Rest of Roadtrip

Hello,

I'm back AGAIN, just deleteted Ben's comments about waiting months for next post! So where did I get to last time?  We'd made it down to the coast closer to Honduras, spent the night at some interesting  accomodation and left early the next morning for La Union, a port town where we would get a boat to Isla Meanguera. So we arrived in La Union in good time. Parked the car up in some bar restaurant car park and eventually walked round the corner to the "port". Luckily I'd phoned the hotel who'd told me to look for or phone "Don Santos" as it was pure port chaos. I say port but more of a little harbour full or smallish boats, kids trying to carry your luggage, lots of kids swimming in the really clean water, lots of shouting, lots of people in boats, lots of people wading out to the boats already full with lots of people and their bags, boxes bags of veg, eggs, ice, chairs and gas bottles and lots of people hovering around selling a variety of snacks for the journey. Or the wait for the journey as it turned out.

The first boat our luggage was lead to looked rather full, was leaving early and didnt belong to Santos and could've been going to any of the islands so after lots more shouting (not by us) the luggage came back.
Luckily around the same time a girl who'd been doing the hotel's weekly big shop  spotted us (4 gringos so not difficult) and told us Santos was on his way. Santos' boat seemed to arrive before he did and we were the first on soon to be surrounded by lots more people, lots more bags, lots more of everything...

so after sitting on the boat for about an hour we finally left and had all the comfort you expect for a journey lasting about an hour and costing three bux. So we reached the island, dropped off a few people and each time we stopped we had the saga of someone's bags being at the underneath everyone elses. So we were quite glad when it was our turn to get off at the hotel.

The hotel was right next to the sea and we spent the next two days doing very little.Well plenty of eating, good fresh fish and drinking (the weekend coincided with Gav's "stagaversary" so of course Gav and Ben weren't going to let that slip by) . We did manage a kayaking trip round the little island opposite which at one point got a little rougher than we'd bargained for but we all made it back without capsising. In the afternoon we got a boat to the beach and spent a few hours there having "beach fun" (see below) before returning for some (stop!) Hammock Time. All in all was a great spot for a few relaxing days doing not much.

 lounging area for hammock time

  playing in the sea                                                      another rammed beach

 a continuacion ....

While the Cat's away...

While the cat's away, Simmie will try and play ... well with the blog at least. So after a few comments about me never blogging (to be fair I think I did once... well maybe  a few lines? was gonna actually do one a few weeks back but Ben still beat me do it. He's more proactive, whilst I am more of a procrastinator (really Sim? I hear you say sarcastically) See I'm already wiffling and over-using brackets. Another reason for Ben to write. But still in the words of Magnus I've started so I'll finish. (whether in one go we'll see!)

So it's April already and time just keeps on flying by. As I write I hear the gentle the sound of rain again, not quite full on rainy season yet but a reminder it's soon on its way, feels like dry season only just began. But makes me strangely nostalgic, like Easter weekend in the UK, dark and rainy, though luckily ( and smugly?) for us, still in the high twenties!

Easter Sunday and I must be one of the few people in El Salvador not "al mar" for the long weekend. Still, having spent some of last week and probably at least every other weekend there recently, I'm not too put out by this. In fact, am enjoying the quietiest weekend I've had in a while, reading, faffing, hammocking and watching really crap TV.brilliant. The house feels strangely quiet and empty. Ben is "on tour", not as an internationally aclaimed drummer, but an an international cricketer again, this time playing Belize. So I'm sure he'll do some blogging about that. Sounds like they've had fun even if the  bus journey was long and a few hiccups along the way.

House also feels empty of visitors as we've been pretty booked up these last few weeks, well months.El Salvador tourism figures must be on the rise as a result. Kate and Gav just left yesterday.
Since Mum and Dad left we've had my mum's cousin Maria Elena here, She was out here for work so caught up with her after not seeing her for a few years. She pretty chocka with work but we managed to show her a couple of sights, well the beach and nice places to eat!

Then the evening after she left Kate and Gav arrived (brummie-brisslers for those of you who havent met them in person) Their arrival also concided with some friends' party so just popped by for a bit  as travelling all day and partying all night isnt really condusive to making it to the beach the next day (well done Kate and Gav for holding out for another couple of hours who by then must've been up for well over 24hrs)
So we made it to the beach and spent the day making the most of the nice hotel facilities,pool, boozie jacquzzi  and Ben and I resented having to go to back to work the next day.  Kate and Gav spent a couple of days there and we joined them after work and then all came back later in the week.

 We did all the usual things we offer on our "first time El Salvador" package. Volcano, restaurant with view of town, local food delights, unlimited use of hammocks and beer fridge and we finally made it to our Easter Hols after what felt like another long and busy term.

Top of Volcan Boqueron

We headed straight off on Friday afternoon to the "Oriente", the coast we hadn't made it too before as quite a bit further down towards Honduras. And after a few hours we arrived hot and tired in el Cuco. It turned out to be quite an experience. We arrived in the middle of a power cut, so was very dark, at a place right by the beach in what was in effect a bungalow with mosquito screen walls and roof (they called it an "upgrade") Sure this was where Gav began to be inspired for his horror film idea. After dinner and beers (well a beer as apparently some group had drank their bar dry at lunchtime,didn't go down too well with the boys.) we were all in bed by 9.30 in our outdoor rooms.
By 6 am we were all awake having been awoken by the crashing waves and dawn though I don't think any of us slept particularly well (crackly plastic under sheets and security guard wondering around with his torch and for some the threat of bugs and creatures who were able to crawl through the gaps) . But short of actually sleeping on the beach it was a pretty unique way to way up, palm trees above your head, sun peeping through them in the distance and hearing the sea. Wondered down to the sea and had the wake up invigorating dip and amired the endless, vast beach.

We left early with plenty of time to get the boat across the Golfo Fonseca.So will sign off there as will be way too much to read in one go... still got another 6 days of roadtrip to cover! Next episode Pacific Island. Hasta luego.