Ostradamus

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Geo: 19.5543, -96.9387

El Tunco - the final stop of our little Salvadoran adventure, and by far the most disappointing ... El Salvador has been pretty cool overall, but we're finding little in the way of redeeming qualities of this tiny surf town, which was an odd finish to the tour. El Tunco was likely chosen for its location, a relatively short drive to the airport, which makes it a convenient final night for those departing the country.

It does also offer a brief taste of El Salvador's Pacific coast, but it was more than disappointing in that regard, especially for non-surfers - while there are some great waves for surf bums, the water is far too rough for swimmers to even wade out much deeper than their knees. Add the fact that the water appears to be of dubious quality, with a filthy-looking river discharging right into town, and there was very little incentive for us to consider even dipping our toes into the surf!

It actually would have been nice if the tour was one day longer, as it could've afforded the opportunity to stay a night in Salinitas instead, a beach town just over an hour up the road, and one that seemingly is far nicer and cleaner. In fact, El Tunco reminded us a little of Ko Phi Phi, a beach town in Thailand that has become one giant, crowded, overgrown backpacker ghetto. El Tunco isn't quite there yet, but it's seemingly well on its way to becoming the Salvadoran equivalent - for the sake of the locals, I truly hope that doesn't end up being the case!

Having said all this, we did manage to find a couple of decent qualities about El Tunco, the first being a pretty decent restaurant at our hotel, Roca Sunzal. The second was also sort of related to our hotel - the oyster men of El Tunco who stroll along the beach, calling out "Ostras! Ostras!", as they sold, of all things, oysters! Who knew that oysters could even be found in a tropical location such as El Tunco?

Now, these were far from the best oysters you could have, and the sizing categories was beyond laughable if you've had the pleasure of sampling fine oysters elsewhere in the world, as the "large" ones here would barely qualify as bait anywhere else. But the fact that we could sit around on a beachfront restaurant in El Salvador, sipping on Salvadoran beer, while slurping down these oysters, was beyond cool.

Perhaps even cooler were the oyster men, and watching them hustle their way through plate after plate of oysters, delivered to people sitting at random restaurants on the beach. We never did learn their names, but gave them all a name of distinction, a name of fame - Ostradamus!

Peace out,

Lil B

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Photos

El Tunco ...
... the town and beach are named for the rock formation just off the shore. Supposedly, it resembles a pig ... but I don't see it.

Ostradamus ...
... sort of the El Tunco equivalent of the kebab man, there are a number of guys walking around the beach selling fresh oysters.

Feels Like Ko Phi Phi, In a Bad Way ...
... shades of Ko Phi Phi's overdeveloped town. Though El Tunco isn't anywhere near as overrun with people, it really feels as if it's getting to that point where it can forever take a turn for the worse.

Lovely View at Lunch ...
... a filthy river discharges right into Playa El Tunco - that explains the less-than-crystal-clear waters at the beach, which we originally attributed to the dark sands. It's a good thing that El tunco's rough waters are best for surfers and not swimmers, because that kept us from swimming in these waters.

Perfect For a Hot Day ...
... most people would drink these coconuts, but not us - it was so hot and humid that we crawled inside of them for a dip!

Peanut Butter Crepe ...
.. not bad, but the syrup drizzle was some unnecessary sugar. The fresh fruit assortment was both good and varied - pineapple, papaya, kiwi, grape, strawberry ... best part of breakfast.

Worst Part of Breakfast ...
... the omelet was decent, but the processed cheese on top???!?!! The beans and rice resembled a kind of cow pie, and the bacon was overly crisp.

World's Tiniest Large Oysters ...
... three sizes are on offer - small, medium, and large, and these little buggers were considered large. Not bad, and we can't really complain about the size, since we didn't realize such warm waters could actually produce oysters. We tried not to think about the nearby dirty river while slurping down these suckers.

Bad Smoothies ...
... there isn't much of a selection of restaurants in El Tunco, so we looked for any place that served up pupusas - their drinks were lacking, flavourless papaya and watermelon smoothies.

Worst Pupusas of the Trip ...
... they weren't bad, but just weren't anywhere near as good as some of the killer ones we had elsewhere. Serves us right, since pupusas are considered to be either breakfast or dinner fare, and not lunch.

Back at the Hotel ...
... since the options in town were less-than-impressive, our final dinner in El Salvador was back at the Hotel Roca Sunzal. The grilled lobster was quite a bit overcooked, but still tasty.

Fish in a Creamy Loroco Sauce ...
... good, but too bad the cream sauce somewhat overpowered the loroco. The grilled veggies might have been the best part - some zucchini, carrot, and excellent eggplant.