Vacation: Tacuba, El Salvador

After a few days in Playa El Tunco we headed out for Tacuba. The plan was to do the more physically demanding stuff first (as well as do the high elevation stuff before we got acclimatized to sea level). It took a very long day of chicken buses... standing and waiting on the side of the road to change loud, cramped buses.

Our hostel in Tacuba wasn't much to look at from the outside (same with most buildings) but inside was a beautiful courtyard with guest rooms set at the back of it.

Our room was relatively comfortable, but the chickens, ducks, dog and cats in the yard and surrounding neighbourhood were pretty loud... very early in the morning. This is Tom hanging out on a coffee-sack-covered couch outside our room. The owners were very friendly, but laughed at us a lot because our Spanish was pretty bad at this point... especially after a long day and attempting conversations with no context. Since there aren't really any restaurants in Tacuba (except papusa stands) we ate most of our meals at the hostel. One night we did go out for papusa... kind of a stuffed tortilla. Tom and I both ate for under $3 including drinks. We went to Tacuba specifically to stay at this hostel and take one of the Impossible Park tours run by Manolo (the son of the owners). We opted for "La Luna" because it had everything - big hike through coffee plantations, playing along the river with a bunch of waterfalls, amazing views of the Impossible Park. Of course I'm a geek so I brought my GPS.. this is the track we did... about 13.8km round trip with approximately 750 m of elevation gain.

We caught a ride in the back of a pick-up truck to the trailhead (and back down from the exit point). Tom wanted to lay on his back in the pick-up and take a picture of me, but I was worried he'd smash his head... he compromised by snagging this one of me. Glad I had my glasses on though because we were dodging bugs and the occasional branch.

This is a pan from the top of the trail looking out on the coffee plantation. You can see the trees are aligned in a grid pattern, basically forming a wind break so that the coffee beans don't knock against each other. I should point out that our guide, Manuel, did not speak any English but thanks to recognizing a few words (thank goodness for all those learn Spanish podcasts prior to going!) and some excellent gesturing on the part of our guide meant we got about 75% of the dialogue.

Tom eager to try out the coffee beans:

The trail was pretty overgrown... you can make out Tom fairly decently in the top one, but in the second one you can only see a little blue patch of Manuel's shirt. Fortunately he didn't let us get too far behind!Another pan of the El Parque Impossible (and our guide Manuel):

We saw a ton of butterflies on the hike! Lots of yellows and oranges... the big blue Mariposas wouldn't cooperate long enough to be photographed though.At this point we intersected the river... time for a swim and some waterfall jumps (for Tom anyway). Tom went wandering up along the top of the cliff with our guide while I swam across this lovely cool pool so I could get a shot of him from below.

I took my time wandering around the pool first... playing with tadpoles and checking out their eggs. Unfortunately after taking this photo I slipped on a rock and crushed most of them =o(.

Tom's Matrix pose:Tom's view of the waterfall:

After this waterfall we walked along the river - gorgeous area!

Tom getting instructions for his next jump... hand gestures were key because of the language barrier... and sometimes demonstrations. Waterfall views (the last and biggest one - La Luna):

Apparently I was attempting to set a new fashion trend.

The hike out was steep (see profile) and by then it had gotten pretty hot - I was wishing for more waterfalls at the end, but no luck. We did get to pass through a shady patch of bamboo forest though.

The flowers were beautiful and huge, but I resisted the urge to become Botany Becky (as B. likes to call me).

The end of the hike:We had another mildly harrowing drive down the hill in the back of the pick-up... then back to relaxing hammock chairs at Mama & Papa's Hostel (we ended up picking ourselves up a pair of these in Guatemala for the deck next summer... different colour though).

And of course a giant beer... this one was 750ml and quite tasty... although in Guatemala Tom got a 1L beer at one of the restaurants... what a great idea these 1L beers!