Day 80 : Border Crossings – El Salvador to Nicaragua

After a few nights of just chilling and doing nothing in El Tunco, it’s time to make my way down south. 

I dreaded getting on the shuttle, particularly since our legs would be crammed in an uncomfortable position for a full 10 hours.  Just wish they could had made the spacing between seats wider for a more comfortable ride. 

I suppose it does beat taking the chicken bus and crossing 3 countries’ immigration.  I would definitely hate it more having to load and unload my bags, changing buses at each immigration checkpoint, and queuing to get my passports checked. 

With the shuttle, everything was taken care of by the driver, a total peace of mind, and definitely worth the USD30. 

Cost breakdown

• Shuttle from El Tunco, El Salvador – Leon, Nicaragua : USD 30
• Honduras Entry Fee : USD 3
• Honduras Exit Fee : USD 1
• Nicaragua Entry Fee : USD 12

Day 76 – 79 : El Tunco, El Salvador

 

Journey to El Tunco

The original plan was to travel from Antigua to La Tortuga Verde on El Cuco Beach, but the direct connection via Gekkotours were no longer available. 

Taking the shuttle, I made my way to El Tunco beach, which cost GTQ 148 (USD20) and took 6 hrs, including the border crossing at Guatemala and El Salvador.

Hostel Recommendation : Tunco Lodge

Originally intending to stay only 2 nights at Tunco Lodge, the hostel became my home for 4 nights. 

I wasn't sure if it was tiredness that had built up or just the very chill nature of the hostel and the beach, but I had the best 4 consecutive nights sleep I ever had on my trip.

Definitely recommend anyone visiting El Tunco to stay in Tunco Lodge and opt for an aircon room. 

Comfortable firm mattresses and pillow, perfect size pool, food at in-house restaurant is also surprisingly good and reasonably priced. 

The wifi is also super fast, probably one of the fastest I had on my trip.

It is located 2 minutes away from the beach.

Price wise, I paid USD10/night for a bed in an aircon dorm, which slept 5.

Tunco Lodge

email : tuncolodge@gmail.com

Phone : +503 2389 6318 or +503 7857 5733.

Address : Km. 42, Playa El Tunco, Tamanique, La Libertad, El Salvador, C.A.

Biggest Festival of the Year @ La Libertad

We caught wind of a big party, and according to one of the locals in El Tunco, this is said to be the biggest festival in the entire world!

Held at La Libertad, located about 20mins from El Tunco, one of the locals had arranged a couple of shuttles to facilitate transportation to the site starting from 9.30pm.

On arrival in La Libertad, one of the main road was closed off from traffic.  It was full of people, and lined with make shift food stores, interjected with stages and live band at a few different sections of the road.