We had intentions of writing a blog last Friday, to update on our adventures in highland Guatemala and our glorious beach days in El Salvador, but sadly we were stopped in our tracks when we realized that our camera and an embarassing number of bank cards had been stolen.
It was a moment we had anticipated, prepared for mentally even, but still it rocked our world. The worst part was that never, in our whole trip, had so many of our valuables been in a single place (a pretty little camera case) at one time. We´d just been to the internet cafe and then were distracted by a game of our beloved card game - Yanif. Somehow, only a few meters away from us, our camera must have been spotted by a passerby and stealthily snatched
It was a tough blow for us, but at least (Emily) our ice cream wasn´t stolen at the same time - only our USB with ALL of our photos backed up, in addition to the camera and bank cards. Ugh.
Although the camera incident left a somewhat bitter taste in our mouth (we´d planned to go surfing that afternoon but instead had to call Canada and cancel cards!!!), we still left El Salvador on a positive note. Playa El Tunco is a glorious beach town, there were some tasty treats to be had at the street food stalls, and we were reunited after nearly 10 weeks with our beloved Pacific Ocean (Tor was very near tears). Even better than simply the Pacific, it was the Pacific at 23 degrees celsius, the most refreshing swim you could ask for! The town is cruisey ( this time the lonely planet writer´s were right - there is no better word). Not a lot happening outside of the surfing and burrito eating scene. And the people of the town are what really makes it shine. After our day of crisis the local friends we´d made couldn´t have felt more bad that something like that had happened in their town.
A free postcard later (the guy, Ivan at Surfo´s who´d helped us to arrange our bus to Nicaragua felt that we´d had such a tough day that he wanted to do something nice) we left El Tunco and made our way to Nicaragua.
We rode with a bus line called King Quality, and we felt like actual Kings. We felt like we were cheating on our dear friends the Chicken Buses, but it was a (not overly expensive) way to get from San Salvador to Leon (Nicaragua) with both border crossings in about 8 hours, which is otherwise impossible. We´ve spent a few days in Leon bathing in our own sweat (the humidity feels like getting hit in the chest by an Orca´s tail) and loving every minute of it. Several ice showers a day are necessary. Leon is beautiful, and on our first morning here we woke up to an email from Sarah and Simon (some Kiwi travel friends from a few weeks ago) who confirmed that yes, we had transfered ALL of our pictures to their laptop when we´d all stayed together. Technology has really come through in a big way (what do you think of that Pete, ya caveman?), so a big thanks to it and to Sarah and Simon. You guys saved us.
After a few days here in Leon the plan is to head northeast into the mountains, for a week or so of fun involving some combination of the following: small villages, coffee farms, jungle parks, waterfalls, hiking, etc.
We´ll hope to update you on these adventures on our next highly anticipated (haha) blog post. We do have Tor´s camera, but at present we don´t have a way to get those pictures onto a computer. We´re working on it.
Miss you all!
Love Lisa and Tor
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