Darn good yam and waterfalls!

I can't believe I'm saying this but I was actually semi-happy to be leaving El Tunco, just to get away from the heat!

We were back to chicken buses again, as that seems to be the only way go get round El Salvador, unless you're leaving the country. Apart from the lack of AC and the sometimes excruciating/comical number of people they try to fit in to them, I really like travelling on chicken buses. It's so cheap and you really feel like you're experiencing the country for real, because that's how the locals do it. The only thing I am sad about is that we've not yet seen a chicken on a chicken bus!

We left El Tunco on a bus headed for Sonsonati, where we would have to change for Juayua. Another thing I love about chicken buses is meeting locals. (Admittedly I tend to just listen to Ciaran chatting away to them - his Spanish is so much better than mine!) On this first bus Ciaran was asking how much it was (and struggling to understand the conductor's pronunciation of 'quarter' - they use the US dollar here) and a little old local lady overheard him ask if it was a dollar each. When the conductor moved off she asked 'how much did he charge you? It's only a quarter, don't let him charge you any more!' It was a really nice thing for her to do, make sure that we weren't being gringo taxed!

Our bus to Sonsonati was delayed by about a hour, all the while us feeling increasingly uneasy at the prospect of being stuck in Sonsonati in the dark! Luckily we got there just before sundown and managed to barge our way local-style on to the bus, which was rammed with people heading home to Juayua and Ahuachapan for the night. Another thing to love about chicken buses is the people who jump on with their bags of plantain chips or fruit for 20 cents a pop. Mango never tasted this good!

We were heading to Juayua because Ciaran had been told by a girl on his San Pedro trek that they have a big food festival every weekend. It didn't disappoint! Picture the biggest prawns you've ever seen in the UK, then multiply their size by five and voila the delicious mariscos we tucked into in Juayua.

The whole town is taken over by a general market and the food festival and we spent the whole day just wondering round, stopping off every now and then for a freshly made licuado (milkshake) in a bag or a Pilsener. Wandering round there are lots of brightly coloured murals decorating the buildings here, I don't know why we don't do these at home, it would definitely brighten up some of our towns.

We stuck around for lunch at the festival on Sunday too, before heading down the road to Tacuba. We took the same bus we'd arrived on to Ahuachapan and from there got on the smallest, most packed chicken bus. In order to fit us on the bus, the conductor relieved us of all our bags, including our day sacks, which was a bit unnerving given that they have all our valuables in them, meaning we never let go of them in public places. We had no choice though as the bus was rammed sardine-style. 40 minutes later and we had arrived in Tacuba, an end-of-the-road town with just one hostel, 'Mama y Papa'. Luckily it's a gem of a hostel. It's like walking into someone's house and being made totally welcome. The rooms are set above a lush garden that has tortoises and ducks waddling around, including one very aggressive duck that hisses at everyone who walks past! There's a mirador, hammocks are plentiful and there's a big table for everyone to hang around, or sit at while enjoying one of the tasty burritos they make for you.

I could easily have spent days chilling out at this hostel, despite there not being anything to do in Tacuba itself. The only reason you'd really come here is to visit El Imposible national park and do the waterfall hike offered by the hostel, which is so much fun! There was a group of nine of us who signed up to do it, which was a good size. It's about a half hour drive from Tacuba town into the national park, where we met our guide Ramiro. He led us on an hour's trek through the jungle, showing us loads of cool things along the way, like how you can give yourself a temporary tattoo with the back of certain leaves, how you can strip certain plants and eat the stalk in the centre, leaves that feel just like and are used as tissues and lots of herbs - we all munched away on aniseed!

After the sweaty trek we were rewarded with 7 jumps into waterfalls of varying heights! We started off small at 3 metres, progressing to the final jumps, which were 10 metres each! I surprised myself - I didn't think I would do them all - but it was such a laugh, if not slightly nerve wracking before the bigger ones. With some you had to take a running jump to ensure that you cleared the rocks below! One of the girls with us was actually diving into the pools below, which was really impressive! I just couldn't! Even doing my 'graceful' jumps, my ears were doing some serious popping and they're still aching a bit now!

Tonight I finally gave in and had another pupusa! I've been avoiding them since I got ill after eating one in Flores, but El Salvador is the home of pupusas and well, everything else in town was closed, so we actually had no choice! They are made of a corn dough (which I am very much over, owing to its totally bland taste) and you choose your filling, which is put into the middle of the dough ball before it's smacked into a flat round pattie, ready to be grilled on the hotplate. This one was quite tasty as it had a variety of fillings including sausage, chicken, spinach and cheese, and it was massive, so a total bargain for $1! I'm not sure why it is I dislike the corn based food here... Maybe it's because I'm used to flour-based bread and tortillas. It can't be that bad as everyone in this part of the world eats corn tortillas with every meal.

From here we're heading on to Honduras, via San Salvador. We've only had a short time here in El Salvador but it's been cool. The people are so nice and it's easy enough to get around. I wish we had more time to visit more places here but something's gotta give!