Back roads of El Salvador

Estero Jaltepeque, El Salvador

This week we enjoyed some travels with our friends Bill and Jean into some less travelled areas of El Salvador (not necessarily intentionally).

Our three-day mini-vacation started with a routine drive to the town of La Palma, in northern El Salvador, not far from the Honduras border.  Bill and Jean had been there before so it was somewhat of a surprise when we found ourselves on the wrong road, heading for the town of Suchitoto instead.  After asking for directions in Suchitoto, we found a slow, winding shortcut to take us back to the main road to La Palma where we arrived a little later than we had originally planned.

After checking into our 2nd choice for hotels for the night (the first being surprisingly busy), we drove a few kilometers outside of town to a fancy resort where we were treated to a great meal.  There did not appear to be anyone staying at the resort and we had the restaurant completely to ourselves, although they assured us that the next day they would be extremely busy.

The next morning, we explored a bit of the town of La Palma (basically two main roads) which is famous for many unique arts and crafts.  Bill and Jean bought several items to help decorate their new home back in the estuary, including an interesting folding table.  We bought one tiny picture for the boat.  After grabbing some cappuccinos to go, we motored south-east toward the town of Suchitoto.

Jean thought it would be a great idea to take a less-travelled route that would include a ferry-ride across Lake Suchitan to Suchitoto.  After only a few wrong turns, we found where the ferry should have been, only to discover that it does not run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (this was on a Wednesday of course).  We could almost see Suchitoto some 5 kms across the lake but there was no easy way to get there.  We later found out that the ferry had not been running at all for some time, so it probably did not matter what day we had arrived.

Rather than backtrack the way we had come, we persevered onward to find a supposed alternate route across the lake (across a hydroelectric dam as it turns out).  The roads in this area of the country do not seem to be very accurately portrayed on the only maps we have been able to find, so there was a lot of guesswork involved - asking directions was often a futile effort as the locals often did not seem to know how to get to the next town, let alone where we wanted to go.  The roads themselves were not much more than trails at times and the rental car we had was not really the right choice for this type of off-road exercise.  We were constantly bottoming out on rocks and at one point we managed to shred one of the tires.  This was an "economy" rental car so we should not have been too surprised that it had two bald tires and a bald space-saver spare.  To give it its due, it did get us through.



Guard Chickens

Guard Pig

Eventually we found a route to the town of Suchitoto, turning what should have been a 2 or 3 hour drive into an 8-hour marathon.  We arrived as night was falling but it did not stop us from hitting the pool as soon as we were settled into the hotel.  We had a great meal at the hotel's restaurant, then retired to our beds for some much-needed R & R..

Suchitoto is a great little town, sort of the cultural capital of the country, well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in El Salvador.  A colorful colonial town with some real quality art galleries, specializing in "indigo" dyes as well.  Our hotel (we stayed for free as we had won a night's lodging at one of the rally events last spring) was the Los Almendros de San Lorenzo, arguably the most elegant hotel in El Salvador.  It is owned by the former French ambassador, who is a very gracious host and friend of Bill and Jean.  A lot of European charm, with a glass-encased restaurant and a stone swimming pool.

We were only able to stay one night at the Los Almedros hotel as they were fully booked, so we moved to another, not quite so spectacular, hotel around the corner.  We spent a pleasant day walking around the town, shopping for more goodies for Bill and Jean's home, and taking a drive down to the lake (where the ferry would have taken us had it been running) to enjoy a lunch along the waterfront.

 On our last day, we motored the short distance into the city of San Salvador, bought a few hardware and grocery items and proceeded back to the estuary.

Yesterday (Saturday), Jean took us to the town of La Libertad, north-west along the coast, where we immersed ourselves in the daily fish-market at the dock.  If it is fish you want, this is the place to be.  We also visited a sort of thrift-shop where I was able to buy a dozen shirts for a dollar a piece - my wardrobe was in bad need of updating.

Now, back on the boat, I am attempting to resuscitate my ailing batteries.  Using the Honda generator to get them up to a full charge, then letting the solar controller try and equalize them.  I sure hope this works as otherwise I will probably have to invest in a whole new set of batteries for the house bank.  Pictured here are the 6V golf cart batteries that I can get in Sal Salvador - they look like they would work OK, but I would be giving up some capacity compared to my Trojans and I don't know the quality of these batteries.  For now I will just have to wait and see.

{GMST}13|18.3888|N|88|54.858|W|Estuary Mooring, El Salvador|Estuary Mooring, El Salvador{GEND}
{GMST}13|29.208|N|89|19.1635|W|La Libertad, El Salvador|La Libertad, El Salvador{GEND}
{GMST}13|56.202|N|89|01.5655|W|Suchitoto, El Salvador|Suchitoto, El Salvador{GEND}
{GMST}14|18.93|N|89|10.1076|W|La Palma, El Salvador|La Palma, El Salvador{GEND}