June 15-19
'Ello Salvador! The land of pupusas!
I had 4 marvellous nights to explore the tiny country of El Salvador. It is known to be a very dangerous country... Apparently the day before I arrived, 41 people were murdered in San Salvador (the capital). There are Lots of gangs, particularly in the city, but every single El Salvadorian person I've met has been LOVELY and I did not feel unsafe at all in El Salvador.
I chose El Tunco as my destination because that seems to be on the 'Gringo route' (the path all tourists follow)
I met up with Dave upon arriving and he gave me a quick orientation of the town - all two streets! We braved the water for a surf lesson that afternoon. I've done a teeny tiny bit of surfing before, but never in waves like this! They were quite big and incredibly strong. Perhaps not ideal for beginners like ourselves... But we gave it a shot and had a fair bit of success! I stood up at least 6 or 7 times, Dave probably double that. The water was super rough though so I got a bang to the head, a fall onto the rocks (ow, my bum!) and swollowed a ridiculous amount of water. All part of the fun I guess!
We spent most of the afternoon and evening chilling and drinking by the pool at the hostel.
A group of 8 of us got up very early the next morning for an extravagant adventure! We were told that two chicken buses (public buses) would get us to Lake Coatepeque in around 2 hours... So naturally FOUR AND A HALF HOURS later, after 4 buses and 1 very crammed tuk tuk we made it to the lake! It was incredible.
It used to be a volcano crater but somehow eventually turned into a lake. There were barely any tourists which made it feel even more unique. A 'tourism police' boat appeared and offered to take us out for a ride - free of charge! He took us to a few spots out in the middle of the lake for a swim and then to a restaurant on another part of the lake where we relaxed on the decking and jumped off their little jumping board.
Beautiful. Incredible. There are no words. Pictures don't do it justice. The ride back was equally hectic, involving chatting to many locals and scoring two free rides! I can't even begin to explain how lovely these people are.
On my third day in El Tunco most of the friends I had made were leaving, however I wanted just a bit more time to explore. Those of us who were left went to a waterfall called 'Cascadas de Tamanique.' This involved a fairly difficult half hour walk each way, interspersed with views of the mountainous area.
The waterfall was beautiful, and mostly full of local kids rather than tourists. The kids would jump from ridiculous heights into the water, often head first! No fear whatsoever. Some of the boys I was with were brave enough to jump, but I just watched...
On my fourth and final day in El Tunco a couple of us got the bus to La Libertad, a nearby town, to roam the fish markets and buy stuff for dinner. It's not a particularly interesting town, so we didn't stay long & instead spent the day mostly lazing by the pool and reading my book.
Seth arrived in the afternoon and we watched some wicked surfers while the sun set on the beach.
We cooked up our feast in the evening and had a few drinks before heading out to the bars. It was very quiet out, but we met some locals and had a little boogey!
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