Juayua and Tunco

Exhausted from sitting in the heat at the border crossing, we decided to head up into the mountains. We thought the “Ruta de Flores” sounded nice, so we thought we’d check out. We didn’t see many flowers, but we did find the ‘hip town’ of Juayua. There was supposed to be a food festival in the town square, but we arrived too late and they were packing up.

We stayed at a hostel with a surprising number of backpackers on their way through the country.  Nice place, and we parked the bus on the street right outside our window. After being continually warned about parking on the streets in Guatamala, it was nice to be told it was no problem to park here. Still, at 2 am Jason heard something outside and hopped up to go take a look. Horses. Two of them just wandering the cobblestones and eating the weeds from the sidewalks. Not another soul in sight.

The guide books seem to be lacking in their assessments in El Salvador, but it was a good overnight stop and we loaded up with groceries there. Oddly, the US dollar is used here, so no more conversions for a while.

There were a few more little towns on the Ruta de Flores that we thought about checking out, but Juayua was supposed to be the best. We got up early and decided to hit the beach. This country is so small it took us about 30 minutes to get to the water. We headed southeast down the coast to check out the surfer hangouts of playas El Zonte and El Tunco.

Both were cool, but the ocean was a little rocky and rough for the kid. We found a place to camp in El Tunco, but for $5 more, we could have an ocean-front room. Nothing fancy, but definitely preferable than staying in the muddy parking lot. Luckily, Bode was entertained enough with the pool and the kids that lived at the hotel.

The rains a week ago brought down the  internet lines throughout town and they were not expected to be working for another week. Can you imagine? We were all starting to get sick anyway, so we headed out the next day in search of a place to recoup (and blog).

4 thoughts on “Juayua and Tunco

  • July 9, 2010 at 12:19 PM
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    What a wonderful trip you are on…I think it’s amazing. You take some beautiful pictures…I love looking at them. Life lessons for sure.

  • July 11, 2010 at 9:35 PM
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    hi – hope you guys are better by now. i’ve been sick for 1.5 weeks. sucks! going to take some night-time cold medicine now. buenos noches amigos. Te echo de menos (uh, i used google translate – i hope this means i miss you = )

  • July 12, 2010 at 6:52 AM
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    Hey how much were you paying to camp? I know my friends and I would love to go back. The 4 of us splurged for one night on our $100/night room because we’d been staying in sparse conditions with no hot water/showers that would electrocute you.

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