Thunderstruck!!!!!

So, we thought we'd experienced some tropical storms already during our trip, but nothing, I mean nothing comes close to the storm that come upon us last night. Its no rarity and normally a cool welcome for there to be nightly storms here at this time of year however there had not been one for about a week. Last night it was back with a vengeance, it must be the closest I've ever been to a storm center, the thunder was more akin to cannon fire and occurred simultaneously with blinding strobe like lightening. 

Unable to sleep through the cacophony (well in fact Stuff near jumped out of his skin when the first extreme hit caught him dosing) we tentative moved out on to our enclosed porch area (holding hands) to watch the show. We partly wondered if we should venture out to have a proper look but due to the intensity thought better of it, luckily, as we discovered today that a palm tree and pagoda on the hostel sight about 50m from us got hit by lightning as did some electrical cable that caused a socket to explode.

I have always loved storms and normally wish them to come closer, this was close enough!!! But completely awesome if a little scary!!!

By Things

La Tortuga Verde

Hello again!

So we decided to pay for a internet dongle for the day. mainly due to the need to plan and book flights etc, but my head feels ready to explode with the logistics of it so decided to take a break and get a new post done.

We are staying a few miles down the road from a place called La Cuco, still in El Salvador. When we were in El Tunco  I overheard some people talking about this really cheap chilled out hostel with fresh fish and amazing surf, so I jumped online to find it, produced my findings to Mr Stuff and BAM!!, here we are!

The hostel is called La Tortuga Verde (the green turtle) and we are enjoying our stay, although we may not fit in to the uber chilled out pace as much as we should.

It is a beautiful spot right on a beach that has a fairly good beach surf break, we have a private room with bathroom and fan for $25/night. Our room is serviced and we get fresh towels every 2 days, and its a very short drive away from Las Flores point break which (even from my learning point of view) is pretty awesome surf. I'll let Stuff do a Cuco Surf post as he's the expert. There is a small swimming pool, many beach side hammocks and tables, very helpful staff and a really laid back atmosphere. Whats not to like????

Firstly although the food is good here it is more expensive than we have been paying in El Tunco and it is fairly remote so there are limited options to eat off site. We have now found a couple of local run restaurant down the beach that are cheaper and so far very good, so this may have been mitigated, its also nice to have a little variation.

Secondly there is no wifi, you can rent tigo sticks for $5/day, unfortunately I am unable to make this work on my tablet and have been left bookless for a few days, its a hard life I know, luckily I have the updated angry birds Starwars, phew!!!

The owner Tom, is something of a character/nutbar/local legend boasting his own TV show among other achievements, recently, equally as chilled out and an obvious kindred spirit (nutbar), Harry has joined the Tortuga team. We have wondered if Tom cloned himself and as a result hatched Harry out of a turtle egg in the hatchery next door.

We have been getting a free lift to Las Flores every morning to surf with Tom and Harry and Tom's partner Cindy (very accommodating). Las Flores is STUNNING, its an amazing little cove at the edge of the jungle, with dark sand and a sand covered point break (photo below) there is very posh expensive accommodation by way of surf camps etc at the beach and one very budget place called Rancho Mama Cata, that we my check out as its right by the point. 

 

The boys (Tom and Harry) have very big plans for the hostel although I fear they discus these more than actually doing them. Tom runs a turtle hatchery next to it by buying turtle eggs of off local collectors. Its awesome that they want to make a difference, only (and this is my inner scientist speaking), it bugs me a bit that they don't collect any data and I'd like to now more about the hatchery and the turtles, still by buying and hatching eggs that would have been eaten, I'm sure good is being done. 

There really is little to complain about, but we are British, and I would highly recommend staying here, cheap accommodation in this area is very hard to come by and I'm pretty sure it would not be with the quality and service you get here, with the huge added bonus of potential turtle encounters and hatchings!!!

By Things with Stuffs contribution

Photos of Las Flores beach and Stuff on La Cuco Beach

Is this the way to Las Flores?

We have left El Tunco and headed for the East coast of El Salvador, I know this sounds strange as El Salvador is on the West Coast of the Americas but it is actually facing due South.  We decided to go El Coco Beach and Las Flores, basically the same place.  

