An early start and out of the hotel by 6am gets us to El Tunco by 10.
Our first break for second breakfast of coffee and pastries is at a Texaco gas station. Outside is a guard with an automatic rifle and the doorman is a guard with a pistol on his hip. Armed security guards are a common sight.
Our second break is at a roadside stall with a woman making pupusas, a traditional El Salvadorian dish. Pupusas, a small thick corn tortilla stuffed with beans and cheese is served with curtido, a fermented slaw of cabbage, carrot and onion. Delicious and hardy!
After cycling through Costa Rica and Panama with little roadside trash, and Nicaragua where trash was collected from a metal bin on a pole, it's shocking to see garbage just piled anywhere. A section of road just before El Tunco is just covered in trash. Dogs abound rooting through it.
El Tunco is a nice little seaside collection of hotels and restaurants, just off the main road. There are only two roads in and out, both guarded to keep out through traffic. We check out a couple of hotels and settle on the Papaya Hostal, the rooms are nice with a covered seating area out front. We settle in, clean-up and head for the beach. There is no swimming beach here, just rocks and a pounding surf. Surfers like it though, about two hundred meters off-shore are large breakers where they do their stuff.
We relax for the afternoon, have dinner again near the beach and watch the sunset. Since this coast is facing south the sun sets over the trees behind the beach, but the threatening clouds over the Ocean are still pretty.
Friendly security guy at a gas station. Guys like this are everywhere in El Salvador. Good idea for the US? Could provide jobs for guys that like to fondle their gun all day long.
Turn-off to El Trunco beach. The little loop-road is closed-off to through traffic and has lots of places to eat and sleep. At the end of the road is the beach.
We find a nice room at the Papaya Lodge. $25 is a little high for a room with fan, no TV, cold shower and shaky internet, but it is a tourist town, Saturday night and the room is nice.
