Day 27 - Suchitoto: The Gem of El Salvador

Sleep-in, Elliot did not.
Hungry, Elliot is.
Awake, I am.

So Elliot and I went downstairs for some breakfast at the restaurant. It was sort of a buffet, but Elliot only wanted cereal and I was only feeling like toast and jam. After breakfast Elliot and I went up to the room to wait out the rise of Mom and Sis. Eventually the woke up and Tegan and Elliot got into their swimsuits so they could go for a swim after Tegan and Mom had breakfast. Elliot tagged along with Mom and Tegan while I went to the business center to do some work on the blog.

After a few minutes in the pool the kids decided it was too cold for them and they were out. We all reconvened in the room before lunch and started to pack up. We had to go to the Sheraton and pickup our rental car from Budget. When we got there, not only was there nobody at the Budget counter, but there was no car either. Contacting Budget revealed how incompetent they really are. There was only 1 car in all of San Salvador and it was the one we reserved, only it was being looked at by a mechanic and wouldn't be ready until 3pm. The concierge of the hotel helped us out by hooking us up with a local lady that rents cars out.

So we ended up getting a 2007 Volvo and it was delivered to us in under an hour. We had lunch while we waited for the car to arrive. A quick signing of papers and some money paid for the rental period and we were off to enjoy our El Salvador vacation finally. We headed immediately for Suchitoto a small town that is a recommended visit. After some crazy buses and a police checkpoint we made Suchitoto. It immediately had a feel to it uniquely it's own. We parked the car and walked to the Parque Centro where a huge celebration was happen for the children. There was a ferris wheel and a carousel as well as street performers. I went in search of a hotel on foot while Correen and the kids enjoyed the festivities. I found a spot just down from the Parque and said I would be back in a few minutes with the family.

The room was basic, yet it worked for us. I asked for good restaurant nearby and was given directions. We followed the directions and they led us to a pupuseria. Correen couldn't believe this was the place recommended to us so we had to go looking for a better place to eat. We ended up walking a little over a km on our walk and ended up returning to the pupuseria. They weren't impressed when we first walked away and dealing with us ordering, what is their national dish, didn't impress them either. The reality was that I was ordering a couple of pupusas for a fussy boy, an uncomfortable wife and Tegan didn't seem to care much what she had. So thinking Correen didn't want cheese and the kids did, I ordered a frijole and a queso. Turns out Correen only wanted a cheese, Elliot didn't eat much of anything and Tegan ate the cheese pupusa with Mom. I had to eat the frijole version to save my reputation in Suchitoto. What a complicated meal. We paid out $3.50 for our meal and went back to the Parque Centro to check it out.

The festivities were still running perhaps a little subdue now that the rides had stopped and were packed away. Elliot got a plate of fries and Tegan went and played with a group of kids by the carousel. Tegan was the center of attention for a group of 5-6 girls. I think Tegan was the first girl their age to have visited Suchitoto at least it felt that way. They were interested in learning the English word for things and where she was from and how old they were. I asked for their names and one of the girls gave her Christian name that consisted of 5 or more names rolling together, the other girls stopped her and told her to say only her first name. I said my name and Mucho Gusto which made them smile.

We stopped off for an ice cream treat from the tienda and then went back to our room for bed.

Day 26 - 13 Hours of Bus Joy

Correen was none to happy about getting up at 3am to catch this bus to El Salvador. The news that it is an 11 hour bus trip didn't make her smile either. Frankly, the kids and I weren't thrilled about it, it is just one of the sacrifices that go along with traveling between Central American countries. Lucky for us we were mostly packed and ready to go. The taxi ride was only 10 minutes to the Tica bus station. Nothing much was happening when we arrived at 4am. Correen and the kids went and got some breakfast for themselves. Eventually we started making lines to drop off our bags and get the documents needed for crossing the borders. Today we would be exiting Nicaragua for a short ride through Honduras and eventually arriving at the El Salvador border later in the day.

I sat next to Elliot and Tegan sat next to Mom in the seats across the aisle. All of us slept for the first 2-3 hours on the bus. Elliot was keen to play games which he did while the rest of us still slept. We reached the Honduras border around 11am and left our passports with the Tica bus representative to process us through the border. There was an $8 each exit fee associated with this crossing too. We were able to get off the bus here, stretch our legs and grab a treat from the local vendors selling their food stuff at the border. We then had to board the bus and travel to the Honduras side, where we went through a similar process but this one included a baggage check.

