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| On the right, Guatemala, on the left, El Salvador |
but after we made it down the hill, we discovered this awesome hidden-away little spot on the beach.
The area belongs to a family that Brian knows. There were hardly any people around - we had the beach pretty much to ourselves. We parked amidst the palm trees
and hit the beach!
The family cooked food for us that night and stayed up late talking with us! They were great people, and we enjoyed meeting them. They had some super friendly dogs too, that reminded us a lot of our dog, Daisy.
The next morning we went for a walk along the beach with the Daisy-double (Juguete) and went for a swim.
After that we said goodbye to Mizata - this is definitely a beach to remember!
We drove back down the road toward the border, where we wanted to find the national park called Parque Nacional El Imposible. We had read that the park was called "El Imposible" because it is impossible to find. With a little bit of asking around, we didn't have very much trouble finding the right road. We were also told that the road was in good condition, recently repaired.
We eagerly started out and the road was gravel, but indeed, not too bad.
But as we continued, the road turned to cobblestone and got steeper and steeper.
There were also obstacles like stubborn pigs that wouldn't move out of the way...
We kept going, thinking that, if we've made it this far, we've got to keep going. The road was absolutely the worst road that we have taken Cubby on so far. The bumping cobblestones, holes in the road, and the sheer steepness of the road were unforgiving.
Oh, poor Cubby - by the time we had arrived, there were screws loose in the frame, and everything inside had come out of the cabinets and spilled from the bumping. After some repairing and cleaning, we had time that evening to climb the lookout post, from where you can see the ocean, and take some pictures of the El Salvador landscape.
We watched the sunset from the lookout.
We did get some bad news, however - what they don't tell you before you get there is that you are only allowed to enter the park with a guide. And of course, you have to pay for a guide. We knew about the $6 per person entry fee because they have that posted at the bottom of the terrible road, and so we figured that we were safe with the $20 cash we had with us. However, $12 for both of us to enter + $10 guide + $3 parking = more than the $20 we had on us. We tried reasoning, begging, and then arguing, but they wouldn't budge on the price, nor would they budge on the rule that we had to have a guide. And after driving the worst road of the trip to get there, there was NO WAY we were going to go down to the town, take out cash from an ATM, and then drive that road all over again!
As it turns out, El Imposible turned out to live up to its name. We left, disappointed, and resolved to put it behind us to enjoy the rest of our time in El Salvador. We went to the busy capital, San Salvador, and spent a couple days there.
We went to the top of "La Puerta del Diablo", the devil's door, with great 360 degree views, including San Salvador below.
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| San Salvador from the top of the "Puerta del Diablo" |
It sure was windy up there!
Near San Salvador there is an arqueological site called "Joya de Ceren". We had been getting pretty tired of visiting ruins, but we decided to go to this one because, unlike the rest of the ruins we had visited that were once great cities with huge pyramids and temples, Joya de Ceren is a simple, common Precolombian village that got buried by the eruption of a nearby volcano in 640 AD, preserving everything just as it was. Luckily, there were no human remains found in the excavation, signifying that the people living there had all evacuated before the eruption, although they had to evacuate very quickly judging from the things left behind. It was incredible to see the simple structures preserved so well that not only the adobe walls and wooden support poles remained, but even the crops growing outside, and grains of corn and beans stored in the buildings were perfectly intact.
We highly recommend this site to anyone visiting El Salvador - although small (it was just a small village), it is fascinating to see the way common Mayan people lived, in contrast with the wealthy ruling class in the cities.
On our way out of El Salvador, we had stopped at a mall to use internet and had our car broken into while parked in the mall parking lot! Fortunately, not much was stolen, just my backpack (with nothing of great value in it - chapstick and sunscreen), and our SPOT tracker. For those of you who wondered why SPOT wasn't working for a while, that's why! But we got a new one so you're able to stalk us again :).
I will finish up this post with this - on the way toward Honduras, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant one evening. Oddly enough, we found ourselves missing Mexican food! We ordered burritos, and got this:
Humongous! The size of three Chipotle burritos! Biggest burrito of the trip so far!
Coming soon....Honduras.....
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