La Palma
Trip Start
Feb 04, 2008
1
15
21
Trip End
Jul 03, 2008
La Palma,
El Salvador
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Well its been a while since i last edited the blog. This has more to do with the quality of the computers than anything else. I have thrown away computers better than these over ten years ago. I digress. First stop after Masaya was Leon, another colonial city, this one was not quite as polished and felt a bit more authentic than Grenada which was a little bit too touristy, we didnt stay long here, strolled around the town and went Volcano boarding, this involved climing a local volcano called Cerra Negra and sliding down it on a bit of wood. This mass of black rock standing over 670 metres didnt even exist 158 years ago, when a small black mound appeared in a corn field. The last eruption i believe was in 1995 when the surrounding area was piled with 16 feet of ash, and Leon was covered in 11 feet of ash. Still active, the crater belts yellow sulphurous smoke, and just beneath the surface its hot to the touch
Inside the Cathedral in Leon
. We climbed the volcano and ran into the crater. You canīt hang around too long in the crater since the sulphur doesnt do you any favours. Plus its hot! The Volcano Boarding was interesting. You sit on essentially a wooden sled. We wore these orange jump suits and it looked like the set of Prison Break on top of a volcano. Sadly we didnt pick up alot of speed on the decent and fell off a few times sinking into the shale, but it was a fun experience none the less. Next day we headed for Matagalpa, touted as a must see in the Lonely Planet, beautiful blue / green mountains, a pretty mountain town. Our arrival was an underwhelming experience, we had to confirm with the bus driver that this was in fact Matagalpa. Deforested hills, dry with exposed rock, covered with what were essentially slums. Everything in the town seem to close at 5pm, and the hotels were nothing to write home about. On a brighter note, the Bar called the Crazy Horse round the corner served up a great steak on a sizzling platter. We left sharpish the next day and headed for Esteli.
Esteli was a bit more interesting than Mataglapa, not a great deal to do but we met some nice people and decided to hang around for a couple of days. The highlight being a trip to a Cigar Factory called Nicks Cigars. Amazingly we were shown around for free! Working conditions were somewhat below par. People work all day for around $5, 10 hours shifts, making cigars, packing leaves and constructing boxes. Where the leaves were packed and the storage room, nicotine hung heavy in the air, and it was impossible to stay in there any length of time without coughing and spluttering and your eyes would sting. But people work in this all day, no wonder they come back for more, they must be addicted to thier jobs, literally
Amy on the Cathedral roof
! It was an interesting process, leaves are dried, and stored in a humid room, packed and then sent to the factory round the corner to be made. The tour guide spoke in spanish, so thats about as much as i could gather.We made a snap decision to go to El Salvador, nothing much really drew us to this country, but since we were in the area, it seemed silly not to check it out. We got ourselves a Tica bus ticket and turned up at the Texaco garage at 6:30 to catch our bus. We crossed two borders, one into Honduras and then into El Salvador. Upon arrival in San Salvador, the capital, we sought some accomodation. Somewhat unsettling is everyone seems to be packing M16īs and Shotguns. This country is obsessed with security, and even the local newsagent has a guard with shotgun in hand. Strangely though even the gun toting guards muster up a Buenos Dias and a smile. I didnt really get the impression that all these guns were necersarry, we didnt see any trouble whilst we were here, its almost like its just the culture, years of civil war and i guess its a difficult habit to get out of. Next day we headed to Playa El Tunca. This surfers mecca is popular with people all over the world and is apparently the best place to surf in Central America with point break after point break and huge waves. We decided to try our hand at surfing again. We stayed at a place that was recommended to us, called Hotel Mopelia. Run by Belgian, "Gille", had several cabinas, a pool, and a bar/resturant area. He definitely made our stay there a pleasant one, good conversation and a few cervesas made us stick around for a few days. His wifes knocks up excellent burgers and we were lucky enough to have the trial run for meat balls! Which was excellent. Our surfing sucked big time, and the waves here, 2 metres and more pummelled me into the sea bed. After a few days of persevering and swallowing large volumes of sand and seawater, we decided to call it a day
Volcanoes in the distance
. I dont think surfing is for me. Other than the company of our host and the pleasant surroundings of the hotel, Playa El Tunca has little to offer unless you surf, and the days are hot and humid, so on the third day we headed for the mountains. Suchitoto was our next stop. A peaceful town set in the mountains overlooking a large resovoir. A beautiful church is the central focus of the town and is surrounded by colonial buildings. We stayed in a hostal, almost mansion like. We were the only guests, the tiled floors and high ceilings were very inviting and we had lakeside views from our balcony. We only stayed 1 night as there wasnīt much to do. Next day we pressed on and we have just arrived in La Palma, 10km from the Honduran Border. Its pretty cold here, high in the mountains, so we are going to investigate for a day or too before heading to Copan. Thats all for now folks.
Richard and Amy.