We looked into transport and being the hardcore, gritty determined travellers we are, we decided on getting a private air conditioned car.  Ok we could have got chicken buses but it would have taken about five changes and about 10 hours as opposed to a 3 hour car journey and we had surfboards to lug about.  Not that I'm being defensive about us being lame and getting a private car.  

Info: Private Car $80; shuttle and chicken bus $25 per person; shuttle and pick up $25 per person plus $15 pick up; just chicken bus $cheep cheep.

The journey was cool we had a really friendly driver called Santiago who was a dude, he did some cool over taking maneuvers, we drove past volcanoes that apparently erupt every 4 years (See Pic to follow).  I also spotted a Travel Tavern, well I like to think of it as Travel Tavern with an El Salvadorian Alan Partridge living in it.  Em kindly pointed out that it was probably a brothel as the rooms were $6 a night.  Santiago dropped us off at La Tortuga Verde which means The Green Turtle.  We bought him lunch as he was super friendly and helped us practice our very little Spanish.  We have been here one day, there is no internet ,you can rent dongles for $2.50 but we're being tight, so the updates might be a bit thin on the ground.  We have already surfed Las Flores which is an awesome wave.  The waves were about head high and it is really easy to surf, only downside is that it is mega busy.  I will get some pics so you get the idea.

There is also a turtle hatchery here so if your interested in turtle conservation which we are, it is spot on.  Were still exploring and getting to know the place but once we know more we will let you know.

More details on everything to follow!

By Stuff

Artisan Fishing

Just a follow up to Stuff's post about catfish hunting. We have seen a few different types of artisan fishing practices in El Salvador, which I find really interesting compared with the high scale, often technology dependent effort you see in the UK, I guess you can't switch off the fisheries observer inside once you get it going.

Besides the kids getting catfish dinner with their bare hands we've seen individual fisherman in the river and on the coast with small throw nets as well as hand lines, the small fiberglass boats which is the more industrial scale side of things at La Libertad Fish Market and even a man climbing through the mangroves with a small pointy stick, I do not know what he was after.

I do wonder (and somewhat doubt) if any of this is monitored or regulated at all. We saw some more unusual catches at the fish market including a baby hammerhead and several small piles of small shark fins.

It's really cool to see some more traditional techniques, although I don't doubt the nets are now made from modern materials but the lack of technology utilised is refreshing.

Here are some photos of river and sea net fishing and o the boats used in La Libertad.

By Things

Catfish Hunting

Right something else we saw that was pretty cool as the kids round here swim in this River that runs next to El Tunco, now I would not swim in this river if you paid me!! I think it must have more crazy diseases in it than Portland Down (Biological/Chemical Weapons testing station in the UK). Mainly due to the fact that the sewer system is not great around here and you often see it running into the river. I don’t think they have a Water Framework Directive here.  So these kids are quite happily diving about etc but their not just larking about they were catching catfish with their bare hands.  This kid popped up with his hand in a catfishes mouth.  This is how you catch catfish with your hands; you put your hand into holes or under logs and stuff, the catfish thinks your food and chomps on your hand and wont let go.  Now this was bad move for this particular catfish as the kid promptly put the catfish in his backpack.  

By Stuff

Its way more impressive than sitting about playing Nintendo - By Things

K59 and Boozing

Well this is not a specific post about anything we’ve done more just of an update on anything random that has happened over the last few days from Stuffs perspective.  Yesterday was cool we went to this surf spot called K59 which involved getting on a bus again which is always interesting.  They call the buses here chicken buses which always reminds me of Romancing the Stone when the author lady goes to Columbia, and yesterday there was actually chickens on the bus.  These buses are super cool as they decorated with loads of pictures and stickers on the inside and on the outside they are often have the Transformer symbol spray painted on the front.  I thought this was F******G COOL!!! See picture below.

So anyway we got to K59 and the wind was slightly onshore but we surfed anyway and it was pretty good.  We went with Mads and Ole who are two Norwegian guys we have met they are cool. We also went with an Aussie guy called Riley who is pretty chilled out as well.  Just for info the buses in El Salvador are really cheap, it cost us 45 cents each to go to K59 and back again.  You don’t always get a seat but you cant complain for the price.  

