El Salvador begins!

El Tunco was a nice place to hang out after what felt like days spent on buses. There isn't much to do there though, except for surf or try and learn how to, which is still all good! The waves are apparently well-suited to beginners so maybe we just got unlucky as when we tried our hand at it, the waves were so big that we spent most of the time under them or trying to swim against them!

It costs $10 an hour for one on one surf tuition. Our lesson started with 'practical theory', that is, board on the sand, lie on it and pretend to paddle (I did find myself wondering if we really needed someone to show us how to do that!). Then, in one quick movement, you push your body up with your hands and spring on to your feet with your leading leg in front - that being the one it feels more natural to put in front. If your right leg goes in front then like Ciaran, you're 'goofy'.

After a few pretend paddles and jumps up onto the board, we were ready to try in the water!

It was another reminder of how unfit I am! The waves were bigger and more powerful than we'd expected, so it was a constant battle to swim against them with the board. Often, and as the pro's do, it was easier to swim through them before they crashed on top of you. Still, on my first go, my teacher told me when to start paddling and I jumped up and hey presto, I was surfing the wave! For all of 4 seconds before I came crashing down into the white foam. That was the only time I managed to do it, as from then on the waves just seemed to get stronger, so I got more tired the more I practiced. Ciaran was pretty good though, he managed to paddle and stand up a few times!

After an hour we were completely knackered from trying to surf and swimming against/being thrown about by the waves, so instead of practising we gave it up for the day, and instead we had a walk down the beach to see how the pros do it! Watching some of them, I realised it must take years of practice to become anything near good at it. Or maybe just a natural flair that I don't seem to have!

We've spent the rest of the time in El Tunco just chilling out. Not literally, as it is so humid! It's 3 showers a day humid! But as you can see from the photos, it's actually been quite grey some of the time. Last night we got a welcome break from the humidity when a storm broke out, and with it took the electricity! The whole pueblo was in darkness, making for a dark and stormy candlelit dinner and also some slightly panicked moments as we found that the water in our cabin doesn't run without leccy! Strange, given how it's saltwater... Luckily the electricity came and went intermittently so it wasn't too bad of a situation. The most upsetting part was when the fan in the room wasn't working!

We're enjoying going slow here, so tomorrow we're going to have a mooch around La Libertad, the main town down the road, before heading off to Juayua for its weekly food festival, nom nom!