#9 El Salvadorian beaches

Attempting to surf and 'bean' a bag of coffee!

Our stop after the lovely Ruta de Las Flores in El Salvador was the Pacific beaches where most 'backpackers/tourists' tend to head straight to on entering El Salvador. I traveled down with Rex, and Chelsea and Aaron. The main surf spot hub in the coast is the town of El Tunco. Therefore the beach front is very touristy with lots of cafes, hostels and surf shops. The beach is very rocky but the surf is apparently more suited to those who already know how to surf with aggressive waves and the beach doesn't tend to be good for swimming. As I had never surfed before, this didn't sound ideal! We decided to head to a smaller beach called El Sunzal, a ten minute walk west of El Tunco along the beach or twenty minutes along the road. It's more laid back, slightly cheaper for hostels and the water is better for learning how to surf (something I had wanted to do here)!

The first leg of our trip was a chicken bus from Juayua to Sonsanate where we could get a bus straight down to the coast which stopped off at the beaches along the coast. This direct bus went twice a day, once at 6am from Sonsanate and again at roughly 3.30pm. The other route you can take is Juayua - Sonsonate - San Salvador - El Sunzal. We waited around for the morning and got a bus at about 1.30pm from Juayua leaving plenty of time to get the 3.30pm bus to El Sunzal. The two buses cost us roughly $2-3. Unfortunately I cannot remember the exact fares! We got dropped off on a strip of road lined with pupuseries and a few small tiendas at about 5pm. A lady got off the bus with us and told us about a place we could stay a couple of minutes along the road. We were greeted by a local man called Anthony who told us he had private rooms for $6 a night. We decided to give it a go and it was great. Very basic but private rooms with our own entrances and bathrooms, basic little kitchen, a cute puppy and surf boards to rent. It was also only five minutes walk out the back down a small dirt track to the beach. Anthony's family were all there and his son in law walked us up to the local pupuseria to get some food, helping us order and even sat with us as we ate. The Papusas again were very good costing about $1 for three. There were only two other guys staying there when we arrived and the family were so welcoming.

The next few days we spent chilling out on the rocky beaches, wandering down to el Tunco for breakfast but mainly cooking together in the little kitchen with some beers from Anthonys' small tienda (shop) and surfing. I actually only took one surf lesson from a local guy who didn't speak any
English and found my limited Spanish hilarious. The hour only cost $10 though and it was useful to learn how to duck under waves and not get knocked out by other surfers or by my own board. Later that day I went out surfing with some of the guys from the hostel and managed to stand up (extremely briefly) on a wave! Almost a pro already.

Beautiful sunset over El Sunzal

After four nights we reluctantly left El Sunzal for an eastern beach close to the Nicaraguan border called El Cuco. We had heard about a great little resort there called Tortuga Verde. As it was 'low season' we hadn't booked before hand. The bus journey here was a little longer and even though we were heading along the coast there were no direct buses. Therefore the route we took was as follows:
Chicken Bus from outside El Sunzal surfers inn to a petrol station outside La Libertad (main town on the coast) - number 201 bus through La Libertad to San Salvador - taxi from bus terminal in San Salvador to terminal de Oriente - Speciale express bus to San Miguel - number 302 bus from San Miguel to El Cuco - taxi from El Cuco to Tortuga Verde. The whole trip in total cost about $10 (very rough estimates between three). It would have been a lot cheaper although we unknowingly took a bus that cost $5 from San Salvador to San Miguel. While this was a very fancy and much quicker bus we didn't realise it was a bit pricey as we had been hastily shuffled onto the bus when we got out of the taxi. I also said adios to my travel buddy Rex who headed up to Mexico from San Salvador. Sad times.

Next Stop: El Cuco, El Salvador
Food: Papusas!
Drink: beers at the hostel
Bars/restaurants: Charlys for a typical breakfast of eggs, plantain, beans and cheese in El Tunco for about $3
Stayed: El Sunzal surfers inn for basic rooms with own bathroom for $6 per night

Traditional El Salvadorian breakfast of plantain, eggs, rice and beans

El Cuco, El Salvador
El Cuco town itself is quite small, not very touristy with some small shops, basic cafes and a liquor store. It is a bit of a drab fishing town but welcoming and quaint. In El Cuco we headed straight to
 the most popular place to stay called 'Tortuga Verde', it's about fifteen minutes in a taxi ($5 fixed charge) from the small town secluded at the end of the beach. The night we got there they were releasing newly hatched baby turtles into the sea at sunset which was a unique experience to be part of. We stayed for a night but ended up finding another nice little hostel in town the next day for the next few nights which also got us entry to use a lovely pool in one of the other hotels. Where Tortuga verde is is a really nice spot but you don't have the option of cooking your own food, wander to the market or shops or explore closer beaches without having to get a taxi or endure a long hot walk back into El Cuco.

Releasing the baby turtles at Tortuga verde

On the Saturday night we were there there was a big Halloween party in Tortuga Verde that the owner of the hostel Lisette and her friends and family were going to so we tagged along. I even made a last minute Halloween costume and went as a bag of El Salvadorian coffee. We got entered into a costume competition at the party which was a bit bizarre but it was a really good night of drinking 'moonshine' on the beach and dancing.

Halloween beach party 

The next morning feeling a little rough I dragged myself up and walked to another beach called Playa las Flores which was very secluded and quiet. I read my book for a couple of hours and had a nice walk back in the mid morning sunshine.

There weren't many restaurants in El Cuco, mostly small 'comidors' so we cooked in the hostel a bit. Chelsea and I went on the hunt to buy some fresh fish one of the days after we had seen all the fishing boats coming and going every day. After asking around we ended up being directed to a large fish warehouse backing onto the beach. We weren't quite sure if it was the place to buy fish but we were assured they could sell us some fish for four people. We ended up buying the biggest prawns I've ever seen and a red snapper which they filleted for us there, it all cost $15 which fed four of us with leftovers. We had the most amazing fish tacos with it that Aaron cooked up. Our next stop and next country was going to be Nicaragua! And where it meant saying goodbye to magnificent El Salvador, I was really looking forward to exploring Nicaragua.

Next Stop: Léon, Nicaragua
Food: fresh fish bought from a market, ceviche at one of the small restaurants for $8
Drink: tequila
Bars/restaurants: La Tortuga verde for the Halloween party
Stayed: La Tortuga verde for one night, Hostel Casa de Canela for three nights. Both were $10 per night.