Artsy Village by the Lake
Suchitoto,
El Salvador
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Tuesday April 3
By Tuesday morning, our shoes dried out from the rain storm on Sunday and we were ready to leave. (Though reluctant because we enjoyed our stay at Casa Frolaz www.casafrolaz.com so much!). Kay suggested we go to the coast to the beaches. But we learned from Javier that this week is extremely crazy at the beach because it is Semana Santa (Easter Week) - and everyone congregates on the beach for the entire week. Javier helped us out and called a couple different hotels on the beach, but they were all full. So then we decided to try out Suchitoto, an artsy village in the hills south of us. Javier called a hotel for us and made a reservation.
To get to Suchitoto from Santa Ana we had to go back to San Salvador and switch buses. IT was really easy and only cost about $2.50 per person. Once we got to Suchitoto we headed to the Villa Ballenza Hotel which was recommended by another traveler. We lugged our stuff the couple of blocks to the hotel and looked at the room. It was a crappy room across the alley with two twin beds and a bathroom shared by the family next door. However it was only $10 bucks and their other rooms had been jacked up to $25 because of Semana Santa. We are dying from the heat and reluctantly take the room. We wander off into the town headed for the central park, as we always do, to check out the local scene. On the way we check out some other hotels and find a better place (Posada Alta Vista) for $15 but realize it is too late to change. We are also realizing that there is not much in this town and will probably leave in the morning.
We stopped by the tourist office and found out there is a hiking and camping trip headed into the country side in the morning for $15 US a person. This sounds like it is what we have been looking for. While looking for a place to eat we happend across the 2 Gardenias Hostel, a recommended place, and checked out there rooms. They too had raised their prices to $20 a night for a crappy room with a shower that was just an open pipe flowing into the shower space. Nice effort on their part. Iīm pretty sure shower heads are cheap.
Down the hill on the way to the lake is the restaurant La Fonda el Mirador and it was recommend to us as having good food. We grabbed a table that overlooked the edge of the lake and ordered some food. While eating and enjoying a glass of wine we were able to watch the thunderstorms roll. We would have enjoyed more wine but the waiter did not return to see if we wanted any. Even when we got his attention he seemed to forget that we waved to him and did not come over. I know I hadnīt showered yet but I didnīt smell that bad. We sat there for a couple of hours and decided to venture back to the hotel. The streets were dark and rainy and we were a little nervous walking home but made it without incident. (For other travelers the food was good but a little expensive and it is a bit of a long walk from the center of town)
Back at the hotel we realized it was only 7pm and we had nothing to do. We ended up getting into bed reading and fighting to stay awake until 8:30. Sad I know.
The rain continued on all night long and when we woke up I realized that hiking into the country side and camping, potentially in the rain, was not what I wanted to do. We have decided to pack up and head out to the next town. While packing up Kay realized that during the night a bat had crapped on her bed. She said she saw a few flying around during the evening. I canīt even imagine the scream she would have let out if the bat had better aim!
We stopped for a quick breakfast and coffee before going to the internet cafe. When our coffee came out they had already put a lot of sugar in it. Things in this town are just not going our way. We grab a noon bus back towards the Pan American Highway to transfer to a southbound bus towards the border with Honduras. We decide to move on to Nicaragua (but you have to go through a tip of Honduras to do so).
Cheers, Frank