So we got back had lunch/breakfast as we were starving, then watched the football at a bar called La Bocana . Back at the hostel a crazy pool party was going on, yeah the hostel has a pool so we are really roughing it.. When I say crazy that is my version of crazy and anyone who knows me knows my usual social life is surfing, ale, food and sleep. It reminded me of something out of MTV when they did that shit programme called spring break.  That was cool, we sat around drinking beer in the pool and chatting I’m sure the health safety executive in the UK would love that one.  We then went out had pizza, and went to see a jazz band at a place called La Guitara, I’m pretty sure Bleeding Gums Murphy was there.  

Oh yeah we went back to the hostel, decided we needed Cheetos and Rum so nipped out to by both we then sat and watched the original Batman with Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger directed by Tim Burton.  It was awesome.

Photo of Stuff at K59 taken by Things

Mot Not

From the bus back from the salt water pools we had a little way to walk to reach the main road into town. During the walk we spotted a very unusual, very exotic bird on the other side of the road. We stopped to take a photo fearing that crossing the road would scare it off, however just as we were looking at it we heard a loud horn to our left and turned to see a large truck veering off the road towards us, luckily we were far enough out the way but the one photo of the bird is very blurred and the commotion scared it off. I now believe it was an turquoise-browed Motmot. So cool and worth looking up on the internet to see what it really looks like, but not worth getting run over for. Really hope we see another one but here's the terrible photo just for fun.

Out and about - reposted due to unexplained disappearance

Yes, very much out of character we actually went and did something besides surfing and sitting. I like to think this move was motivated by our adventurousness and drive to explore but it was potentially just so we had something to write about on the blog.

So we were told about some salt water pools a five minute, 50 cent bus ride from El Tunco, called Palmercito. So once Stuff had satisfied his surf hit in the morning we set off in the heat of the day. Now as we understood it we simply needed to catch a bus heading to La Libertad, inform the driver we want to get of at Palmercito and bobs your uncle. We soon discovered that the way we were saying Palmercito simply was not being understood this was not helped by a preacher type screaming the lords word in Spanish a little closer to my face as I'd choose. Pretty soon we spotted a sign welcoming us to La Libertad so we jumped of feeling a little discouraged by our failure to get where we'd planned to go. We had however wanted to check out the fish market in La Libertad so headed towards the pier. 

The fish market was really interesting, although a little disheartening as we saw quite a lot of very small shark fins out drying. Still looking at the size of the boats and fleets, this is not an industrial scale fishery. We also saw a dead baby hammerhead and some jewelry made from dried seahorses.

We then found tourist information and once again attempted to locate Palmercito. After we both attempted the name to the tourist info lady several times the ball dropped and she finally understood and repeated the name back to us as far as I can tell this sounded identical to what we had been saying! However we did discover that it was in fact in the opposite direction to what we had been told so we jumped back on a bus (after a little more ignorant wondering about) and headed back the way we came. We passed El Tunco and on to be dropped at Palmercito.

We walked down a deserted cobble track to a very quiet beach and found the pools at one end. They looked really cool although Stuff was not so impressed with the algal inhabitants, still we both had a dip before heading back to the road. On the way we stopped for a quick beer then caught another bus home.

By Things

Photos below of the fish market and the well kept secret of Palmercito.

The dog days

So, like many places, particularly those poorer countries there are a lot of dogs with no owners here. This for us is a little heart breaking, due to the fact we are both totally soft when it comes to dogs, but what can you do? We take our favorite ones, named Ropey Dog and Less Ropey Dog, our left covers, but my more realistic side kind of tells me we may just be delaying the inevitable, also we'll be leaving soon and we can only hope other people do the same. The more painful thing here is that they are potentially really nice looking dogs given a few meals and a bath and so good natured, so sad. At least its warm here with a river and lots of food places with accessible bins!!
Man as soon as we settle anywhere I'm going to be collecting strays!!!

Whilst on this subject for other people that are as wet and mushy as we are, something we can all do is support the world vets, they are actually tackling this problem, among many others, by providing donation funded neutering schemes in poorer countries, which along with education is the only real way to reduce stray populations long term.

worldvets.org

Photo of Ropey.  Ropey currently has a stripe of orange spray paint on his head, poor baby!

