El Salvador

Friday 30th September 2016 – Up at 3.30am…the stars shone brightly in the night sky like diamonds displayed on black velvet. We waited for the rest of our camp to awaken and sat with our guide warming ourselves by the hypnotic camp fire. At 4am we started our one and a half hour climb to the peak of Acatenango to see sunrise and capture a better view of Fuego Volcano. Donned with head torches and still in our eight layers of clothing (it was freezing cold so high up) we began our accent up scree like black sand dunes that gave way under your feet. It was laborious work in the pitch blackness but the glittering lights of the town below beckoned us on in our quest. Our guide, 63 and amazingly fit and strong helped me the last five minutes of our climb by literally dragging me upwards and I gripped onto his hand like a small child being guided to her first day at school. And then we were there…the top…the summit…on top of the world…we had made it! The sunrise was stunning as it eclipsed the agony in my frozen finger tips, they had gone numb in the strenuous climb but our reward was a kaleidoscope of colours floating before our eyes. We stood and enjoyed the view of Fuego Volcano positioned below us…smoking its natural pipe within its panoramic setting, content with its fiery ways as small eruptions appeared from its peak. All too soon it was time to return back down to camp where a warm fire and the promise of hot chocolate awaited us. We skidded down the steep, sandy slope like slalom skiers, great fun but pretty scary in places. Soon enough we were all enjoying breakfast around the embers of our dying fire…then it was decamp time and the gruelling prospect of our decent…always the hardest part of mountain climbing for me. I will not lie, by the time we reached the bottom my knees were in agony and I had slid and fallen at least three times. However, Acatenango had been kind to us. She had sheltered us from the rains and guided our every step as though we were long lost friends of hers from long ago. Without her help I would not have made the climb, so I thanked her for her protection and said goodbye. By 11am we were back at our hotel. Falling into bed we slept, then showered and later dined at Fusion on delicious gourmet sandwiches…yum!

Saturday 1st October 2016 – Pinch punch, first day of the month. After five star pancakes for breakfast we wandered lazily to Rainbow Tours to ask if they had any transport to El Salvador that day. Their daily shuttle minibus to the Pacific Coast, El Tunco, had already left but amazingly for us their transport had had to turn around as they had forgotten to pick up four pre booked people. Lucky for us…unlucky for them…that’s the way it goes sometimes. We ran back to our hotel, threw all our possessions into various bags strewn all over the floor in about two minutes flat by which time the bus was beeping for us impatiently. We climbed in and were received by four disgruntled passengers who had been one hour on their way when the driver had turned around. We then went on to pick up the other four forgotten passengers, then all ten of us plus driver headed to El Salvador. It was the easiest border crossing to date. Hardly any queues and no payment asked for by officials…we literally breezed through and said not only hello to October but El Salvador, country 23 too! Hola! Hola! Hola! At 4pm we had arrived at the surfing paradise known as El Tunco. We landed a wonderful room at Lay Back Hostel with balconies, hammocks, cats and a friendly atmosphere then dropped our bags off and headed for beer, coffee and papusas (the very popular local snack of savoury pancakes El Salvadorian style) where we overlooked mangroves and the Pacific Ocean. We realised after a little research that we had inadvertently ended up in the party capital of El Salvador (we hadn’t planned this but here we were) and to top it all off it just so happened to be Saturday night. After delicious fish and chips and chicken stew at Charley’s Restaurant we danced and chatted into the night at the local Tekla bar, gyrating our moves to calypso salsa and reggae live music till 3.00 in the morning. Strolling home we fed some stray dogs hot sausages and then collapsed into bed. What a great party night!

Sunday 2nd October 2016 – We emerged from our room at 11am, paid for another night at our hostel, drank coffee and fed ourselves that local delicacy of papusas. Heading onto the stony surfer’s beach we laid in shady hammocks looking out at the view of the Pacific. Rocking gently from side to side to the sound of the waves we caught up with some blogging as the sea breeze channelled our thoughts onto paper. It rained heavily in the evening and going out at 8pm the village had transformed into a ghost town…a far cry from Saturday night. Not wanting to risk wandering on the darkened streets we bought musli, yogurt and drinks at a local store and ate in to the sound of the rain echoing on the rooftop.

Monday 3rd October 2016 – Today was a busy day of blogging and downloading photos all in the comfort of our wonderful heavenly hammocks with the resident cats for company. It would be my nephew, Morgan’s 18th birthday in a few days so I was keen to phone home to wish him a happy birthday while we had a good wifi connection (it really is hard getting good internet while travelling so you have to make the most of it when you can). It was lovely speaking to family back home and afterwards we went for a stroll…treating ourselves once again to that good old favourite…pamusas. While Aaron chilled out on the balcony I went for a swim and a sunbathe, fed some local dogs and booked our tickets to Honduras for the next day. Tomorrow we would be moving on once again!