Through Managua to El Salvador

We started our trip to El Salvador by dragging our backpacks across the median on the Pan American Highway to catch a chicken bus to Managua.  Our hostel in Laguna de Apoyo, Crater's Edge, drives a group of people to Granada each day.  From the laguna, Granada is in the opposite direction of Managua, where we needed to go.  We took the transportation to Granada and upon seeing the bus to Managua our driver furiously flashed his lights and honked his horn, which, surprisingly, was understood to mean that the bus driver on the opposite side of the highway should pull over and pick us up. We grabbed out luggage and made our way, frogger-style, across the Pan American Highway.  Did I mention we were with a blind masseuse who was making his way home from a typical workday? 

Managua is the capital of Nicaragua and not a place I was overly excited to see.  We arrived late in the evening and had just enough time to eat some chicken and fried cheese from a street vendor (I love fried cheese) and settle into our hostel, which was secured by bars on the windows and prison style locked down gates on all sides.  I was thankful for these features when I heard the Nicaraguan gangbangers hanging out on the street later that night.  I can't say for sure what happened but at one point, I heard a small child screaming.  When I snuck my head out the window, a gangbanger was picking up the child and the group was quickly walking down the street, on a mission.

We got up at 3:45 am to catch the Tica Bus from Managua to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador.  It took us 11 hours to go 300 miles on the Pan American Highway.  The Pan Am is a well-paved road, but the cars here go so slow our trip averaged less than 30 miles per hour.  We stopped at the Honduras border and had fried chicken for breakfast and again in El Salvador to enjoy chicken fajitas courtesy of a gas station buffet.  The fajitas were pretty good and the gas station buffet was packed, quite a hit in El Salvador.

We ended up in Playa de Tunco, a beach on the Pacific Coast of El Salvador.  It is amazing here! The town is small, the beach is beautiful, the surf is great (the waves break in a picture perfect right-hand point break) and the locals are very nice.  There are a few tourists, but not enough to inhibit our desire to speak as much Spanish as possible.  I am traveling with a friend from Quebec.  With French as a first language, Spanish comes much easier to Veronica.  At least that is what I tell myself when I can't keep up.