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.

Day 75 : Antigua

Antigua is my most favourite town in Guatemala.  The city is really beautiful, and somewhat reminded me of San Cristobal de las Casas, with its numerous cafes and boutique stores housed in quaint little shop houses.

Not so great for walking, with its cobbled stone roads.

Day 74 : Chichicastenango Market

Chichicastenango market operates every Thursday and Sunday.  There is a shuttle option that facilitates the connection between Panajachel Antigua and via Chichicastenango market, which was ideal for me, as I needed to make my way to Antigua and was also keen to see the market, as it is said to be the largest in Central America. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone!

The cost of the shuttle varied between GTQ130 to GTQ150, and I went with Eternal Tours, located on the main street of Panajachel.

Strongly recommend the company, as the staff Felix who sold the ticket was very detailed and honest.  The vehicle used for the trip was also fairly new and the driver was efficient in taking shortcuts to avoid traffic. 

Departing at 8am, we arrived at Chichicastenango at about 9.30am. The market was certainly huge, and at the beginning I had a systematic way of covering the area, but soon got lost after a while.

There were a lot of people visiting, both locals and non-locals, and with many different stores.  However for someone travelling for more than 4 months, I couldn't really buy anything, so after a while, the merchandises started looking the same. 

Day 71 – 73 : Lake Atitlan

One of the key destinations in Guatemala is Lake Atitlan, a huge lake with a surface area of 130.1 square kilometres.  It has a scenic backdrop of a couple of majestic volcanoes (Volcan Toliman & Volcan Atitlan). 

I made the town of Panajachel my base at Lake Atitlan, primarily for its ease of access, and took day trips to visit the numerous villages around the lake. 

Panajachel is known as the tourist town, and the main port of call for most visitors before getting on the boat to the villages.  It's also the largest town on the lake and constantly bustling with activity, and has one of the best views of the volcanoes.

Day 70 : Route to Panajachel, Lake Atitlan

At 8am, all the shuttles to Rio Dolce, Flores and Antigua had arrived to pick up the rest of the group that had gone with me to the Semuc Champey tour.  Having spent a couple of good quality days together, we were sad to say our goodbyes. 

After about 10 minutes wait, with no sign of my pickup showing up, I started getting worried.

This is the last leg of my open ticket which I had bought with the tour agency REPTSA, and had been concerned about being scammed. 

Max, the owner of El Muro Hostel on Lanquin, had called the agency to confirm my ticket and seat yesterday.

Seeing the worried look on my face, Max  recalled REPTSA again, and was told no one on their end confirmed my seat with the local shuttles yesterday, but they will call the shuttle driver and have them pick me up. 

After waiting for another 10 minutes with still no signs of a shuttle, Max called the shuttle driver instead, as he had close contact with the local shuttles.  The driver told Max they had not received any calls from the agency, but will come and pick me up in any case.

A couple minutes later, the shuttle arrived. PHEW! 

It was more of a bus this time round, and was a slightly more comfortable ride than the small shuttle.

Max had been super nice and hospitable to me throughout the whole time I stayed at El Muro, and his help on the shuttles had been a life saver. Thank you Max!

It was another 10hr drive.  It didn’t look like it would take that long based on the distance on the map, however the roads were windy, as we drove across the mountainous regions of Guatemala. 

Once again, there were beautiful views of the mountains and countryside, however this time with more small villages dotted around enroute to Panajachel, Lake Atitlan.

Day 69 : Semuc Champey

Wading into caves, rope swings, tubing on a river, jumping off a bridge, trekking through a nature reserve to swim in turquoise coloured pools, that's what Semuc Champey had to offer. 

It had been an exhilarating day! 

6 of us from the hostel went together for the El Muro Full Day tour – 1 Dutch (Saunders), 3 Kiwis (Cameron, Nick, Alex), 1 Aussie (Klarissa), and I.

Day 68 : Route to Lanquin

17 people were squeezed on a small shuttle generally meant for 15.  I am glad I got in the shuttle early enough to take a seat where I had enough space to stretch out my legs.  

The sun is permanently out again, as we took the shuttle from Flores to Lanquin, which took 8.5hrs.

It's the first time I am travelling through the country of Guatemala with good weather, and it was a good thing too.

The roads were windy and views were picturesque. Rolling mountains, open pastures and farmlands filled the scenes as we travelled up and down windy mountainous roads towards our next destination. 

Day 65 – 67 : Flores

I am glad that on the final day of my stay in Flores, the rain had subsided and the sun came out, giving me a chance to properly explore the island. 

It must had been less than regular rainfall that Flores gets, as the water level around Flores seemed higher than usual, and in some spots overflowed into the streets.

Flores is a very beautiful small round island, connected to Santa Elena (the mainland) by a bridge, with only a few streets, running in a circular manner.