El Salvador

                                                                   El Salvador

We entered El Salvador and found a relaxed atmosphere the people were very friendly and most people waved or whistled when I came by.

Some people asked if I could change the bike to normal!

The roads were narrow but not very crowded at all.

People cycled more, on mountain bikes and only in their town.

The houses were quite poorly built. Iron plates as a roof or as walls.

Their yard was a terrible mess, plastic bags, bottles of glass and plastic were all around.

Also the roadsides were littered with garbage.

                                                                   Garbage problem
I have been thinking about this.

I think in the so-called “developed” countries, the people are just as messy and ignorant.

The difference is that in the Central American countries the garbage will stay where it is.

There is no service that will clean it. In Europe and North American countries there is always and regularly a service that will clean the roadsides.

So it looks better, but I doubt it is better by, honest, comparison.

                                                                    Most Horrible hotel this trip

In El Salvador we stayed in the most horrible hotel of the whole trip.

It was smelly, dirty, half broke down and the atmosphere was not right, but we didn’t have any choice.

It became late and there was no hotel for miles, they said.

                                                                    Paradise again

The next day we cycled away in the search of a breakfast.

We arrived at a wonderful stop along the beach.

This was a famous surfspot with a restaurant, café, pool and…. a hotel.

Guest what, it was only 10 km away from that terrible hotel we stayed the night before.

It was so beautiful situated right at the beach, that we decided to stay there.

We sat in and next to the pool and enjoyed the good company of surfers from Brasil and other English speaking guests.

Also we had wonderful meals and a great warm shower in our room next to the beach.

                                                                     Lost flag post

The days passed and the roads were not that difficult with too many climbs.

We also had to pass 5 tunnels near the coast at the start of El Salvador.

There I lost my flags, at least part of the flagpost that had the three flags on it.

The Canadian flag, the Dutch flag and the Guatemalan flag!

I was sad and hope to find these flags of Central America again somehere!

                                                                    El Tortuga Verte

We met interesting people all over El Salvador.

One of them was Tom Polak , a famous American in El Salvador. He had several properties and a show on the radio (Or TV I did forget).

We met him at a gas station somewhere in El Salvador and he was in a rush to San Salvador (the capital of El Salvador).

He invited us in his hotel “El Tortuga Verte” the green turtle, near coco beach.

He told us how we had to get there.

Two days later after a big hill up and down we arrived at his place.

What a relaxed atmosphere (Again!).

A beautiful beach, showers, Wifi (sometimes), great meals, hammocks all around was the basics of this hotel.

People from all over the world were there and enjoyed the safety of the place.

We planned our resting day at this wonderful place.

The first night was free, because we are cyclists.

We enjoyed the good room, affordable meals and did swim in the ocean.

                                                                   Turtles!

In the evening, there were some rumors; the turtles are going to be released!

We walked to the beach and did see some activity.

Fences guarded the nesting place. This fence was to protect the place where the eggs were buried.

The volunteers of the hotel were digging in the sand.

The little turtles came crawling out of the sand, so the volunteers helped these turtles to go to the surface.

It was dark and we, the tourists, were invited to free the little turtles.

We were not allowed to use lights because the little turtles do go towards the light.

So we did free more than 100 turtles that night. A big event for us!

                                                                   The last stretch El Salvador

Tom also knew a lot of El Salvador so he advised us to use the boat to Nicaragua (Potosi).

He called to his contacts if a boat was going to Nicaragua, but unfortunately not in the weekend.

But Tom said there were sometimes do go to Nicaragua anyhow. During weekdays it was sailing every day.

Later that evening he told us that he had a phone call that the boat was going to Potosi.

The next day we were taken by car to the port La Union.

Here we had the adventure of the speedboat trip you read about in one of the previous blogs.