Hola El Salvador

We made it....after over 40 hours of the same journey, we touched down in El Salvador, collected outbags and got our transfer to our hostel. Luckily it was only a short half an hour drive and no sooner had we arrived, we hit the sack. We awoke quite a few hours later and struggled to wake up.

Cold shower anyone...?

We were staying in a basic hostel close to the beach and run by a lovely English guy with his Salvadorian wife. The place was basic but it suited our needs for our first few days in Central America. When i say basic, i am talking cold showers and that was the luxury, but this is El Salvador....!

We had booked to take some Spanish lessons for the first 5 days and would start those in a few days time. Meanwhile we were keen to recover and get over the jet lag.

We explored the local small port town of Le Libertad, a bustling little town with a thriving fishing pier. The place was a world away from New Zealand! The fish market was rather in your face and the skinning and frantic chopping of stingray was unexpected. We declined the offer of trying the fresh samples whilst passing each stall. I'd like to keep my lunch thank you !



The beach was a short 5 minute stroll from our hostel and we enjoyed the long, open beach and warm sea. Something that we had last felt in Thailand!

On the Sunday we met our Spanish tutor, a little fella by the name of Hanibal (pronounced without the 'h', as you do in Spanish). We would be taking a 4 hour class every morning for the next 5 days. What were we thinking!? The first few days were tough, as the tutor had to start from scratch, but after this we managed to get to grips with the basics. In the afternoons and evenings the locals who worked in the hostel gave us good guinea pigs to test out our pigeon Spanish. They were very patient and repeated stuff a lot.

The days were spent with the classes in the morning followed by lunging around in the afternoon, be it in the hammocks dotted around the grounds or in the pool. After a week here and over our jet lag we set off to explore the rest of El Salvador. Luckily the owner of the hostel and his wife were heading the same way as us for a short trip, so we managed to jump in with them.

Our Hostel "El Roble"