Our few days in El Salvador
turned into a few days more when we found El Zonte, a fabulous surf bay with a
surfer hostel that allowed overlanders to stay in the grounds. It has a lovely
garden with a large pool, a number of huge parrots and an aging
3 foot long Iguana roaming the grounds. There was also a large terrace
overlooking the bay with another small pool at one end.
We finally
managed to drag ourselves away after 4 nights and drove the 150 miles to the
other end of El Salvador
and found a nice spot behind a restaurant. The next day we took a drive around
Golfo de Fonseca and ended up driving within 100m of the top of Conchagua
Volcano up a very rough steep road. The idea was to get a good view of the Bay,
but the volcano is so covered by trees there was no view on the way up and
there is a guarded communication station with huge masts on the top. I walked
up the last 100m to the perimeter fence but still could not get a view, until
one of the guards called me up to the gate and let me in. Finally I could see
over the trees, it did not help much due to the haze, but it was a good drive!
Without doing a
major diversion there was nothing much to see in the short strip of Honduras between El Salvador and Nicuragua so we
decided to do both borders in one day. We arrived at the El Salvador side of the Honduras border at 11.00 and were
through both borders including a 2.5 hour drive and lunch by 17.00 and camped
by a restaurant in Somoto about 15 miles in as we ( I mean Chris) did not want
to cook after a fairly stressful day. The restaurant was listed in IOverlander
as a place that allowed parking overnight, it did not mention the very loud
karaoke that started at 8pm and went on until midnight, after which the
customers moved into the car park for another 45 minutes of howling and
cackling revving motor bikes and even a fight (tho the 2 drunken combatants
were soon restrained by their amigos). Fortunately I think they were all too
drunk to notice our tent on the roof in the middle of them.
The following day
we moved to the more tranquil setting of Somoto
Canyon and after a couple of days
there we headed into the highlands and found some proper landcruiser roads and
memories of Copper Canyon in Mexico
(and also Mongolia
when we had to cross a river). Initially the countryside was a cross between
parts of the UK and Spain but later changed to more sub tropical
vegetation similar to Guatemala .
We had a vague plan of camping near a lake but night fell about 2 hours before
we got there so we pulled into the driveway of a big house and asked if we
could camp on their front lawn. It was actually a farm, the family could not
have been more welcoming and actually wanted us to sleep in the house. We
persuaded them to let us sleep in our tent, watched us put it up and then one
by one went up the ladder to have a look.
Next morning we
were woken around 5am by cocks crowing all around us and cows wanting to be
milked, (just as loud but marginally more tuneful than the karaoke). At 6 am
add motor bikes a tractor, dogs barking and some very loud machinery (probably
for milking). Magically at 7 it all went very quiet and we slept again till 8!
After they had
fed us a traditional breakfast of fried banana and cheese we headed back into
the hills and we are now staying on a coffee plantation (which is listed on
IOverlander) for a couple of days and plan to do the coffee tour tomorrow and
hopefully some walking if it is dry. We have had our first rain for some weeks
this evening. After which we will head for Leon
and then to Granada (for a bit of culture)
another Lake and probably a few more days on beach before heading into Costa Rica.
Lots of tiny crabs with one huge claw
Chance meet with another overlander in a car park
The Pool in the garden at El Zonte
The pool on the terrace over looking the beach at El Zonte
One ot the huge parrots roaming the garden in El Zonte (at least .8m from head to tail)
Marco the aging Iguana
Surfing in the bay
Views of the beach
Possibly one of my best, but unfortunately last pictures with my 'new' sony camera. Following thid photo we had a few more beers, a bottle of wine with some giant shrimps and failed to negotiate the stepping stones across the stream back to camp and my new camera was submerged! It appears that I am getting unsteady in my old age, especially with very poor light - nothing to do with the alcohol you understand. It appeared to dry out after a few days and the charge light comes on when I plug it in, but that is as far as it goes and have had to revert to the old fugi , so I apologies if the quality of picture is reduced
Camping behind a restaurant near Golfo de Fonseca
Golfo de Fonseca
Lobster for dinner
Somoto Canyon
Getting a lift back by boat
Nicaragua highlands
Camping on a Nicuraguan Farm
With the family in their new kitchen
But they still cooked the old way out back
Chris shopping 'wild west' style
Camping behind a restaurant near Golfo de Fonseca
Golfo de Fonseca
Lobster for dinner
Somoto Canyon
Getting a lift back by boat
Nicaragua highlands
Camping on a Nicuraguan Farm
With the family in their new kitchen
But they still cooked the old way out back
Chris shopping 'wild west' style
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