Hola, sorry for the lack of blog posts, but honestly, they take kind of long. We have wifi but it’s not great so trying to add photos is such a task. Anyways, our holiday was insanneee. One of the best weeks of my life. Not Joking. Playa el Tunco I love you forever. I’m currently listening to my Honduras playlist which has all the songs we were dancing to and it’s making me sad, I miss it ☹.
For our October holiday, 10 of the Honduras volunteers headed to El Salvador. We stayed in a little surfer beach town. It was tiny, yet beautiful and consisted of two streets. It was a different world to Honduras, it almost seemed fake. It was low season which meant it was quite quiet, just full of local surfers, and since it’s so small anyways meant that as a group of 10 white girls we stood out a lot and everyone knew our business – after a night out, maybe not a great thing hm.
Before our holibobs could begin, Iona and I had to travel to a little town on the El Salvador border called Mapulaca where two other volunteers stay. To save us some cash, six of us stayed in their room, this meant three people in each bed – it was a bit of a tight squeeze. Luckily I was snug between Izzy and Esther meaning that the rats couldn’t get to me. The next morning we got up nice and early to make the 6am bus. I was tired but I was also looking forward to crepes for breakfast in El Salvador which Libby and Esther assured us were definitely worth it. So after a few hours on this cramped bus with our big rucksacks we trekked up this huge hill, to unfortunately find out that the cafe was closed. This instead meant that I had the opportunity to try my very first pupusa, an El Salvador specialty, basically a tortilla, most commonly filled with beans and cheese, but there are lots of other options such as prawn or garlic.
We stayed in Papaya lodge in an 8 bedroom dorm which worked out great (although unfortunately two of the girls had to stay in another dorm) for $10 a night which was alright as it had a pool that we took good advantage of.
After two months (yes I’ve been here two months now, see y’all in 10) of pretty much getting fed the same food everyday and not having a say of what and when we eat, it was seriously amazing stuffing my face with bagels, croissants, chips and pesto pasta!!! For those who know me you can imagine how happy I was when I seen pesto on the menu.
Trying to stick on somewhat of a budget (more difficult than I thought) we ate at the hostel sometimes which consisted of peanut butter sandwiches, porridge (yum) and homemade pancakes. The first meal we made was spaghetti and we added a sachet of tomato sauce? Sounds very simple I know. Unfortunately we didn’t buy enough sauce, we needed like 3 or 4 more packets, and then when Emily tried to drain it with a saucepan (DofE style) it all started to fall out so we gave up and just had watery spaghetti with a tomato tinge, delish. While we were being MasterChef’s, there was a couple next to us also making spaghetti, but properly, like they were chopping things, and this made us feel a bit stupid but it’s okay because soon we’ll have three months to practice.
It was hottt, like I thought Honduras was hot, but this was roasty toasty. Luckily because it was a beach town, we could go wild and just wear bikinis and shorts all day. This was great since I like to think I’ve got a bit of a tan now, however most of the others are just burnt. The beach in El Tunco was a rocky beach and full of surfers so we didn’t want to swim or sunbathe there, so instead we headed to a quiet black sand beach just a short five-minute bus journey away. The waves were hugeee and we had a great day swimming.
On the Wednesday we went to visit some waterfalls with a couple of tour guides who we’d met on a night out, so we got a pretty good deal. I wasn’t anticipating any treks, so I didn’t bring my trainers so rip my no longer white Nikes. The walk down to the waterfall was steep at parts and there were a few falls (think that’s two tequila shots for Alice?!) but considering Kevin (tour guide) was in flip flops, in the words of Esther ‘it really wasn’t that bad’. We walked past three waterfalls on the way down and stopped at the final one for a swim. On the trek back up we stopped at another waterfall where we jumped off a little cliff. Some people were a tad hesitant to jump until Kevin pointed out that if we can come for a year to Central America then we can jump into a waterfall. We all jumped.
We’re all holding onto a big rock here as it was actually really strong and we were struggling
Iona and Esther both got tats. Esther got a little butterfly that is super cute and looks lovely. Iona got a smiley face on her big toe. Iona also didn’t realise that they needed time to heal so now she’s scared to put pressure on it (so walk basically) lol. It’s actually pretty cute though and I can’t wait to get a tattoo in every country we visit while travelling, so by February I’ll have seven.
That was a joke Mum
It may have been low season, but the nightlife was still the best (if you knew the right people and places). Saturday night was the busiest and we ended up dancing on tables with free cerveza singing karaoke to Katy Perry. The rest of the nights were a bit quieter but just as great, we made friends with a group of Salvadorans who were a lot of fun and one night we ended up teaching them some ceilidh dancing (didn’t last too long) and they taught us how to salsa. They kept showing us one girl and telling us “that’s how the Latinos do it” but that was just a little too intense, so we stuck to our version of salsa. Hopefully by the end of this year we’ll be pros and Iona will be able to do it well enough that Emily and I can stop laughing. Wednesday was ladiessss night, so we were getting free pink drinks for about three hours straight, so obviously we made the most of that before hitting beachlife. We ended a great week by going out Friday night, despite a 5am bus the next morning and I don’t regret it one bit. We said goodbye to all our friends and had a boogie.
Oh and I bought a super chivo wave ring and I love it a lot despite it turning my finger green. Although now I feel less inclined to get a cliché wave tat. Some other girls bought it as well so now we’re matching. Unfortunately I got a bit too excited when a good song came on and It un-twisted but thankfully the tears were saved as Ricardo fixed it, forever grateful.
I also have to mention the sunsets as they seriously were stunning, no picture could do it justice. The majority of the nights before eating tea or getting ready to salir with my bezzies, we headed down to the beach and sat and watched the beautiful sunset, and the surfers too of course which was also a beautiful view. Some of them were really good and whenever someone would do a flip or even just ride a wave, all 10 of us would go “woahh” which would make all the locals surrounding us laugh.
Favourite thing about my week in El Salvador was for sure being with everyone else, we became so close and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girlies to spend my year with. We created so many memories together that I’m sure we’ll never forget. Lois and I loved it so much that we’ve decided that at the end of this year teaching we’re going to move to el tunco and become surfer girls instead of uni because that sounds a lot cooler. Again, jokes Mum, I promise I’ll go to uni. Seriously though it makes you realise that sometimes life just needs to slow down, and you need to go with the flow because as a smart Salvadoran once told me ‘It is what it is’.
Okay now that my cringe gap yah para is over; we can stop judging me and move on.
Being back is weird. As soon as I arrived back in Honduras, I felt culture shock for the first time which came with a bit of homesickness as well. I’ve now been back for two days and feeling a lottt better, in fact they were two really good days. It did however make me worry for when I return from travelling after three months if that’s how I felt after only one week. Anyways I’m sure I’ll just need a couple of days and my routine will kick back in.
After a super chivo (insert surfs up emoji) week filled with tequila, dancing and a whole bunch of gorgeous sunsets (they were seriously the best), I think I’ll have a chill three weeks before seeing all my gals in Santa Rosa.
Adios,
Eeeeerre/RRRRR/Scotland/Erin
Erin In Honduras 