Pig Rock Surfing

We are currently staying in a place called El Tunco, which means The Pig. This is due to a big rock in the middle of the beach that supposedly looks like a pig.  Me and Things beg to differ as it just looks like a big frickin rock, not a pig.  Anyway that’s by the by.  We have been surfing here for about a week.  The waves are good as it never drops below about head high during rainy season.  When it is this size you can either surf the breach break by pig rock or go over to the point break which is super consistent.  It peels for about 200-300m if you get a good one on the bigger swells.  It is one of the first times in a long time my legs actually feel tired from standing up for so long.  Hard to believe I know.  Over the weekend it gets pretty busy as everyone descends on El Tunco from San Salvodor.  There are other waves nearby but we have not explored yet.  I have been surfing most mornings and then giving Things a surf lesson in the middle of the day when it gets a bit quieter.  Most days between 1100 and 1600 the wind goes light cross shore but is still good and some days the wind goes more onshore but it is still surfable just doesn't look so good.  I had not surfed for about 3 months before getting here, well maybe once but that does not count, so its been really good to get back in the water!!  I feel a bit bad about writing about this surf spot as good surf spots are usually closely guarded secrets but where we are is all over the internet and in every storm rider guide so if you want to find it you can.  I have not just exposed the best kept secret in El Salvador.  The accommodation is cheap here, the food is good and cheap, the beer is cold, cheap and drinkable, the water is about 28 degrees centigrade and the air is 30 degrees centigrade.  Not a bad surf spot.

Useful info:
Board Rental $10; Surf Lesson $10; Accommodation $10-$30; Breakfast $5; Lunch $5; Dinner $10-$20 with beer, got to have beer.  You can do it cheaper than this if you cook yourself or finder cheaper places to eat, we have been eating out a lot as I love food!! Got to Lord it up some of the time!!  I will post again dedicated to the food at another point, it deserves its own post. 

A couple of pics to follow, me surfing first day in after a 3 month dry spell, the rock that dose not look like a pig and the point peeling nicely.  

Roasting Roatan

Ok last post about Roatan, apart from the story of us being mugged we'll write that together at some point....

Whilst living in Roatan we rented a small apartment next door to Erika that was positioned near Things favourite bar, Buena Vida, which means the good life.  This bar is run by an American couple called Joe and Wendy and if you ever go to Roatan you have to go to this bar as they are some of the nicest people you could meet.   It is in West End.  Things had become good friends with them over the 5 months she had spent on Roatan and they were very welcoming when I arrived.  They also let us run up bar tabs frequently!  Thanks Joe and Wendy!!  Anyway I digress the point of this post was to talk about a roast dinner that was requested by Erika that Things and I cooked.  Yes I did say a roast and yes Roatan is in the tropics.  Cooking in Roatan is a warm affair at the best of times and usually results in a fair amount of swetting! Lovely I know. Thus putting an oven on for 3 hours seemed like an awesome idea.  So the roast was on, Things and myself went to the supermarket got a chook, taters and some veg.  It should be said now that Erika is Canadian but seems to love British food.  One evening when I was in blighty and speaking to Things on the skype she requested that her friend would like some walkers crisps brought over as you can’t get them on Roatan.  So in the interest of international cooperation I subsequently transported 35 bags of walkers crisps from the UK to Roatan.  Good tip here, if you are travelling with surfboards and need something to pack around them to cushion them as they are fragile, crisps do a pretty good job.  So Erika was super chuffed to have walkers crisps but alas more British fare is requested so the Roast is organised.  Things was also very excited about the roast having not been in the UK for 5 months.  Myself I was non plussed as I had only left the UK 2 weeks prior but I am greedy porker so was more than happy to eat a roast.  We cooked the roast chicken with some taters and veg and it was tasty! There was even enough for Bobby (Erika’s dog) to have some.  Oh and we had a full English breakfast the morning of the roast…. Yep we were happy little pigs that day.  

by Stuff

Roatan: Retrospective

My apologies that some of the earlier posts on this blog are a little backwards looking, this is purely because we should have started this blogging business earlier, however if you are familiar with us you would be surprised that it got started at all.

I spent over 5 months on Roatan and feel that I should take the time to comment on my time there.

Firstly, it is beautiful, a relatively small island with a barrier reef currently still in very good condition, the beaches are man made so white and clean the sea is holiday brochure blue and there are palm trees. 

