El Salvador!

Hello! I reached El Salvador and experienced great coastlines, friendly people and the best surf! The reputation for beeing a dangerous country, full of robbers, highjackers and gang violence caused second thoughts about coming here when I was back in Guatemala. Fortunately it turned out that reality doesn´t meet up with the rumors and safety was never an issue, so far. Surely, beeing out in San Salvador at night or walking beaches alone after sunset asks for trouble, but that wasn´t a good option neither in Mexico nor in Guatemala... Around Central America one developes a feeling for safe and less safe places and we never had a bad feeling ´round El Tunco or Las Flores.

Here´s little Jefferson, rockin´on Tino´s guitar at Playa Las Flores near San Miguel. In the background Kane from New Zealand with he´s self-painted board!



My first stop was Playa El Tunco, close to La Liberdad. I experienced a warm welcome by Tino, my surf-buddy with whom I had already surfed Zipacate! Together with him, Noel from Canada and Daniel from Sweden it was big-time-surfing from the first minute! This is the place we stayed at, the casa McCoy, living together with the locals who own it. 5 Dollars per night were affordable and we cooked most of our meals ourselves.

That´s the boys!

There´s a good surfspot right in front of El Tunco called Sunzal, but the really good spots are Cocal and Km59. To get there you either ride the chicken bus or you get yourself a car. We thought a proper truck would do the trick too.

That´s the crew! From left to right Noel from Canada, always motivated, always pushing hard. Tino from Bavaria,  always chilled, always fun when he´s around and therefor my constant travelmate. And Daniel, the swedish ripper, always ten points for style.

Sunset in El Tunco. I never was a big fan of Yoga, nevertheless Noel headed us to one, sometimes two Yoga sessions a day. I definately changed my mind, stretching your entire body and focusing your mind in a 30-40min session is one of the best things you can do after a day of surfing. Definately a valuable experience on this trip!

After two weeks in El Tunco we decided to proceed to Playa Las Flores and had no regrets so far. The bay is small and peaceful, the living is very basic and the wave breakes just out the front door. No need for a car, no need for electronic devices of any kind. Just a hammock and a surfboard! The closest town is El Cuco, a ten minute walk across the beach, but only accessable on low tide. The perfect setting for reading Eckhart Tolles ´The Power of Now´ ISBN 978-3-89901-301-6. Go ahead and have a read, you might like it.

I don´t want to bore you with sunset pictures, so this is the sun rising at 5:15 at Las Flores. If you see the scenery in real live it means you´re all set to have an awesome surf-session, no wind and just a couple of blokes in the water!

We met this little fella´ in El Cuco at the best place to eat around.

And finally little Jefferson was rewarded for his playing skills, impressing all the local chicas! Que hombre!

El Salvador has been a great experience, if the waves stay as they are now, we might just stay a little longer. Next stop is Nicaragua, I´m already a bit late on my scedule, but don´t feel the need to push myself to any stress. Colombia and Perú can wait for now. See you in a bit!
Harry

Good times in San Pedro la Laguna

I´ve spent two wonderful weeks in San Pedro la Laguna now. This is my spanish scool! It doesn ´t look quite like the usual scools, kind of better actually.

Thanks to Hurricane Matthew hay mucha lluvia, it rains a lot.

A proper Tyrolian hikes the mountains. Even if it makes no sense. I probably picked the worst day of week one to hike volcano San Pedro with my spanish teacher Nicolas.  Of course it was only training for my hikes in Perú...

When it´s cold and rainy, there is not much more to do but to hang out at Yo Mama´s, just like Juanita is doing here in the picture. The little adventurer found a stock of spacecakes and could only be stopped after having already eaten two of those tasty cookis. Poor thing, I hope she doesn´t turn into a wild animal!  Taking a closer look though, it doesn´t seem that bad, I kind of get the feeling...

After a hard day of spanish school and chillin´ out we definately earned ourselves a cool Brahva Extra and some candlelight...

... which can lead to a blurry vision. Sometimes you can´t find your dormitory emediately and end up at a full-on fullmoonparty. It doesn´t happen every day... but every other day.

My time in Guatemala is almost over now, tomorrow I´ll be leaving to to Antigua and from there take a transport to El Tunco in El Salvador! Leaving this beautiful country isn´t easy, only the fact the beaches and surfing await me in El Salvador can compensate.

Final tip for Guatemala-Travelers: whatch for Gremlins under your breakfasttabel!!!