El Salvador El Tunco / Juayua

The following day i left Antigua on a shuttle bus which was going direct to El Tunco, El  Salvador. It cost around $30 and took 4 hours, whilst on the bus i met three Americans Tim, Kerrah and Kris. We talked for hours about all kinds of things, there main reason for El Tunco was for the surf. El Tunco is a famous spot for it's great surf breaks. Crossing the Boarder to El Salvador was a breeze, it was all over and done within about 10 minutes, i didn't get a stamp on my passport which was disappointing, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua are all in an alliance so you don't need stamps between these countries. Kerrah was very switched on with everything there was to do and see around El Salvador, she would make a good travel agent, they were on a 2 week vacation visiting Belize, Guatemala and flying out of El Salvador, I decided to tag along, which was no problem to them. We arrived at El Tunco and Kerrah had read about a nice place to stay on the beach. We stayed there for $10 each a night with a private room, this place was luxury for me it was like a resort, it even had a pool. El Tunco is a tiny little surf town, you can walk the main street in 1 minute. We ate at this little Pupusa stall a couple of times, Pupusa's are a traditional Salvadorian dish its basically like a pancake made with corn flour with all different meats in the middle, they are very cheap, about $0.75. The following day the guys had arranged surfing lessons at a nearby break, i stayed and hired a board around town and surfed the breaks there, but soon after i was yelled at buy a few locals for dropping in on them. I got a little scared so i went in, i just went back and got my camera and took some shots of the surf and surfers. Its a really cool little chilled out place. A couple of days after that, we went together to another place that Kerrah had read about called Juayua ( pronounced Why you a ). The hostel was just great, really little pretty hostel in a great location, with very friendly staff. Whilst we were there we did a tour of the 7 waterfalls not far from the little town, it was a 6 hour hike through thick jungle forests, on this little path that was the perfect example of OFF THE BEATEN TRACK!!! We even had to climb down this waterfall face with rope and harness, with slippery slimy rocks. The place was just magical and so un touched, which made for some great photos. The hike was $20 with a great clean cut shy guy named Douglas, he was really friendly and told us a lot about the coffee plantations we walked through, i found it had to believe that the guys that pick the coffee beans only get $1 per 11kgs which they only make between $3 - $5 a DAY...!!!!!

Douglas also told us about this traditional flower that people smoke to make them relax, it kind of gives a similar effect to weed, we smoked it that night at the hostel with a few others, but it didn't really do anything just made me dream a lot. 

That afternoon the hostel owner, a 35 year old named Sesar took us to some hot springs about 1 hour away, the place was just perfect after our big day hike, some of the springs are around 95 C and the steam coming of them is just awesome. The ones you can swim in are in man made pools and they vary in temperatures anywhere from 30 C to about 43 C. We were enjoying the pools just relaxing and all of a sudden a huge storm came over just pouring rain so heavy we could barley hear each other taking, that made it even better i thought. The cold water on your head but you body in the hot water it felt weird. Sesar was great he just joined in with us, it was really fun.

The next day in Juayua we went to the big food market that is held there every weekend, people come from all over the countryside, even as far as Guatemala. It was another fantastic cultural experience. We ate some weird things like flowers with chicken wrapped around them, frogs, rabbit and all other normal meats. Later that afternoon Sesar took us to his coffee roasting shed, he is a well known coffee roaster around El Salvador, he took us there at no cost, just to show us and take us through the coffee roasting process. Not being a coffee drinker before i left home i now understand how much work is involved and just how much difference there can be in the taste, just by the slightest changes in the roasting process. It actually reminds me a lot of the detail and thoroughness of wine making. In return i took some photos of Sesar's coffee beans and gave them to him so he could use them for his website. His coffee is often used in competitions also, the taste was impressive. Tim, Kerrah and Kris left me the following morning, they had to fly out for home. It's always sad to leave people that you have been travelling with closely, i had such a great time with those guys and if it wasn't for them i wouldn't have done half the stuff that we got done in that amount of time. I'm currently in San Salvador the capital of El Salvador. The bus ride here was a story within itself, but i'm here and have organised a bus down to Leon, Nicaragua for 2:00 am tomorrow. I'm skipping Honduras all together now i just don't have enough time before i need to fly out of Panama. I have two boarder crossings tomorrow so i will blog again form the other side. 

Hope everyone is well at home.....