Red, White, and Brown (skin tones)

After more than enough time in the big city of San Salvador, we figured it was time to hit El Salvador´s world famous beaches. If you look at a map, you´ll notice that El Salvador is a really narrow (50 miles at its widest) strip of beach a hop skip and a splash north of the equator. THis means that the entire country is basically a beach.

We caught a bus to La Libertad which is a little more blown up because of all the surfers that have mvoed there from aroudn the world. We decided to go to the more secluded beach of El Palmarcito. We jumped off the bus at a bridge and took a cobble stone road to the beach. Question, when are cobblestones just regular stones? WHen they´re big enough rocks that it is no longer convenient to walk on them. ALso known as hobble stones.

We were the only tourists aside from two boys from San Salvador who claimed to be teenagers. Being cheap, we opted to camp underneath the gazebo rather than pay for a room. This made it easy for Stew to roll out of the tent and into the pool for his morning shower.

THe beach is pretty much empty except for a couple of local surfers at sunset and fishermen sporadicalyl throughout the day. THere are two huge cliffs that mark the ends of the beach, though there are trails that lead up and over them. El Palmarcito is probably 200 meters of sparkly black sand and big fun waves. Over one of the cliffs is a path to another beach which is maybe 30 meters long. This one was less fun because there were rocks on the bottom where the waves crashed. Along the path, however, there was a pool that filled up with salt water from the ocean spray but was partly protected from sharks. Which made Tori feel a lot better.

We spent two and a half days chilling at the beach and exploring some of the trails and overlooks. It was great fun and very relaxing. Also, it was really cheap and we managed to stay under budget every day. Eventually, we got tired of being so happy and caught a bus to another beach.

The bus was supposed to be easy and short but 4 hours and 4 buses later, we finally got to Playa los Blancos. NOte that it is not Playa DE los blancos (beach of the whites), nor Isle of Wite, but White Beach. Which is not exactly appropriate because the sand was really quite gray. Still, it was a very long and wide beach with hot sand and fun waves. and hammerhead sharks. We saw a woman preparing one for dinner. Stew asked later and was informed that there were a lot in the water, but "only little ones." He didn´t tell Tori.

We ended up spending three days here, rather than the intended one. We tried to go to La Puntilla to check out another beach. When we got there, people swarmed us and tried to rip us off for ridiculously overpriced shitholes of hotel rooms. When we asked the manager for the price, she told us she had to ask the boy that had recommended us what he said he was going to charge so she didnt undercharge us. What a system of thievery. We left after checking out the beach and swearing a blood vendetta. We hopped back on the bus and returned to the awesome room we had been in where for $16 a night we had a great pool with an underwater table to drink at, water bar stools, two slides, and beach front access. Also, Cheech Marin appaers to own the hotel. We ate 40 cent pupusas for almost every meal and cooked the rest. What a great time.

Eventualyl, our bodies were too pink to remain in paradise and we reluctantly hopped a bus to somewhere. It turned out to be San Vicente, so we got on another one to San Miguel. This was the focal point of the revolution and people here apparently remember the war very vividly because of all the people killed by american trained soldiers. It is a sleepy town with a bunch of people that speak english and good fast food. We´re heading to Perquin now to check out a museum and go hiking. What nerds.