Day 30 - Tour de las Playas

This morning we were able to have some breakfast at the hotel. We had some time to kill until our laundry was finished and allowed us to have a more relaxing morning. We packed our stuff at a leisurely pace and then loaded up the car. The remainder of the morning was spent following Ruta de las Flores up to the small town of Ataco. We stopped here for a walk around the Parque Centro and the kids were able to play in the park with other local kids. Correen and I spent our time talking to Rafael a man who was interested in us and spoke enough english to continue a long conversation and stories of his life and his hopes of one day going to Canada. We even exchanged addresses; although Correen wasn't to sure it was a good idea.

Tegan played with a couple of girls in the park and then later Correen bought them some treats at the bakery before we left. We ended up retracing our journey back down the Ruta de las Flores all the way to Suchitoto and then we made our way towards the Pacific coast and Barra de Santiago. The last part of the road was all gravel and we reached the destination but Correen was not impressed. We actually only reached the town which had a single paved street with a sparse spread of shops and little else. We hadn't located a place to stay and Correen decided she wanted a little luxury at this point.

So we were now heading for El Tunco or any of the beaches around there. The drive along the coastal highway south to El Tunco was a very nice drive. There were 5 tunnels we passed through along the way and many beaches that looked to be private or securely fenced off. We arrived at El Tunco and checked out one hotel that had space for us and met the kids qualifications but not Correen's. So a walk down the street and onto the property of another hotel but we barely made it to the end of the road and we all changed our mind on that place. On the beach we walked along and I watched the surfers out on the point break while Correen and Tegan dotted into resorts looking for availability. No luck.

We headed back to the car and before heading off, we decided to have some dinner at the wok restaurant. The food was really delicious and I think everyone ate nearly everything that was prepared for them. The chef that was cooking at the wok must go through 10 liters of water in an evening, the burner he used for cooking was putting out 30cm flames and the already 35C temperature in the open air restaurant must have heated up another 20-30C more.

Back in our air conditioned car and heading south to check out more beaches. We stopped in a couple but all were booked, so we kept heading south and finally landed in Costa del Sol 1-2 hours later and well after dark. Of course this added to Correen's anxiety of driving at night, in a foreign country, on roads we don't know, with a destination unknown and 2 kids in tow. Can't understand what all that excitement was about. The first hotel we spotted in Costa del Sol was the choseb destination for the evening. They had room and a pool. The rates were reasonable, yet a little peculiar as they charged by the hour. I always thought there were only certain hotels that charged by the hour. We had a TV, air conditioning and a moderate odour in the room of overused cleaning products or perhaps a recent fumigation. We decided this would be our room for the next 2 days. Nearly as soon as the car was unloaded and our bags in the room, we were brushing our teeth and readying ourselves for some sleep.