So we got the idea to go to a place called Sunzal Point in El Salvador from a couple Calvin girls that we randomly met when my family was here (see my dad's blog post). Anyway, they had mentioned that they were going to a hostel on the beach called Sunzal Point the next weekend, and asked if we wanted to go along, so we said sure! Well we were still kind of hesitant to go because it was quite a long trip, especially since we would have to travel to Tegus on Wednesday night, El Salvador almost all day Thursday, and then go back to Tegus on Saturday to have time to get back to Catacamas on Sunday. So really we would only have all day Friday there. Plus, the Calvin girls weren't going to be able to leave until Friday, so they'd be there all day Saturday...so really we'd just be able to meet up with them on Friday night. But in the end (Wednesday morning before school), we decided we might as well go!
So Kim and I get on the bus to El Salvador (supposedly a six and a half hour bus ride...ended up being about eight and a half), really not having any plan. So I call the Calvin girls on the way to get the name of the hostel and directions to the place -- they tell me that we will have to get on another public bus in San Salvador (the capital city where the bus from Tegus would drop us off) to a place called La Libertad, and then catch a taxi to Sunzal. It sounded so simple at the time...And then they also recommended we call the hostel just to reserve a spot. Well, being the non-planner I am (and also not having the phone number), I decided to just wing it instead. Anyway we get off the bus in San Salvador not really having any idea where to go...so I make friends with a friendly-looking nun at the bus station, and she tells us some great directions -- to take bus 42B to some place I don't remember, and then bus 102 to La Libertad. So we wander around a bit till we find the bus stop (in the process I stop to ask about 5 people where the bus stop is for bus 42B...and one of the people I ask is deaf...what are the chances?) and get on...we have no idea where to get off and finally I ask some guy on the bus and turns out we should have already gotten out. Oops. Well then we get off and walk a ways to the next bus stop, where we get on bus 102. That's about an hour bus ride to La Libertad, where, once again, we have no clue where to get off. So this time we get off too early, and just walk around, thinking we'll just hail a cab. Turns out there are no cabs in this city (besides random guys in pick-ups trying to make us think they are cab drivers). Finally we ask some lady selling pupusas how to get to Sunzal, and she tells us to take bus 80. So we get on another random bus...where everyone else knows each other and is greeting each other by name, wondering what we are doing on the bus (we are wondering the same thing). And then we ride that until suddenly everyone gets off and we have no idea where we are. Luckily we had a friendly bus driver and he let us stay on the bus for a minute while he turned around and pointed us in the right direction to Sunzal Point (I thought that was the name of it but wasn't really sure). So we walk a ways and finally find it -- it's about 5:30 by this time (we got up at 4am to catch the bus), so I'm pretty exhausted and starving and just want to get there. Finally we make it to the hostel and the guy says, "Oh man we're completely full...we have a spot tonight but that's it." (He tells us there's a few groups coming tomorrow -- one "evangelical group" he says, and then bows his head....little does he know those are our friends...) Noooo waaaay. I suppose this is what I deserve for winging it. And it's not like this is Daytona Beach where you can check the next hotel down. So we're trying to create a back-up plan, but we decide to just walk down along the beach a bit to figure things out and eat...we walk a ways and find a sweet restaurant on the beach that has chips and guac. So we sit down to eat and turns out there's a hotel attached too...with a pool and everything...so we decide to cut our losses and shell out 25 bucks each a night instead of 7 -- turns out it was totally worth it, and from that point our vacation pulled a 180.
The hotel is great -- where can you get a beachfront hotel with a pool, free breakfast (cinnamon french toast), and a room with a balcony with a hammock for that kind of a price? So Friday morning for a couple of hours we hire Cesar (our waiter from the night before) to teach us how to surf for a few bucks, which is easily the highlight of my trip! The water is really warm and clear, the beach is clean with hardly anyone on it, and the waves are big. And surfing was a lot easier after I had already tried it once last year in California. Then we spend the rest of the day swimming and laying out at the beach/pool, before grabbing pupusas (traditional food from El Salvador that they have in Honduras too...turns out they are way better in El Salvador) for dinner. Then Saturday morning we get up early to swim for a bit before heading back to the bus station.
We figured we couldn't possibly screw up getting back to the bus station any worse than we did getting there (wrong about that), but we still decide to leave the hotel around 8:30 (the only bus of the day leaves at noon). Well good thing we left early. We make it back to San Salvador with no problems, and then I ask a random guy on the bus where we should get off exactly to catch the bus...he's not really sure but tells us to get off. It's like 10:00 at this point, so I'm feeling optimistic. From there I ask about every person in sight how to get to the bus station -- later Kim and I counted and I think there were a dozen people I asked (I think it was actually more and we forgot some people), and probably walked around the entire city of San Salvador multiple times. Why didn't we just catch a taxi? Well, after shelling out more money on the hotel, we underestimated how much money we needed to change at the border (they use dollars in El Salvador -- not lempiras like in Honduras)...so we didn't really have any money left (in fact, together we had 17 cents in change leftover when we crossed the border back over...I was sort of freaking out we were going to incur some unknown cost along the way back and not be able to pay it). Anyway we're wandering around San Salvador and it's getting later and later and I'm starting to get a little concerned (what if we don't make the bus? we have no money left) and no one knows where the station is! Calvin College Amazing Race, you prepared me so well for this. Honestly, it reminded me so much of Amazing Race last year...except for this time there wasn't a prize at the end or hints you could call for -- instead we actually had to catch the bus. Finally we meet a few policemen who seem fairly certain it's up this street like 4 blocks...so we go up there and it's a different bus station. The people there point us to the new station down the same street like 12 blocks...and when I pass by the friendly policemen again, they are like, "No! Go back! It used to be down there...it's up by where you just were." I'm like, "Absolutely no way I'm climbing that mountain again to get back to that false bus station," and I keep walking and tell them I hope I never see them again. Well, finally after about an hour and a half we find the station -- it's like 11:15, so turns out we weren't cutting it too close in the end. Of course, when we turn in our tickets we had already bought (round-trip), the lady says we bought them for Sunday, not Saturday, so I'm freaking out for a minute she's not going to let us on after all that, but then she switches them no problem.
So all in all, an amazing trip, and I actually still wouldn't plan more things out if I could go back and re-do it. Oh yeah, and the Calvin girls? Well we saw them for a minute on Friday and planned to meet them for dinner, but since they were down the beach a ways, the hostel owner told them it wasn't safe to walk along the beach at night, so they never showed up for dinner. Oh well.
And overall, I actually really loved El Salvador. I was expecting it to be just like Honduras -- but it was very, very different. The capital city was much different from Tegus -- it was cleaner, less noisy, and the people seemed a lot friendlier and more helpful too. Then again, maybe it's just because I was talking to about every single person I passed to ask them for directions. And I suppose they weren't actually all that helpful or I wouldn't have had to ask 50 billion people. But they were definitely all very friendly, and, well, tried to be helpful at least.
Ok, finally some pictures!
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