SAN SALVADOR, EL TUNCO, RUTA DE LAS FLORES

After a long sweaty day crossing over three countries in one day, we got to the capital of El Salvador. They say San Salvador is one of the most dangerous among the cities of Central America. The crime rate is pretty high, it has plenty of political issues and the existence of bands such as Mala Salvatrucha is not helping the reputation of the country at all.

We wanted to bus it all the way to the coast of El Salvador, but in the end it got too late so we decided to spend the night in the city before heading towards El Tunco. We got there the next day: El Tunco is one of the prime spots for surfing. The waves here are really good and there are different surf spots to choose from: a beach break and two point breaks (one of them only for locals and professionals). We stayed in a really nice little hostel owned by Jose, a surf professional who set it up a few years ago; we really liked Jose (aka. Mini mouse) as he was a very humble and chilled guy who never bragged about his surfing skills as usually happens. We saw him surf one evening though, and bloody hell he was amazing. Big ups!

We met a lot of other really friendly people in the hostel: a couple from England, a girl from Sweden, some super nice funny guys from Argentina... and we had a good night out with them. A funny thing was that the surfers that hanged out in our hostel didn’t drink alcohol, and they took us out and just drank water themselves.

It was also going to be my birthday in two days. I was turning 30 and Henrik wanted me to have a special day; He ran around different places trying to organise something special for me, but this was a tinny little place with some small shops and a very laid back culture: everything takes time...and many things does not work at all.
Apparently some of the things that Henrik had planned didn’t work out, but in the end it all went good: I got to ride a horse by the beach, was surprised with strawberries in bed, and Henrik took me to a cool surprise dinner at a secret location, and I even got to blow the candles from a lemon cheese cake!

It was good surfing here; Henrik said that this was the best waves he had ridden. He managed to catch ride a wave from far out of the point the whole way to the beach, and got a 200 meter ride or so. My last day in El Tunco I was feeling much more comfortable with being out in the ocean and started to go for real but small waves. It was also really nice to sit down every afternoon and watch the sunset by one of the points and all the professional people catching crazy waves. We had a really amazing time out here.

After El Tunco, we head towards Guatemala, but we read about an area before the border called Ruta de las Flores. It was a group of very pretty small villages in a nice setting, so we thought it would be perfect to stay there for a bit before shooting towards Guate. We run into Richard and Becky (the English couple) there: they are such a nice couple, we liked them from the beginning. They were leaving the next day though but we watched movies together in that empty hostel and had breakfast together too.

We visited a set of waterfalls in the area nearby one of the villages and took a quick swim too; we also found a very expensive Spanish restaurant: I was tempted but we have always been looking on our budget, so this was not the right time to spoil it. The next day we went to another village and stayed in a sort of new village and went visiting Laguna Verde, which looks amazing in photos but it wasn’t as impressive in reality (kind of small). We had a very relaxing time in Ruta de las Flores and we were now off to Antigua, Guatemala.

Hanging out in the hostel

Sunset surfing in Playa El Tunco

Sunset in Playa El Tunco

Some guys were jumping this rock just outside the beach in El Tunco...it looked pretty scary with the rocks just next to were they landed

Laura enjoying her birthday ride on the beach, we must have looked like real gringos

Laura posing in the plaza

Loads of houses in one of the Ruta de la flores villages were pimped up in this lovely way

Nationalistic El Salvadorian dog saluting the flag by taking a dump next to it...

The green lagun as it was called, was ok, but perhaps not worth the 1 hour steep walk, any way, at least we have to put one photo

We found this amazing Spanish restaurant, this was however as close we got to the food, prices was pretty steep

Old nice church in one of the Ruta de la flores villages

Laura with green chicken bus in the background in one of the villages