El Jardin De Celeste Concepción de Ataco

... we had big plans of staying in a few tents on the beach, but it seemed increasinly unlikely as we arrived pretty much in the pitch darkness. Everything with the hut seemed all good, untill we tried to shower after testing out the sea and the water came out dark brown....it turned out one of the pipes wasn´t screwed in properly, but not the best when you accidently shower in sludge. We spent only one night in our shack, before meeting up with a friendly guy from San ...

... ideal for getting my foot elevated. Also some NGO volunteers including a physiotherapist lunch there daily so was able to get it checked out & get some good advice, most of which I had already been doing.

All here v. friendly & sell good food & beer so haven't left the premises since arrival.

Hot springs with Manolo, el hijo & his brother. Saw the boiling thermal waters, fumeroles, sulphurous emissions before sampling some of the 7 cascading pools of ...

... breakfast. The mom rememberd all our names from Tuesday. The dad showed me the type of handcraft he is learning to make and offered me two as a gift. Wow. We still had a soccer ball back at the project we hadn't donated yet so we gave that to them and their 3 boys were super excited. What a nice family.

Upon arrival in Chilcuyo we were once again greeted with smiles, handmade signs and lots of ove. This ...

... we komen uit op een schitterend waterpark met restaurants aan de zee....met een enorm villapark met veel lege huizen....we zijn het hele park overgelopen naar de lobby....en ik zit nu in een internetcafé met airco even snel een berichtje te typen. We gaan zo nog wat eten in één van de restaurantjes...en dan de bush weer in....wat een contrast. Uit verveling heb ik vanmorgen muggenbulten zitten tellen....rechterbeen 39.....links meer dan 40.
De foto´s volgen later!

... wij kozen voor een twee persoons kamer bij de ingang. We waren moe...en hebben eerst een siesta gehouden.
Rond een uur of zeven hadden we trek en besloten we op pad te gaan naar de in de trotter aanbevolen restaurantjes. We liepen de stad in en alles was donker en verlaten. Er was geen winkel meer open. Alles was afgesloten met dikke stalen luiken en hangsloten. Op straat leefden de honden en de zatlappen. Verderop werden de ...

... food take-out, Salvadoran style. We pulled over to a sidewalk vendor and had her prepare three orders of yucca. She put each portion of stew in a baggie for us. As we drove, Juan wiped the outside of the baggie clean (that's a relative term of course) and bit off one corner. He, and we, then proceeded to squeeze out the contents directly into our mouths, like using a cake froster. I liked the flavors, with a distinct lime essence, and the texture - the liquid ...

... is the owner of the property we were on, which is also home to a hydro-electric facilty. Interesting, huh? Well Nelson thinks its too late for us to walk back to town and also informs us that he has hired no less than six guards to accompany him and his family down for a swim. Then he offers us a ride back to town in some pickups that they have at the very bottom of the valley (the opposite way of town mind you). We accept. We are introduced to the family. We ...

... Manolo´s tours which include hiking, biking and camping. The one we went there for though is the dangerous one - canyoning, which involves jumping off waterfalls and scrambling round rocks and stuff. Manolo was out camping the day we got there and when he got back the next day he had busted his knee so we went with a couple of other Salvadoran guides, one of them pretty old, a French, a Dutch and a Danish guy. Lucy was the only girl. We set off in a ...

... with numbers (yep you definitely have to ask before, coz impossible to know where they are heading). I passed by Ahuachapan, and then got on another bus for Tacuba. Tacuba is a nice little village lost just next to the mountain called El Imposible. It is an area where lots of indigenous are still living. So I looked for the one and only hostal of the village, called Mama y Papa (simple!), and settled there after a long day of bus trips. I took it easy for the rest of the ...

... fertilized...and then at the rows of others yet to be taken care of. And I wondered to myself, "How HELL did I get myself into this one?" I had arrived in Tacuba the day before, had a nice nap, a nice little chat (in Spanish!) with Manolo´s parents (also the owners of the hostel), and a great cup of coffee. I had played with the adorable little cocker puppy strangely named Rex. I had gone to the bar, had a few ...