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.