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Published: October 17th 2005
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And we thought the Guatemalans were paranoid. Our first night's accommodation in El Salvador involved us calling through a locked gate just to get into the village, the guesthouse was even more secure; but Rachel struck a bargain deal again and for two nights we had the whole beachfront place, with pool, to ourselves.
We'd earned it though; the border crossing was the most hassle yet and took over two hours (although it did cost a grand total of $0.70), we'd looked at a couple of other hotels - the first prompted a face from Natalie that we'd never seen before, the second had rooms with no windows, adjoining garages and hourly rates...if you know what I mean - and our final choice was at the end of a dirt track that didn't seem to lead anywhere, let alone to a beach community.
We were awoken on the first night by the most violent storm we'd seen so far, directly over us and illuminating the beach that we still hadn't seen by daylight. Then we had two days taking advantage of the pool, hammocks and barbecue, working up an appetite while kayak surfing in Playa Los Cóbanos bay.
Mangrove swamps, Playa El Pimental
Neither of us were willing to paddle With only a day left before Natalie and Alex had to fly home we were after a suitable place to relax and travelled down the Pacific coast towards La Libertad. We found another dirt road that appeared to go nowhere, least of all a decent place to stay. Wrong again, the perfect place, Playa El Pimental and an hotel complex preparing for a busy weekend, on the beach, backed by mangrove swamps, with swimming pools, full complement of staff and a bizarre assortment of well cared for animals. Kayaks again, but this time for a relaxed tour through the mangrove swamps in search of crocodiles - I guess it's a good thing that we didn't see any - then a quick ten minutes being molested by the resident spider monkeys and back to the pool. The perfect end to a great ten days, for all of us.
All too soon they had to return home, the airport, we were told was only 15 minutes drive - if a Salvadorian ever gives you an estimate on journey times, treble it - but the whole country was celebrating Independence leaving us to weave our way through the local town and it's
parades...they made the flight though.
We were a bit lost after Nats and Alex had left, Rachel was mysteriously ill (commonly referred to as a hangover) so we stayed at the Rancho Estero y Mar for a couple more days. The owner, Rebecca, and all her staff were as accommodating and friendly as is possible - we could easily have stayed for a week but thought it best to move on.
Rebecca had recommended that we head towards the North of the country to a town called Suchitoto; this took us through the capital, San Salvador which we can't really comment on because we didn't stop. We did visit the Puerte del Diablo on the edge of the city though, for a dramatic view of the coastal plains right to the Pacific coast, all framed by two massive granite pillars.
Suchitoto, as we had been told, is El Salvador's Antigua, no where near as developed, it's a very peaceful town which was heavily involved in the civil war and, consequently, almost deserted for a few years from 1992. It's perched above Lago Suchitlán and the best views we could find were from the terrace of a restaurant
called La Fonda el Mirador, there have been few other places we have been with an outlook that can compare. Being so quiet the town shuts up very early, our second night saw us having a few beers in the grounds of a very nice hotel and then failing to find an open restaurant, at all, I suppose it was asking a little much - to have a meal at 7.45 in the evening.
Our last stop before Honduras was to be El Pital, at 2,730m the tallest mountain in El Salvador, and the tiny community of Miramundo. We meant to stay in San Ignacio a small town at the foot of the mountain but it didn't have a great deal to offer so we headed for the top. This must be the steepest road in the world, ever; Dunedin definitely has a competition on its hands. The steepest sections saw us slowed to a crawl in low gear, the locals were easily overtaking us, on foot; all we could think of was going back down the following morning...and the brakes. At Miramundo we took a look at a couple of guesthouses and then followed signs to a third,
down dirt tracks which were even steeper than the steepest road in the world, ever. The third place had great views but no food so we crawled back up the steepest dirt track in the world and checked in to Hostal Miramundo, and our own log cabin. From there, almost the highest point in El Salvador we could see about 80% of the country, not only that, we could see volcanoes and lakes in neighbouring Guatemala as well, fantastic.
On the way back down the following morning the brakes began overheating again, but, with some frantic foot-pumping, we safely reached the bottom...in twice the time it took us to get to the top. We were then only twenty minutes from the Northern border and Honduras.
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