A thing I really loved is the wildlife there, partly because it constantly reminds you that you are somewhere exotic but mainly because its really cool. So I will miss the geckos and other lizards, particularly the wild iguana (one of my fav animals ever), I only saw 2 snakes but they were very cool too, the humming birds blow my mind and I could sit and watch them for ages I particularly love when they have a little fight as they look like they're fencing. Alas I never found a tarantula, but there where all manor of bugs that would rock up and surprise me, one of the best being fireflies!!! The mosquitoes will not be missed...enough said!

Besides the wildlife obviously I will miss the people greatly, however Roatan is forever transient and in short everyone leaves, its dynamic and refreshing but also kind of sad, some of the people I'll miss the most had left before I did. But the types of people you get close to are the ones that you may just bump into again down the road.

The best bar in West End by a long way in my view, although there are some other good ones is Buena Vida, its small and unassuming, but has the best owners, atmosphere, music, food and value for money particularly in west end. Also food specials and quiz nights, love it.

The diving is perfect, its clear, warm and hassle free with the sites generally a few minuets away. There are severel very good dive shops and internships offering unlimited diving are amazing value for money. I was with Barefoot Divers for my Divemaster and instructor courses, but I have also heard good things about West End Divers and Scuba Roatan. I was lucky enough to see eagle rays, sting rays, nurse sharks, Caribbean reef sharks and turtles, as well as all the more common reef dwellers. I particularly loved seeing eagle rays, trunk fish, cow fish, moray ( the less stalky ones), barravuda, grouper and any of the puffer/burr fish.

Local interaction on the most part is positive, a lot of the boat captains (who I love) and shop owners etc are local to the island or at least the country and are very friendly and interesting with lovely accents, however having been there for some time I became aware of an underling vibe that is understandable but makes me uncomfortable. That is the common belief that white people are rich and ignorant and a women's option is not quite as respected as a mans. This is not a blatant thing and it may be seeded from some good old British cynicism but its how I felt on the odd occasion, given the environment its understandable. A lot of the local people are poor by western standards and there seems to be increasing  drug use and the tourists, predominantly white, have or appear to have money and little awareness of the true (local) price of goods and services. I simply object to such a steriotypical view of the west, although it has been earned by us I'm sure and is continually perpetuated, even by me with my lack of Spanish language stills, I still find it frustrating as I do with any presumptions about me or people I respect. This has little effected on day to day life as long as you know the real price of a taxi ride but you do have to haggle constantly to avoid the 'tourist' price tag.

OK I do not want to be negative but I do want to be honest. There is some crime against tourists there although in the most part its avoidable and very rarely, if ever violent, its more likely you will simply pay more than the next person for certain things. 

Food on the island is nothing to exciting, particularly in terms of variety, but you can live pretty cheaply on local food, however I am in no rush to ever see another baleadia!!!!!

So, to finish just a short list of the other things I loved about Roatan: Hammocks, Rum drinks, dump truck rides through the jungle, jungle air, Zack attacks, sun sets, stars, Bobby the dog, bioluminessence, Erik's dock, Palmetto, porcupine puffer fish and music trivia.

By Things

Photos by Stuff

TACA Airlines

I have now taken 3 flights with Taca Airlines and thought it best to mention a few words about them. Whilst I was in Roatan (Bay Islands off Honduras) I was informed that the slang acronym for TACA is Take A Chance Airlines and I will now dispel this myth. The first flight was from Toronto to El Salvador, then onto Roatan and the final from Roatan to El Salvador. On every flight they feed and water you well even if the flight is only an hour long!! Which is important to me. And on the final flight the pilot pretty much skirted around the edge of a massive thunderstorm, through some crazy turbulence where everyone’s crap in the cabin was flying about and we were lifted out our seats and then landed in heavy rain with high cross winds just as the lightning started going crazy. Personally I think that is worth a mention.
By Stuff

Storms coming........

