Posada De Don Oli Concepción de Ataco

... who one of the guys met on couch surfing, who told us about his uncles farm deep in Tacuba, which is a remote village about 3 hours drive from the coast. It sounded amazing, so we got a few chicken buses and a lift from his uncle and seven us climbed down to this huge farm deep in a valley in a small village called Tacuba. Staying on the farm was amazing, and the boys definitely appreciated any opportunity to prove their cave man skills and chop wood, make fires ...

... temperature.

Still early in the season for coffee harvesting but had a look round the plant & finca, the largest organic farm in ES and the only geothermal powered one - use the hot waters to heat the radiators to dry the beans.

Apparently the fermenting beans stink like ****, though not to put people off, they blame the smell on the sulphurous water! Maybe this is why the fermenting liquid is not used to make booze or something, rather than just used as fertiliser ...

... our favorite program. One act was "mariachis locos" and it was a group of kids playing cardboard instruments to a mariachi song. The various groups (strings, brass) would even step forward when their instruments were featured! There were some folkloric dances including a flirting dance where the girls were all taller than the boys and the boys were trying to win the girls' love with stuffed animals, roses and even ...

... de balie....wat inhield dat de hike bij onze hostel begon.
We liepen het dorp uit de jungle in en stopten bij de Casa van Mario waar zijn broer al klaar stond en moeder lief de laatste hand legde aan de rugzak van Mario. Beide broers namen een groot kapmes mee en een grote bos touw en we vertrokken....gevolgd door vier honden. Al snel daalden we af het eerste dal in met uitzicht over de koffieplantages. Wie nog werk zoekt....het plukken begint in oktober en je krijgt $1 USA ...

... marktkraampjes¨ opgeruimd en de straat (weinig asvalt en veel zand en kuilen) lag vol met enorme grote hopen afval waarin de honden op zoek waren naar eten. Het stonk enorm! Eenmaal in ¨het centrum¨ aangekomen bleek het niet beter. Er was niets open en er hing een nare sfeer....het voelde niet veilig. We zijn terug gelopen naar ons hostel en gestopt bij het enige ¨restaurant¨ wat we op de heenweg gezien hadden. Het was nog open ...

... the soft yucca, and the still crunchy chicharon. The evening ended with a thunderstorm and pouring rain, another mosquito hunting session, and what sounded like rats in the bathroom (probably in the wall, but that's close enough). We haven't gotten much sleep, and Amy is sleeping on a massage table, which looks like it would be impossible for any rat to climb onto. I'm sweating it out with the mosquitoes and hoping there are no holes in the walls for rats to come through.

... the cousin. This cousin is in somewhat of a fued with the town we are in because the locals think his private property is a park and repeatedly trash it as such. He was not pleased to meet us at all, since we are tourists in what is clearly not supposed to be a tourist spot, and things get even more akward than before. We squeeze into the back of the pick-up, and go for what I'll just call a very bumpy ride with the guards in the back of the truck with us (and ...

... up old 4x4 for over an hour into the park, which wasn´t really lush jungle but dry scrub jungle with an incredible variety of trees. Pumas and other animals live there apparently but we didn´t see any, the scenery was great though. After going up and down rocky tracks I really wanted to take my bike down, we parked up then walked across a ridge from where we could see the Pacific many miles away, then down into the gorge through jungle. It was pretty ...

... and then joined a trip organized by Manolo (the son and only guide working with tourists in the village!) to go and bath at night in the natural hot springs of Ahuachapan. The place is amazing, just on a volcano, there are natural hot springs there with pools of different temperatures. It is really amazing how hot it can get, and it seems that at the place where the hot water comes out of the volcano, you would die if you would try to get under the water coz it's so hot ...

... some pupusas, and listened the music...and Manolo talk. When I had been asked to see the coffee finca I thought it would be fun. I thought I´d get some pictures, maybe help out a bit, but the key word was SEE. Not WORK. And it´s not like I even minded that much when Manolo asked me to help fertilize the plants. Frida, the other inhabitant of the hostel, had been here before and promised that it was only going ...