get us on our way!
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