Tunco to Cuco, El Savador
We pull into tunco knowing that it’s a bit too busy for us, but needing to get online again and knowing we can meet up with Tad and Gaila of Overland Now for dinner. We return to the discoteca parking lot and make camp; then head out for some food, some internet and another smoothie. If theres anything that would bring us back to the town its the fresh homemade smoothies!
We are finishing up our smoothie when tad and gaila show up...apparently they had been by the bus a few times but kept missing us. We all catch up on emails and then decide to spend the heat of the day in the swimming pool at their hotel. perfect. We pool right through to sunset happy hour overlooking the waves and then back to rinconcito to introduce them to the beauty that is gourmet pupusas. For a town that's not perfect for us, we certainly do have a good time here...
Tad and Gaila are on the path north and back home, which makes for interesting conversation and gets us thinking. It’s fun to hear of their exciting plans back in the northwest and makes us a bit jealous that they will be mingling with friends by spring...but it also gets our wheels spinning on many levels. We have successfully put ourselves in a place where we know we can do anything we want in life.
The problem is...that we currently don’t know what that is. We have may great options but are still struggling to put our finger on exactly how we want to spend our days...even for the next few years if not the “master plan” for life (which we assume is way to big picture to even attempt discussing). Where, that seems easy but the what and how- thats more tricky... After an evening with these two we have hours of deep discussion about our path, about vision and about what’s next- but don’t have a clear answer to share as we still don’t have one.
The next day we head south for El Cuco. As close to the honduran border as we can get without having to leave the beach. If there's a town here we didn’t see it...just wall after wall of hotels or houses...hard to tell because all we could see was the walls. The drive down was just as beautiful as the rest of El Slav, but mostly inland rather than following the coast.
We park at the Tortuga Verde (Green Turtle), a tranquil set of simple rooms in the sand, take a long walk on the beach and then soak in the pool before dinner. As we are 2 of only a handful of people here they show us a table in the sand looking over the ocean and we dine on some surf and turf while winding down from our day.
A simple day really, but we know we have to rest our minds and bodies before attempting two border crossings tomorrow.
As we’ll be leaving in the morning, it’s worth noting that we were really taken with El Salvador. In fact, we’ve learned that we likely wont be able to re-enter (for longer than a day to pass through) and we’re deeply disappointed- we would love to spend more time here. The beaches are fantastic and the people were polite, friendly and engaging. The constant wind kept us relatively cool considering the heat and we didn’t experience a single bug in our time here. The pupusa made us feel right at home despite not eating a single taco and will become a permanent part of our diets. We could do without the walls that are customary around each property and home, and we wish we could actually walk into a store and look at things rather than having to tell someone on the other side of the window to grab what we want... but it doesn’t change in the least how we feel about you. Thanks for showing us a really good time.