Surfers, flowers, guerilla camps and bus chases...

We arrived in El Salvador, when it was already dark, and the city seemed quite hostile; also, there was a full moon and we really missed the sound of the ocean, so, against the warnings about traveling at night, in a split second we decided to take the next bus to La Libertad, then to Playa El Tunco, hoping for a full moon party. Filled with tens of shirtless surfers and recommended by Lonely Planet as one of the nicest beaches in El Salvador, El Tunco was a great disappointment. We left half naked Kelly Slater wannabes as quickly as we joined them.

Six chicken bus rides later (about an hour each) we arrived in Alegria, known as a flower growing capital. Unfortunately the peak season ended recently and we could only see single flowers here and there. We were the only tourists in this lovely town and quite an attraction - we must have shared buenos dias with at least half of the smiling inhabitants.

We woke up at 5am the next morning to see the sunrise over Alegria, and took a 2km hike to the crater lake, La Laguna de Alegria, hoping that supposedly medicinal lake water would cure my still hurting ankle…

A few hour long bus rides northeast from “Happiness” (Alegria), lays Perquin, once the FMLN headquarters location during the war. We visited Museo de la Revoluciòn Salvadoreña and an old guerilla camp.

It was time to leave for Honduras, but as usually in Central America we received completely different information about the departure time until we found a tourist office… and found out that the last bus left 5 minutes ago (mind you that in Spanish 5 minutes can also mean 10 or even 15). We were told that the best option would be to take a colectivo to the next town, where the bus was to have a 20 minute stop. Of course, when we got there, the bus left “5 minutes ago,” so we stopped the next passing car (it wasn’t that easy since the road wasn’t very frequented and only led to the border, which only worked as an entrance to Honduras, but not the other way around. We offered the driver to chase the bus in exchange for some $$. We threw our backpacks into the cargo area and squeezed into the passenger seat, and went flying through the dirt road. One thing we learned during this trip, that “in the Third World you need one of two things: either time or money. […] You might not have time, but when you have money, you can do anything. You might not have money, but if you have time, you can also do anything.” (Ryszard Kapuscinski) We didn’t have time, because in exactly one month we had to visit 4 countries and then somehow get from Panama to Ecuador. We didn’t really have money either, but the extreme rollercoaster like ride to catch the bus at the border was so worth the negotiated $10. We put our backpacks, which were covered in mud after the chase, in the back of the bus, and enjoyed a 3 hour ride to Markala, passing by many mountain villages on the Ruta Lenca.