El Salvador

Day 17: Wednesday, Nov 24th (Managua, Nicaragua - San Salvador, El Salvador --> Playa El Tunco)

Well, we got hustled. Our hotel didn't have internet like promised and the wake up call didn't come. Thankfully, Alcan had prepared me for this day, a light sleeper on days that I have something to get up for, but on days off, the deepest sleeper you can find. So we were up and ready to board our bus at 4am, our security guard did clear the streets for us which was cool, blowing his whistle and waving a night stick around. The bus was amazing, 1st class bus for $30 US through 3 countries (Nicaragua, Honduras and into El Salvador) which was a good deal and saved us a lot of time catching sketchy chicken buses through what are deemed the most dangerous parts of central america (the bus stations in the capital cities, unfortunately the only place to take a 2nd class international bus). The bus ride was nice and air conditioned with only about 10 people on board which was nice, but long, very long. We all had bus fever when we arrived in San Salvador, it turned out to work in our advantage because we hustled a local for a 45km taxi ride for 4 people with bags to a place where the bus wasn't going until tomorrow for $20 which at the time seemed really expensive but upon arriving we felt bad for the guy and tipped him generously. We checked into a local surf hostal that seemed to appear in every book we've read. For once it was exactly as we expected, a local surfer named Jose was sitting in a hammock without a care in the world. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a money situation upon arriving, no ATM in town. Thankfully the prices were rock bottom once again, 4 full meals ran us under $10 US.

-Jason

Day 18: Thursday, Nov 25th (Playa El Tunco)

While the boys recovered from the long bus ride yesterday, Shen Lynn and I decided to make full use of the day and headed to the beach the 9am while the boys slept. While she was surfing I resumed my post as protector of clothes on the beach so that they don't suddenly run off with someone else. We went back to the hostel at around 11 to pick up the boys and we did a group trip down to catch some sun. We spent the day down at the beach, Taylor went out surfing again and I spent a little bit too much time in the sun which ended the day with me and Jason having matching tomatoe faces. We headed to the "big city" of La Libertad, (for 25 cents) which we later read was a pretty scretchy town ridden with drug trade and crimes. We went to the bank and grab some groceries. It was girls night to make dinner, so we made noodles and stir fry. A good alternative to gallopinto. The night ended with a little game of golf, and poop head, a game that Shen Lynn reminded me of from my time in Peru.

-Lisa

Day 19: Friday, Nov 26th (Playa El Tunco- Antigua, Guatemala)

Once again, Lisa went down to the beach and got burnt which left her looking like a bloody marry round 2. Jason and I slept in and started figuring out what the best plan of attack was to get to Antigua. After some searching, we found a direct shuttle from Playa El Tunco to Antigua for $30. We all decided that it was going to be the same price if we took the chicken buses because we would end up spending a night in El Salvador in order to catch the bus the next day to Antigua. We had to stop in El Salvador to drop some people off and happened to pass by a Wendy's in the meantime. Lisa and I convinced the driver to let us stop there just for a few minutes while we ran in and bought Frosty's.....Frosty's yummmm. Anyways, once inside I couldn't resist grabbing some food. The food ended up taking 15 minutes to make and the lady that was riding with us came inside and gave me hell for taking so long so I knocked her out...haha jk, but I wanted to. She came in yelling that this wasn't funny anymore and that we had to leave, obviously it wasn't funny..... nothing is funny about making Taylor Quinn wait for for food. So finally the food came and I hightailed it back to the van and onto our 5 hour shuttle ride. We arrived at a hotel called the Black Cat and retired early for the night. 

-Taylor

The craziest red sunset I've ever seen going mach 3 in the shuttle because the crazy lady was in a rush, turns out we stayed in the same hotel and all she wanted to do was party. We were not impressed and I think she was pretty embarrassed when she saw us having breakfast.