Tomato face girl

'You've caught the sun mate'
'Best get some extra sun screen'
'You look really hot are you all right'
Look I have the complexion of a tomato regardless of sun exposure and body temperature, I do not know why but believe me I am aware of it!!!!
I have always been rosy of cheek, if I'm a little hot, been in the sun or wind or had a glass of wine I become tomato of face! It has never really bothered me, however recently, EVERYONE seems to be pointing it out. I suppose I'm travelling in areas where being pale skinned is not the norm so tomato face is going to stand out all the more, still I'm not sure why highlighting someone's complexion is not considered rude, I do not point It out if someone has something else wrong with their face, I also have spots but its rare someone casually points that out. I guess rosy cheeks is only cute in small girls and fairy tails. But as to my knowledge I can not change my face, I shall simply say viva tomato face!!!!!

By Things

Roatan and the beginning of the Travels

I flew to Roatan around the 19th of  May to meet Things who had been doing her Divemaster and Instructors for the last 5 months.  I had been wrapping up things in Cornwall with the house and waiting for the start date of my sabbatical which my employers very kindly granted.  I finished work on the 10th of May and spent about a week going to see my family in various locations around the south of the England.

I flew with Transat across the Atlantic which were cheap but not that great if I’m honest.  I spent one night in Toronto,  Canadians are super friendly, and then I flew onto Roatan the next day.  I landed in Roatan and Things met me at the airport which was awesome as we had not seen each other for 5 months!!  

We then had 3 weeks together in Roatan where Things as a newly appointed dive instructor taught me to dive.   Diving is truly awesome!!  I completed my Open Water and Advanced  Open Water at Barefoot Divers which are based in Barefoot cay but have two dive centres on the Island.  I did my courses at the Polmetto site with Things teaching me and her friend Erika supervising as she has taught more people.  If you are going to learn to dive I cannot recommend more highly going to do it with Barefoot divers at the Polmetto site!!  It is a really small friendly dive centre, all the dive sites are really close and Erika is an awesome instructor! Not to take anything away from Things who was an absolute legend teaching me to dive.  I had a mini freak out when I first went about 7m underwater and had to take my mask off as one of the skills you have to complete.  The water shot up my nose it felt like I was drowning!! Most bogus!!  This story should not put you off learning to dive as Things and Erika were awesome and took me up to surface.  I then went on to complete ten dives on Roatan.  I saw 3 spotted eagle rays, a nurse shark, a turtle moving at about mach 10 underwater which was frickin awesome.  I then went on a shark dive and saw 15 Caribbean Reef sharks.  Basically if you are thinking about learning you should definitely do it!! It is wicked!!

Right that is enough for now…. If I’m rambling too much or you want more detail just leave a comment and I will mediate it.

By Stuff

Photo of Palmetto Plantation taken from plane during departure. By Things 

El Salvador : Rags to Riches

So, we are in El Tunco, El Salvador. Today we moved accommodation. We arrived in El Salvador on the 10th June and had arranged the first 4 nights accommodation and airport pick up online before leaving Roatan. 
We landed in an impressive tropical storm having experienced some of the most extreme turbulence I've ever been through, it was the kind that sparked a round of applause upon landing. This was followed by a death defying drive from the airport through a breathtaking lightning storm in a more than a little ropey car. The driver, Oscar had in fact come off the road on his way to pick us up due to heavy rain, now the car was entirely objecting to third gear as well as having some kind of electrical fault, due to water in its workings.
We did however arrive eventually (in second gear) to our new home, El Balsamo hostile in El Sunzal. The owner Giji met us and we found our room and had a couple of beers at the small, keep your own tab bar. The room was basic, with several beds with mosquito nets although it was just for us, the bathroom was shared and a short trot across the garden. With a bar, skate ramp and short walk to the beach we were on to a winner. Also some really friendly people and a nice atmosphere I would definitely recommend it for very good value accommodation ($14/night). However it is rainy season, and unfortunately that means BUGS!!! We saw out our 4 nights at El Balsamo, but today decided we'd had enough of being an all you can eat buffet for mozies, gnats, fleas and ants, this was compounded by a night time visit from Mr Rat. So we searched out new digs in town out of the undergrowth. Our friendly Norwegian neighbours at El Balsamo recommended Tunco Lodge, in El Tunco, we found it and liked it, however the $20 a night room is currently occupied, so our next option was $30 for the room with on suite and air conditioning, tired, grubby and itchy we took it with the plan of moving when cheaper is avalible, we will see.....
By Things