Embraced by Andies: El Salvador

El Salvador is a lively small country with almost six million inhabitants. Volcanoes are everywhere and nature is fertile and green. Population is dense and original forests are rare. We didn´t have many expectations about the country, just that there are lot of crimes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. From the beginning we were planning to skip the place and go straight to Nicaragua, but there we were anyway.

Tommi coming back from the afternoon wave

El Tunco is a small coastal village popular among surfers. It´s surrounded by many excellent surf breaks that are easy to reach walking or with a bus. We decided to check the place out. Other surfers have noticed the possibilities of the place too, so the crowds were sometimes unbearable. Generally the atmosphere was relaxed and friendly and we met many cool surfers and travellers there. I think the best surf spots around El Tunco were Punta Roca with it´s fast and hollow right hand wave, and El Zonte with good left and righ points. The playa Zunzal was mellow, fat wave, with too many guys surfing it. Water is not very clean in El Salvador. Countless small rivers bring nasty water from many villages to the sea. Cleaning sewage waters seem to be uncommon there. We were living in a cool hostel called Papaya´s. He was a local shaper and a legendary surfer. There was some mad parties in a hostel which it took couple of days to recover afterwards.

Sunset in El Tunco beach

One week around El Tunco flew quickly and it was time to move on, next stop playa Las Flores in El Cuco. There was hardly any information available about the place but those are often the best and less crowded spots, so we were excited to get there. After four different colorful bus rides we jumped off in the crossroads in El Cuco. While the sun was setting we asked locals the best way to get to Las Flores. Only 15 minutes walk does not normally sound too bad, but with 30 extra kilos in the packbag plus 2 surfboards it did. Luckily a passing van offered a ride. We chose a very simple room right in front of the surf break. Other options would have been further away, or a gringo hotel near by with 175 dollars per night.

Colorful back of El Cuco bus

Our little shack

As Mama Cata offered the same rice with beans and chicken meal every day, we built up our own little kitchen in the room.

Las Flores appeared to be very beautiful surfspot. The beach was long and empty and surrounded with volcanoes. The wave was a nice right hand point break with exciting rocky take off area and two sectors, the first fast and barreling and the second a bit mellower. Not too many surfers were trying to catch waves, so it was easy for Iitu too to get good rides.

Las Flores beach

The high tide waves were almost on our toes

Terry, Cristian, Thomas, Alex and Tommi

Cristian, El Argentino, doing artesania with all his fans. All the argentinians we have met on this trip have been making their living by artesania.

Our new hilarious Norwegian friends, Thomas and Alex, showed up after couple of days. They came with a japanese beauty called Mika and with Carma, a volkswagen with grin. With them we had good surf sessions, hangouts and big feasts on the beach. It is such a luxury to be able to buy fresh fish and shrimps straight from the boats. It´s hard to imagine how good and cheap the seafood is here in pacific coast.