El Salvador...No pasa nada

Friday June 8th after a tearful goodbye to my students and chaotic last minute packing and cleaning session, Kate and I began our month long traveling adventure. Our good friend Magdiel was nice enough to buy us our last Honduran baleadas and drive us to Santa Rosa so that we could catch the bus to Octopeque and start making our way to the beaches in El Salvador. After making quite an appearance at the bus station with our huge backpacks and "carry on bags" we waited 45 minutes for the bus to come. By now you would think we would be pros and rush to get on the bus...but we decided last minute bathroom trips were crucial for good traveling, this unfortunately landed us standing room only. You can only imagine our dismay at such a bad way to start our trip. Luckily after about 30-45 minutes..not sure on time as we are both watchless, we finally have two people get off the bus thus giving us their seats. We made it to Octopeque where we decided to hire a taxi to take us to La Palma. We had a taxi driver with quite hussle as he ran through 2 way traffic, skidding in front of cars so that he could reach his taxi and pick us up before another taxi could come and swoop us away. He was quite a chatty man, and we enjoyed his Spanglish and hearing about Vegas and the muchas parties  and the que crazy in Vegas. We made it safely to La Palma and found a hostel where we had stayed before, went for some pupusas and beers and found ourselves passed out in bed by 8.

We woke up Saturday morning ready to rock and roll our way to the beach but first we had to conquer the challenge of walking to the bus stop with all of our luggage, no easy task and my  mom can attest to this. Once situated on the bus we made our way to San Salvador. When we arrive we pull into a gas station and the driver told us that he was unable to go the bus station and we would have to walk across the road. Let me tell you that the road was about 6 lanes across and please don't forget that we are both carrying huge backpackers backpacks, I also have a frontal backpack and Kate has her "cocina". We look at each other with that "oh shit we are never going to make it look" when all of a sudden another bus driver appears and tells us that he will take us to the correct bus terminal to go to the beach. We weigh our options and decide why not. While on the bus we keep pestering the driver as to where to get off and when he finally tells us it's our stop we look around at nothing but "residential" area.....no bus stop anywhere in site....yes panick sets in slightly. Good thing we had adrenaline because we ended up having to walk 4 blocks, thanks to the man already on the bus and his awesome sign language (holds up 2 fingers, makes his fingers do the walking motion, and points in the direction for us to go). We finally get on the direct bus where we learn we have to pay an entire passenger fare for our bags. Again we are dropped off in the middle of nowhere kind of feeling when 2 very sweet old woman directed us where to go...another 6 or 7 blocks and we found our hostel Papaya Lodge aka hot box central. We quickly pulled ourselves together and set out to exlpore. We found an amazing cafe with yummy food and tasty chai lattes, yep El Tunco was going to be great. We then layed out on the beach and enjoyed our time on black sand beaches. That night we decided to see what the town had to offer for night life...we ate some dinner  (pupusas) and drank some of El Salvador's national beer Pilsener ( you can't forget to pronounce it like pill-sa-ner otherwise they won't have a clue what you are talking about) We meet some interesting people that night including one man who claimed to have a helicopter, a boat, and was the ball boy for the Wizards and knew Micheal Jordan but had somehow erased the picture of the two. We also met some Brazilians whose favorite phrase was "No pasa nada" used probably about every 5th sentence.

Sunday found us eating amazing pancakes and ready for some more beach time. We watched the surfers and enjoyed a nice laid back day.











Monday was rough because we had to eat some more amazing pancakes and spend some more time on the beach....man life is tough. After a hard day of sunbathing we pulled our sweaty selves together for some 2 for 1 margaritas at a bar across the way. We walk into the bar increasing the population to 4 when all of a sudden we hear someone say "Kate!" I am sure I had the most dumbfound look on my face. What are the odds of Kate running into one of her old Colorado buddies in a small beach town in El Salvador. They invited us to a bbq and we had a great time.

Tuesday came all too soon and after yet another amazing breakfast we had to pack up our bags again..this time bailing some stuff realizing our bags were just too heavy.  We trekked back to the road and hopped a bus to San Salvador. We got ourselves situated in our hotel directly above the bus station and took a taxi to the mall. Yes, I said mall and it was the closest thing to America I have experience since being in Central America. The mall was 3 stories and had all sorts of stores. It was fun but a little overwhelming to experience. We ended up eating a Little Ceasar's pizza and had left overs for the next days journey to Managua. 4 am comes awfully early!

Travels have been going well and can't wait to see what Nicaragua brings!