Blogs from El Salvador, Central America Caribbean - page 6

05:00 is early - but when you know you are traveling it makes it that much easier. Justin our amazing CEO (Chief Experience Operator) had arranged for coffee for us; however it was glorified crayon water - thankfully I travel with Starbucks instant coffee so added some (yes I don’t change). Away we went, but managed to find a coffee shop in the square that was open at 06:00 so we got REAL coffee. The irony of destinations that produce coffee is they export almost all of it - and leave the crappy stuff here. So people come to places like Guatemala expecting to drink amazing, incredible coffee only to find out it’s Nescafe:-( ..... But coffee shops you can usually get it - and we ALL know how much I worship my coffee, so any ... read more

Next we wanted to go to El Tunco beach in El Salvador. This meant from Esteli we would have to get a bus to the border with Honduras, go through Honduras and go through another border crossing into El Salvador. It looked like it would take us a couple of days to get to El Tunco so we asked at Ticabus to see how long that bus would take to see if it was worth doing. They quoted us $37 and said we would arrive in San Salvador at 5pm which would be too late to go to El Tunco that same day. As both options would take 2 days we decided to go with the chicken buses. Here is how we did it: 1. Catch a bus to Somoto. On the main highway in Esteli ... read more

I’m writing this on an almost deserted beach on the pacific coast close to the Nicaraguan border. We are in El Esteron just east of Playa El Euco. The beach spans several kilometres east to west and at low tide it can spread a further kilometre out to the ocean, there are few amenities here, only a few small tiendas selling the basics, a couple of restaurants and occasionally a fruit or bread seller comes along on his bike. It is really quite blissful hearing nothing but the tide and the birds in the palms. I’ll admit it has not been like this every day, the weekend was much busier with Sunday in particular attracting many local visitors but still most of the beach remains unspoiled. Getting here from San Salvador was straightforward enough but not ... read more

We had a few options for crossing into El Salvador from Guatemala but most involved returning to Antigua and were subsequently more expensive. The cheap option was to do what the locals do and take a lancha through the Mangroves to Avellana. We opted for this, it was cheaper and somewhat more comfortable than the tourist shuttle we could have taken from Antigua. At Avellana we were met by a local bus which took us halfway to Taxisco where we changed buses, we eventually arrived at the border after about two hours or so of travelling. The boat journey was fine and quite picturesque although at that time of the day there was little shelter from the sun. The buses on the other hand were quite another story. The local buses throughout Central America are affectionately ... read more

I didn’t really know what to expect when it came to El Salvador, for I had never met another backpacker who had been here. All I knew was that it is a small country with waves pummelling the west coast night and day, which is what drew me to its shores. Picture this conversation being repeated thousands of times over all my years of travelling: Friendly person I’ve just met: “Where are you from?” Me: “Australia.” Inquisitive person I’ve just met: “Oh, do you surf?” Me: “Ah, not really.” Very confused and uncertain person I’ve just met: “But you’re Australian!?!?” In Nicaragua, at the absolutely stunning beach of ‘Playa Hermosa’, I decided it was high time that I made a concerted effort to finally fit the stereotype of all those who call Australia home. After taking ... read more