Right - new article, new country: Bienvenidos a El Salvador! It`s a relatively small and well-developed hub in Central America… also it`s supposed to be the most violent country in the region - sounds like fun! ;) It seems like there aren`t too many tourists here (apart from the beaches) but nonetheless there`s plenty of stuff to do, so let`s take off…

The border crossing between Guatemala and El Salvador (known as Anguiatú) was the most intriguing until now. While crossing, loads and loads of questions ran through my head: “Why am I being let through without trouble?” , “Where are the 25 bicycle-taxi-guys that try to run off with my bag?” , “Where are the regular 50 money-changers?” , “Why is nobody trying to rip me off in general?” and “Why is the migracion-guy not trying to make me pay some non-existent tax?”. Very strange. A little scary, even.

Once I got into El Salvador it was another walk to a point where buses (to Santa Ana) would pass. Fortunately I ended up in some funny watering hole; while waiting for the bus I got into a talk with a guy that threw about half a month salary into the jukebox, only to hear this song over and over again. Welcome to El Salvador - woo-hoo! :)

I decided to hit the western highlands first, in an area called “Ruta de las Flores”. That`s right: lots of flowers, but no hippes. Crashed down in a town named Juayua, which is mainly famous for its food fair. You could probably guess: I stuffed up quite a bit! Next day decided to rent a bike and visit the following spots:

Apaneca: A nice climb up (what the hell happened to my physical condition!?) - the town is quiet but nice. Had fun watching a colourful procession with locals - after all it was Semana Santa!

Laguna (not so) Verde: Crater lake in a volcano, just outside Apaneca. Nothing verde about it as it was blue :) Makes a nice ride though and chatting with locals was - as always - fun!

Concepción de Ataco: Upon entering the town I instantly noticed one thing: everyone was smiling! It took an instant to realise why; never seen so many colourfully painted houses together. If you´re in a bad mood, go here - a cure is guaranteed! Even I was smiling at the end :) Trivia: Missed the entrance to town and as a result had to bike an extra 5km uphill. Could use the exercise though!

Next day agreed to climb a waterfall - something different from all the swimming, right? :) My assumption the climb would be up proved to be wrong; we went down instead! No secured ropes, belts or other gear, it was all bare hand- and foot-work for the 15-20m difference in height. One word: amazing! Later on my guide told me he was one of very few people that were allowed to guide this tour, and even then not many people did it. I asked him why and the answer was as simple as astonishing: A short while ago a large group of guides and tourists got killed down there. Ever since it`s been quiet… even though locals figured out who did it and “took care” of the problem. I don`t want to know any more details…

As Easter weekend was approaching, which basically means all of Central America`s infrastructure gets jammed, I decided to chill out at a spot I really miss: the beach! Playa San Diego became the place of choice; not too crowded, nice waves and a really cool place to hang out!

As this trip continues, I moved back to the mountains, slowly digging into El Salvador`s history. Stay tuned for more news… soon!

-René

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Juayua - heart of town

Biking material

Procession Apaneca - nice dresses btw! :)

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So here´s a little ´exit-post´ - tomorrow (that is today by the time you guys in Europe read this ;)) Mayo will be making a final part of her trip, back to NL, back to the joy of cold weather and grey skies. Ain´t it wonderful!?

Once again we´ll update you on what we did, though most of it consisted of a chill-out (she can´t come back all burnt out!) . On our final day in Puerto Jimenez we decided to make a little walk and came across a small ´eco-path´… curious as we were we went down there. The sign said ´max 15 mins presence´ - and we soon figured out why; a large, happy family of crocodiles seemed to be living on and next to the path. Sounds like fun - and it was! See the pics for some happy shots - fortunately these crocodiles felt just as lazy as we did so we could walk out without any stress.

The day after consisted of a huge plan, which however didn´t come to execution due to … right … inclement weather! We regret writing our last post now… No kayaking, dolphin/whale watching etc. The beach was still fun though and we managed to get airplane tickets back to San Jose, thus making it easier for us to get out of this corner. After flying not-so-high we ended up in rainy San Jose, after which we decided to head (back) to Peninsula de Nicoya for a final few days of chill-out. The only flight available went to Benidorm Salou Chersonissos Tamarindo. Just stayed there for a day and off we went to laid-back Samara for a few days of real chilling. No big stories, it was just that.

The planned return trip by air had a fun twist to it as well; due to circumstances we wish not to comment on the weather, our flight got cancelled so we made a fun road trip, along with two Americans and a rented car. Alright, so we ended up where we wanted though it took longer than the planned 35 mins - but hey! it was a lot cheaper ;)

So Mayo is flying back off to you guys tomorrow and will be 100% available to all requests ;) Talk to you then!

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One Happy Crocodile

Our (almost) private airplane

Proof we were actually up there

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