Once this was completed we boarded the bus for our passage through Honduras. A few hours later we reached the El Salvador border, but this time we didn't get off the bus. Instead we waited there in the highly air conditioned bus while our documents were checked over. The a quick cross of a river to go through another document check. Then we were off... to the narcotics department down the road escorted by the police. One person was asked off the bus and he and his bags were given a work over by the dogs. Nothing was found on him, so back on the bus and bound for San Salvador. At this time it was just after 2pm and given we were 200 kms away from San Salvador we should make our 4pm'ish arrival. Or so I thought!

Also we were near starvation as there was no stop for food at the border. It was another hour before we stopped and the crazed hungry people from the bus marched into the gas station to get food from the comida inside. We grabbed some fried chicken, fries and a sandwich for Tegan and I to share. The food was far from delicious, but it did the trick.

We arrived at the first bus stop at 6pm and since it was closest to our hotel we were out of the bus, gathering our bags and hailing a cab for the ride to our hotel. The Holiday Inn was really nice and Jorge the concierge was very nice and helpful. Our room was perfect and we had a pretty good view from our 6th floor room. We decided to go across the road to a plaza that had many different restaurants and settled for some sushi. The sushi was a little different and Correen and the kids had some of the safer choices from the menu. I thought I might be able to handle some beef soba noddles but the sauce they used was too strong and I couldn't eat much of it.

After we walked down to an ice cream shop, Tegan and I shared a banana split, Elliot had a cone and Correen ran into McDonald's for an apple pie. Back to our room to watch some TV and finally sleep and look forward to a sleep-in the next morning.

Day 20 - A day in San Juan del Sur

Last night the sound of firecrackers and fireworks existed for much of the night. Our door exited directly onto a street and traffic up and down the street was brisk, so vocal noise was high as well. At least the air conditioner buzz drowned out a bit of the noise and made sleeping at least attainable.

After an ok breakfast, I went to work on posting some photos onto Flickr and moving all the photos to our hard drive backup. The computer I was working on was an older Windows XP version and 40+ minutes into an upload I got the blue screen of death; remember those?! Well I spent the better part of the day inside this little Internet café and it wasn't sitting well with Correen. Explaining that it was no fault of my own didn't seem to make a difference either. I guess the kids had their fill of TV and their DSes. They went out for lunch without me and when they returned, I still had about 40 minutes left with the posting. Needless to say the Internet was extremely slow with the sending.

Finally completing the photo transfers and posts; we went down to the beach for sun and sand fun. The kids and I were swimming in the waves when a group of younger boys came up curious and eager to talk to us. They kept asking me to have a swimming race against them, but continued to turn them down. Tegan and Elliot played Marco Polo with a couple of expat kids that were there until everyone was tired of it and went their own way. Elliot went to the beach to play in the sand while Tegan came out and swam with me a little longer.

We joined Elliot at playing in the sand and I helped Elliot at building a castle. The mound of sand grew and then I just decided to create a Mayan temple from the mound. The tide was rising and the waves were threatening the construction. We completed the temple and got some photos of it prior to it being knocked down by someone walking by; which happened not 5 minutes afterward. We stopped by to book some surf lessons for the next day and we picked up a t-shirt from Chica Brava an all girl surf camp in SJDS. Correen and the kids booked a turtle tour for the following evening as well.

We cleaned up and made our way back to Rosita's as we took an offer to move to a room at the back of the property and hopefully quieter. We vegged out a little bit in the room before supper and then we went for the walk along the street fronting the beach in search for food. We chose one of the pizza places and it was beside another restaurant that had a live acoustic act performing. We struggled ordering a pizza as they had weird combinations of sauces, crusts, ingredients and sizes. It was very odd. The kids pizza ended up being twice the size of the one we ordered, it was a cheese pizza, but neither Tegan or Elliot liked it. Our pizza was smaller, but equally disappointing.

We hoped that a gelato dessert would help us wash down the food we just ate, but we were disappointed when they still hadn't opened. Guess they are closed on Monday. The best we could do was hit the Eskimo ice cream place down the street. It was a pretty generic feed of ice cream.

Back to our room so the kids and I can battle it out in a game of Life on the iPad. G'nite

Day 19 - Nicaragua or Bust!

5 am and we are up getting everything tidied up into our bags for our bus trip to Nicaragua. Breakfast is at 6 am and the bus leaves at 7:30 am, so very minute is critical this morning. We were in and out of breakfast by 6:15 am and arrived at the bus station just before 7 am. Our bags were loaded onto the bus and then I went to sit in the line for our tickets. 20 minutes later, I ask for 4 tickets and I am told they are sold out and have been for 4 days! Panic! We have to be in Nicaragua today, my mind whirls thinking that we could try Transnica bus or take local buses to get there.

