I'm in El Salvador!

6/25/2006
San Salvador, El Salvador

I'm sorry I haven't posted for awhile, and I hope I wasn't making any of you nervous! I made it to El Salvador today, and it was sad to leave Guatemala after so long there, but definitely time to go. So much has happened since I last posted, I won't be able to get it in the blog tonight. Plus I don't have a USB connect for my camera here and pictures are worth a thousand words... but-

Tuesday night I arrived in Antigua and took a room at Hostel Jungle Party.... it was a riot!
Wednesday I hung out around town. It's really beautiful there, in contrast to Xela, and I took in some good futbol too! I found a travel agency and booked two trips, first to Volcan Pacaya, second to Monterrico.
Thursday I got up at 6am and was picked up by the shuttle, which took me and 13 other gringos to the base of Pacaya. We hiked a few kilometers up to as close to the summitt as you can go. At times we were less than 10 feet from active lava flows. There are 33 volcanoes in Guatemala, 4 active. Pacaya is one of them (wait til you see the photos!)
Friday I got up at 8am and took a direct shuttle to the beach at Monterrico. It's a really quaint small town with a few small hotels and what are considered resorts by Guatemalan standards. There are as many Guatemalan visitors there as there are foreign tourists, if not more. I met 3 girls from Chicago on the shuttle and they were really sweet. One has family in Guatemala who were going to meet the girls there. I ended up meeting all of the family and getting "inducted" into the family, over several drinks. I didn't pay for anything the whole time I was in Monterrico, it was great (again this deserves its own post with pics and will get one soon).

Finally after two amazing days and nights in Monterrico I left today and came to San Salvador, via several busses and a boat (monterrico is an island in a mangrove swamp and you have to to take a boat to get there). I'm safe and sound here, found a solid place to stay, and I'm just going to explore the area tomorrow and head to the beach again on Tuesday at La Libertad, El Salvador. I'm going to learn how to surf there (I hope).

I miss you all and I'll put much more here w/pics ASAP!

Ben