El Salvador is a country most people swing through fast on their way to Nicaragua, and to be honest - I was going to so the same thing.
I'm super glad I had border issues - okay I'm not SUPER glad because you should have seen me that day. There is one thing trying to speak spanish in normal conversation, it's a whole other ball game when you're flustered, confused and mad (at yourself.)
So, what happened? When I did my belize border run to gain another 3 months they didn't stamp me back into the country which meant I was ~technically~ an illegal. Of course, I didn't realise until I was at another border. What can you do? Go back to the capital to be hit with a fine and learn from your mistakes.
But thanks to this, I got to go to Santa Ana and stay at the most wonderful hostel, Casa Verde. It had two fully equipped kitchens, pool, laundry service and worked on the honor system. I was originally going to stay for 2 nights and head off, but that turned into a week!
I went to a food festival in Juayua - it's one of the most recommended places to visit in El Salvador if you're there on the weekend. Taking a chicken bus down, I didn't know what to expect - neither did the two norwegians or one french girl I was with.
What we realised is that if you're vegetarian or vegan, your choices are going to be limited. My favourite conversation to hear in these countries is "I'd like something with no meat" "okay, chicken?" "No, without meat or chicken" "fish?"
It's not very common to be vegetarian in Central America - especially in smaller communities.
In the first photo - I have two plates of meat - one is normal steak and the other, on the left is actually conejo- or in english, rabbit. I felt I had to try something different here, and now I have mixed feelings because I actually really enjoyed it.
In this small town is also a waterfall, we had time before the next bus to another town and so we took a tuk-tuk up to the entrance for ($3) - it wasn't a hard walk and a bunch of locals were there swimming in the pools. If I'd known, I would have brought my bathers.
The next town we went to was 'Ataco' which is a very multicoloured little village with a look out point of the whole town. A girl who showed us the way told us on a clear day, you can see nearly all the way to Guatemala.
A few people backed their bags and spent some nights, however I didn't want to leave the beauty if my hostel!
Hope you've all had great weeks!
X SJ
.jpeg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment