A short day in San Salvador

It seems that the typical day in San Salvadorn is to spend it out of the city. Laura suggested two day trips for me. One was the climb the volcano in Santa Ana and spend the night in the city. This did seem very appealing and she showed me pictures of when she had done it, however it would not be a very good rest day for my legs and would take longer than I had planned to stay in the city. So I did her second proposed option which was to go to the beach at El Tunco. 

The boardwalk at El Tunco

The “Silver Hour” over the beach

 

El Tunco is a beautiful beach on the pacific coast. There were a lot of tourists there and it seems to be a popular spot for surfing. So I rented a board and went out to the water. It was a bit difficult for me to get out past the break - the waves were quite large and I kept getting knocked over. Well, I haven’t been surfing since I lived in Fort Dauphin, Madagascar and I may have just forgotten how to maneuver past the waves. As the wind picked up throughout the day, it became more and more difficult to get past the waves, and then to get on them. I managed to catch a few before the conditions worsened and felt satisfied that I had at least given it a try. Although from jumping onto the surfboard and staying on top of the waves, I could feel the previous days of riding and asked myself a couple of times why I couldn’t just sit around on the beach like everyone else. It’s just not my thing, I guess.

I went for a late lunch to get a Salvadoran specialty - Mariscada - a seafood stew with prawns, tilapia and lobster. I also talked with some vendors of the street selling bracelets about what goes on in the beach towns - apparently not a whole lot besides tourism and relaxing. Which, for some, is preferable compared to a relatively stressful life in the city.

My mariscada lunch

I took the bus back to the city so I could meet with Laura and her roommates to drive up the volcano located in the city and have dinner. The city appears to continue all the way up the volcano, with houses, restaurants and commerce all around the winding roads. We caught the last vestiges of the sunset over the city and were treated to a nice view of the city at night as we ate pupusas. I loaded up in anticipation for my ride tomorrow, I had programmed another century to ride to San Miguel, and I was really hoping I wouldn’t get back on the same road that had taken me to San Salvador.

The restaurant had interesting decorations located around its cliff-side promenade.

Our view from the restaurant on the volcano