After getting the call to go back to work in 2 weeks, I decided I would continue on the road I was on down into El Salvador and jumpseat out of San Salvador to get back to the states. I decided I would skip past the city and hit the beach before going back to the arctic north.
I headed to a hostel called “Tortuga Verde” with my friend Chiu who I had met at D&D at Lake Yojoa. We took the bus to the border of Honduras and El Salvador where we got stuck for the night and finished our journey the next day. We arrived at El Cuco and found an enormous beach waiting for us there.
El Cuco is known by the locals for its surfing and for all the sea turtle eggs that are laid there. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t fathom laying on my chest that I still semi-recently had the surgery on, so I skipped the surfing and drank cervezas, read my Spanish book, “El Principito,” and waited for Saturday, the day when they were supposed to release all the baby turts to scramble from the beach into the ocean.
Chiu and I headed each morning to, “Adela’s,” the little restaurant next door for our “desayunos” or breakfast which always consisted of eggs, beans, rice, and some queso fresco. One morning we got to meet Daniela and her cat who she was very proud to show us.
At Tortuga Verde they have three rescued pelicans. They all have some sort of issue with their wings being damaged. They’re allowed to roam free around the property so once in a while a pelican will trot up behind you and take a big pelican bite of your chair. They were aggressive and would flip out if you approached them.
Saturday finally came and I got the disappointing news that there would not be a turtle launch that Saturday. I was quite sad, but their Saturday night techno party was still on. The DJ started to slam their beats and I soon realized there really wasn’t any techno, it was the same salsa/bachata/raggaeton music I had been hearing my whole trip to I tried my hand again at Salsa. I drank quite a few cervezas and enjoyed myself as the only white dude on the dance floor.
After El Cuco I went on my own again and went to El Tunco. The only reason I was really heading there was to pick up my computer charger that a shuttle driver was going to drive in from Antigua, Guatemala, but I was going to enjoy myself nonetheless!
El Tunco is even better known as a prime surfing spot than El Cuco and it’s really been built up as a tourist destination in El Salvador. It was a little too touristy for me overall, but I had two days that let me walk around on their pebble beaches and have my very last margarita before returning to work.
