Moo's Mid Life Crisis: San Salvador and El Tunco (La Libertad)

After the bird-fest we left Suchitoto and headed for the coast to a 'surfing resort' called El Tunco near La Libertad. On the way we made a quick stop in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador.

We really didn't see much of San Salvador, but the center felt a lot more like that of a big town rather than a city. Dwain and I were both disappointed at how few Poke-stops there were, so it really can't be that cultured a place.

We did pop into a 'new' church which was interesting architecturally, though apparently not what the locals wanted (the vatican overruled them on the design or something).

What impressed me mostly (and I know this may be religiously controversial, please don't hate me), was that their patron saint, Oscar Romero, who has only recently been beatified, apparently had a career as a UK Children's TV show host.

PS - El Tunco wasn't originally part of the itinerary. For 5 nights we were supposed to be in Nicaragua, but with the current political situation there and civil unrest, the tour was altered to bypass it.

El Tunco was REALLY touristy, and I wasn't a big fan. The roads in had 'checkpoints' and we had to wear an armband to prove we were staying there. In the heat and humidity I didn't really want to be wearing a paper armband, and it turned out they were pointless as they were never checked!

On arrival we had lunch in the restaurant associated with the hotel we were staying in. We got told we'd get 10% off for having our armbands, but it turned out that only kicked in when you had spend $25. Angelica had the best meal, a 'seafood pasta' which was huge and stuffed with all sorts of tasty seafood. I think about 4 of us eat from it! Most of the rest of the food was only OK, and much more expensive that we had been paying in Suchitoto.

I wasn't feeling great, and had been up at 4:30 to do the dawn bird kayaking, so I went to bed at about 5pm and slept through to 11am! It wasn't great sleep, but there was lots of it. It turned out that while the fan was working, there was no actual cooling on our air con - it was a very sticky and damp 2 nights. Our tour leader Eric (pictured below looking a little puffy) then told us off for not saying something earlier so he could get it fixed.

The beach was stony and had a lot of driftwood on it but was pretty enough.

Some of us took a 10 minute taxi ride into town to see the fish market. The seafront of the town was again touristy (mostly El Salvadorian tourists), and the fish market was a bit grim in places (though most fish markets are), but there was some really interesting stuff.