Bienvenidos a El Sal

Our aim for the day we arrived into El Salvador was just to get to a town and settle down for whatever was left of it. We picked a place an hour or so from the border and at the foot of the northern mountains. Driving into San Francisco Gotera mid afternoon it was in full market chaos, sprawling into the main roads and side streets of town. It looked fun but we were not ready for that yet.

So we drove to the back side of town and parked at the main church and plaza to catch our breathe, figured we better find the town bar and de-brief on the day! The lady owner welcomed us in full of smiles, as did the rest of town. They were unbelievably curious and friendly, lots of folk shouting hellos and welcomes. The Eastern part of El Salvador saw such less tourism and with the country only quite recently getting through troubled times it seemed people were stoked to be able to share their country and feel safe again.

We took some dinner on the town square on a plastic chair pop up eatery of the countries national dish, pupusa. Cheese (and often chorizo) stuffed tortilla pancakes, available everywhere at all hours and a damn good go to feed. The night was spent in a carpark on the edge of town and we crashed early. In the morning we went to market, met many more lovely locals and purchased some groceries for our next days travel.

The afternoon plan was to escape the heat, after leaving the high mountains we'd forgotten how hot it gets and there wasn't even a breeze here like Nica. So we cruised the back lanes and small towns to get to an aqua park built around caves of natural spring water, some parts even thermal, and we relaxed hard with a picnic at 35?c in the shade.The evening was again less than glamorously spent in the parking of a servo, but options were minimal and it had cold beer, security and toilets so no biggy.

The next day was fun though. It was Sunday and the week before Christmas so we went to town, the countries second, San Miguel. In the morning we went christmas shopping for silly trinkets and naughty treats of chocolate, cheese and rum. Took a beer, fries and wifi brunch to watch some football and discovered there was a big local game on in town. After quizzing a few guys in the cafe and seeing the footy shirts out we knew it must be a big deal and keen to check it out.

We drove to the stadium a couple of hours before KO, it was heaving with fans sprawled over the streets but we were in perfect time. Got a parking space and 2 tickets for the cheap seats. Jelly's first game so we got her a great team shirt and a beer in the fans bar outside the ground to soak up the fun!

Followed the crowds into the standing terrace to plenty of high fives and hellos and the place was going off. 10,000 people packed in, we waved coloured balloons, sang songs to the terrace band and hooted our way through the game. The semi-final of the cup against a team from the capital, pressure on and the game didn't disappoint. Goals, drama, red cards and 2 footed tackles, all sorts launched at the opposition for rolling around and plenty of ref abuse. A late winner for the home team to finish 2-1!

We snuck out just before the final whistle as it was getting dark and we couldn't stay in town but chuffed to have seen the game, a sunset drive down to the lagoon out of town with the jersey flying out the window. Pulled up in a lake side carpark of a small town with a red sky smeared across the distant volcano, shepherd's delight indeed.

A slow start to the next day but we woke up to discover we were parked on a beautiful lagoon, next to the town waterfront parade and boat-taxi jetty. Amazing views over the surrounding mountains with birds and boaters flitting across the water. Onwards we travelled though, aiming for the coast. Pulled into a village en route for a drink stop on the edge of the local volcano with views back across the gulf from where we had come from a few days before.

The town square was very pretty, decked out in full christmas spirit and locals so friendly, we even had an invite for Christmas! After a nice pit stop and funny lunch (vegetarian rice with a chicken stew on top haha) we were itching for the beach and drove the final hour of the journey to pull into a chilling end of the beach and empty campsite. Just what the afternoon called for, hammocks up and a cup of tea, swim and sunset walk, we felt very content that we'd made it.

This was our bit of coast for the next week and we aimed to be up and down it, chasing waves, Christmas friends and chilling campsites. The next day we slowly made our way down the 15mins of coast west to our resting place, hopeful for dreamy waves and the beach front campsite didn't let us down. So for the next few days we're parked up under palms, break views from the palapa and hammocks slung. Merry Christmas to the lot of yas xx