Back to the Land of Pupusas
We were undecided for a long time of where we wanted to go for our fall trip. We initially thought we’d go out west, but finally decided on El Salvador since it had a nice beach, mountains, and some interesting foods. So, off we went on September 30. We stayed in Houston the night before since our flight left early on the 30th. As we were going through the usual security checks, I was stopped and frisked because I was wearing two shirts on this particularly chilly morning. Last time I checked, it wasn’t a crime, but the metal detectors didn’t like it. The agent said it was a “bulky item”. And even after I showed her my undershirt, she said she would have to pat me down or else I would have to go back, take the shirt off and send it through the x-ray machine, and then come back through. I opted for the frisking, mainly because I was still cold and didn’t want to take my outer shirt off, but also because it would be a new experience. It was painless and fairly non-invasive, and afterwards we went along our merry way.
Once on the plane and in the air, I settled into my seat for a roughly 3-hour flight. I thought I might tilt the seat back a little since they’re so uncomfortable when they’re upright. What kind of people COULD be comfortable in those things? I mean really. 
Anyway, I pushed the button, gave a gentle push back, and WHAM! Only a whopping 3 degrees of tilt! I was just getting going good! I tried again. I asked Natnee if his chair was the same way. There was extra space on the flight, so if it was just my chair I would have moved, but alas, all the uncomfortable chairs were made all the more uncomfortable by not being able to tilt back more than a few degrees. [sigh]
We landed and got our rental car without incident, and then we headed to the beach! After all, this IS why we came here. We passed through La Libertad, stopping for some pupusas for lunch. A pupusa is a stuffed tortilla with sauerkraut and chile sauce on top. Most pupusas are stuffed with refried beans and cheese. Yum! We walked through the market there to get a few essential food items and then headed west.
We landed for the night at Playa Mizata, staying in a nice little room at the Mizata Resort (www.mizataresort.com). It wasn’t much before dark when we arrived, so Natnee went down to the beach to watch the sunset and wander around a little. Not far off was a giant rock which we, of course, HAD to investigate the next day. There wasn’t much of interest, but we did capture a few good pictures.
We were about to walk back to the room, when we decided we wanted just another picture or two from on this rock. While out on the rock, a wave twice the size of the regular ones came up and knocked both Natnee and me off our feet. Since he was closer to the edge of the rock, he sustained greater injuries. I escaped with a few scratches and bruises, but he lost a big chunk of flesh on the heel of his hand and the side of his foot, right where the sandal rubs. So, we began hobbling back to the room, but by the time we arrived there, the salt water had helped to heal Natnee’s foot wound so that it neither bled nor hurt. However, he spent the rest of the two weeks we were there hobbling around, which greatly hampered our exploring.
The next day we decided to move further up the coast. We liked where we were staying, but there just wasn’t much there to do, so we thought we’d try to find some place better. We ended up at Barra del Santiago. We drove through this little town and toward the beach. And we drove. And we drove. It took nearly an hour down a bumpy road to get to the beach, and once we got there, we had to use 4-wheel drive to get to the hotels. There were two. One was $250 a night, and we would have needed two rooms. The other one we talked into $90 a night for two rooms, since their rooms were ridiculously small. It was a night of living out of our coolers since no local food was available, and the air conditioning didn’t work so well. Also, Daddy kept getting bit by critters all night, so we left there the next day to find someplace better.
We wanted to go towards Guatemala and take a road back across the mountains toward Juayúa instead of going through the big cities. We stopped for breakfast at the market in Cara Sucia. The typical breakfast there is two eggs (fried or scrambled), fried plantains, queso fresco, sour cream, and tortillas. We had such a breakfast in the market for $1.50. We also obtained recipes of their sour cream and queso fresco while we were there. Onward we drove toward Guatemala looking for our turn-off. But we came upon the Guatemalan border before we found the road. It was in the guidebook, but there were no signs along the road anywhere. We tried a few roads that could have worked, but none did. The locals said it was possible to take this road, but it was not a good road, and it was best to go through the big city of Sonsonate. We cut off Sonsonate by a legitimate road and ended up in a guidebook-recommended hotel, Jardín de Celeste, where we stayed for a whole week, and which I will write about in my next post.
~Crystal
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Posted on November 1st, 2009 by Natnee and filed under El Salvador |
November 19th, 2009 at 1:31 am
I cannot wait to read your next post!
At first I thought Natnee wrote it, which is why I had a sneaky feeling he had aquired a “new style” of writing. It soon became obvious that he did not write it, so I quickly scrolled down to find out the name of the author, and then just kept reading.
November 19th, 2009 at 1:33 am
P.S. Gorgeous pics. Makes me want to finish my university studies quicker so that I may,
Travel Like Natnee.