Las Flores Surf Club San Miguel

... t possibly ask us for a bribe so he lets us go. Although, I’m not sure it’s the best idea for us to be driving around an unstable country with constant police checks with white powder all over the place! It really was one of the funniest moments of our trip and I’m still laughing over it! 
And there is still some white powder that I need to clean up!

It took us 2 and a half hours total, including all of the checkpoints. The ...

... be. We walked around the sleepy town, enjoyed a few cocktails, and had a wonderful dinner (thanks Belinda!). The next morning we woke up very early to enjoy an early morning hike up to the Volcano Crater Lake. After a nice half hour hike we arrived and had the whole place to ourselves. I absorbed myself in some Yoga and meditation before we headed back down the mountain to a ...

... besides it´s history. There´s now a monument to the victims. Took a stroll up a hill to that rewarded with a beautiful lookout. Later that day I took in the war museum, which proved well worth the effort to get up to Perquin. A truly moving site, the museum features a descriptive, narrative history, many photos of the guerrillas, army, the fighting and life during the war, weapons, a downed plane, a bomb crater, and the actual building that Radio ...

... to find a decent place to camp in El Salvador - its just too easy to get really lost and end up on sandy roads and so we got back on the Pan American Highway and headed towards the border of Honduras. Night began to fall when we reached the city of San Miguel, a run-down industrial city. We liked the security of the Auto Hotels and the price $20 so we decided to stay at one that gave us the ability to hijack internet access from the hotel next door.

... it turned out to be the best way to go. The policewoman used to be a tour guide and she took me through shortcuts and paths that I would have never found and when we arrived at the falls, it was nothing short of spectacular. The water spilled over the most unique rock formations that, at a distance, resembled wooden logs. I have never seen anything like it. In fact, I repeatedly had Suchitoto residents proudly mention how the falls were a ...

... s head. Again huge sweeping turns, blind corners, constantly ascending or descending, beautiful panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and the highway was very recently paved. We cut through several tunnels, came across a transport truck overturned on a blind corner and almost hit someone carrying a huge bundle of sticks that was probably 15 feet wide. Why can´t we have roads like this in Ontario? We ...

... were both very nervous about our next border crossing. We arrived at the Guatemalan border and had to export our bikes. Of course the leeches were there too try and take our money. They were grabbing at our documents and got mine twice... ahh once bitten twice angry. I snatched my documents out of their dirty little paws before we could be separated and was very direct "no". We parked our bikes in the way of the Guatemalan ...

... tried to wipe out this building which had been used in the war as the base up in Perquin. In complete juxtoposition to all this, we stayed at the Hotel Perkin Lenka, a bizarre compound run by a guy from Montana who seems to have picked a rather random place to build a complex that consists of loads of rooms and an absolutely massive restaurant diner thing. We were the only people there the whole time and we couldnt work out why the heck he'd picked Perquin of all places to build ...

... do too much work, but it had a positive side: we could wash our hands and brush our teeth with the water running from the roof. In the morning, as i was putting my stuff together, two cockroaches came out of it, and when i moved my backpack off the wall, a frog was sitting behind it. It is a very simple life but the people there are genuinely happy. They are the friendliest and we enjoyed it a lot.

... After a break for lunch it was a drive back to the town of San Miguel to go to the supermarket and then towards the town of San Vicente. About six miles before getting to the town we pulled into a Puma garage (N30.40.967 W88.46.434) to stop for the night. They told us to go to the back and drive onto a football pitch and park there for the night. This kept us well away from the road and made a nice night stop.