First course of action, get our tickets so we can leave Nicaragua in a week. Back in line. I get the tickets and we are set to leave Nicaragua. Correen suggests that we stick around and find out if there are any cancellations so we could board. Then it came to me and we head outside to grab a taxi and head back to Liberia where we had been 2 days before by rental car and then take the local bus to the border and then taxi to San Juan del Sur!

The bus tickets would have cost $27 / person and the car rental including fuel worked out to $95. Within 20 minutes out of San Jose we had already passed the Ticabus we were suppose to have taken. We arrived in Liberia in just over 3 hours... traffic on Sunday morning is very light. We then take a cab into Liberia and despite all the warnings from the car rental agent we take the bus to the border. Supposedly the bus terminal is very dangerous, but we just hopped on the bus, no complications whatsoever. The best part was the bus was just leaving when we arrived so there was no further waiting. We were ahead of schedule.

The next stop was the border. 5 kms from the border is where a line of trucks started waiting for passage into Nicaragua. We received our exit stamp from Costa Rica, paid a levy to the local town, got our entrance stamp into Nicaragua and paid a $12 dollar each entrance fee. We met a taxi driver who would take us to San Juan del Sur for $40, I asked for less and he agreed to $35. He was helpful and guided us through the Nicaraguan border logistics. My eyes stung from salt because my sweat was running into my eyes while filing out the immigration papers. The taxi can was a sweet Hyundai ride with racing stickers on the outside fenders including TRD. He fed us a lot of misinformation like how the currency rate was 38 cordobas to a dollar (actually 24) and that the fuel costs were $4/litre (actually $1.20/litre), he also told us that a house costs $30k, I suppose it would be more like $10-20k.

He drove around the town a little trying to locate the hostel which he didn't know where it was. Correen spotted it up a street from the beach. We made it to SJDS in good time, our room wasn't even ready yet. We did a walk down to the waterfront and had lunch and when we arrived back to the hostel Rosita showed us a room on the street that would be ours during our stay. Rosita gave Tegan and Elliot a package of Christmas Oreo cookies, in a typical grandma style. She was very affectionate towards our kids and it was cute to see.

We all went to the beach for a swim just before the sun was setting.  We sat and had some dinner at a restaurant on the beach.  Once Elliot was finished eating he went out onto the beach and joined the local boys and girls in a game of futbol.  It was over 30C out and Elliot was running as hard as he could.  Tegan even went out to participate in the game.  When the kids returned, Elliot was bright red in the face from the heat and exercise.  The bay is of a horseshoe shape and it is loaded with boats of various size anchored a few hundred metres off the shore. The beach gently sloped out into the bay and they waves were gentle for a famous surf town. We ended up having some gelato, but it wasn't just some gelato, it was great gelato. After enjoying a cone of yummy cold gelato, we went to our room and just watched shows on TV until we went to sleep.

Day 18 - Dia Por Los Ninos

Elliot and I were up early as usual and we were playing a new game on the iPad together until the girls got up. The fiesta provisions were still be dismantled in front of our building. Downstairs at the restaurant, we enjoyed the free buffet breakfast. Then we grabbed a few things from our room before heading off to the Museo de los Niños. We arrived just after 8 am and were told it opened at 9 am, but in fact it opened at 9:30 am. While we waited I had Tegan perform her Irish dance video in front of the Museum. The crowds slowly grew as we waited including a Scout troupe of Castores (Beavers). I would say there were at least 300 people waiting to get in when the doors opened.

Inside we spent time dressing up in various costumes, playing games and puzzles, exploring space, the body, the environment, history and agriculture among other things. The hours quickly went by and without any real food comida on site we had to eat a couple of small bags of corn tortilla chips and share a pop. It was a pretty exhausting day and by 1:30 pm we were outside hailing a taxi for the hotel. On the way back, we asked to be taken to the Walmart instead. The Walmart was guarded by security gates which right away suggested this was not like home. The other differences were the food court inside as well as the aisles of liquor. We were here to get something to eat and some things for on the bus to Nicaragua.

Immediately outside we stopped the 3 wise men for a photo and then proceeded to go in and do our shopping. After buying our things, Tegan and I ended up eating at a Chinese food comida while Elliot played it safe with McDonalds. We Should have done the same, the Chinese food was rubbish. Outside we hailed a taxi and went back to our hotel. The kids went again with Mom for a swim while I worked on some blog updates etc.

The rest of the night was dinner at the restaurant, the Smurfs movie, popcorn and packing again for the next day.