"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

Thursday, February 16, 2012

La Palma

Cashew tree and its fruits along the side of the road!
It was our intention to leave Lago de Coatepeque early yesterday, but that did not happen.  We over slept our alarm by an hour.  And then we had to deal with the problem of getting our bikes out of the steep crater.  The first bus wouldnt take us.  We ended being able to hitchhike in the back of a pick up truck.  They took us into El Congo. We offered money, but they wouldnt take it, so far hitchhking no one wants our money!  We started biking from El Congo around 9 am and it was already getting hot out.  We had 60 km to go to our decided stopping point of Aguilares.  The road was in really good condition, but of course was hilly.  It really wasnt too bad though.  There were a few hills I had to push on, but mostly to save my knees.  It was a dry heat with a breeze, so overall pretty pleasant.  It was about 5 hours of riding.  We had planned on staying in Aguilares for the night and figure out a ride into the mountains the next morning. Instead we made attempts to get on buses to La Palma when we got there, but each bus that went by was jam packed with people who either got on in San Salvador or somewhere along the way. The buses only seem willing to take us with the bikes when we get on where the bus starts.  So this was not that case and no one would pick us up.  So we biked a little ways down the highway and tried to hitchhike.  Tried for over half an hour and was getting discouraged.  One guy stopped and told us he would have picked us up but that he was only going a few kilometers up the road.  Finally when we were about to give up, a young couple in a truck stopped and said they could take us 20 km up the road.  When we got to the next major town, the guy got out and said he decided he was going to La Palma after all, and he proceeded to drop his girlfriend off at her house and drive us the rest of the way!  Dont know what changed his mind, but we were grateful.  We rode the rest of the way in the cab of the truck with him.  He was a nice guy who has spent quite a bit of his life living in the US, he still somehow didnt know much English.

We have been noticing a ton of tire repair places along the road sides during our biking and last night we figured out why.  Our driver kept saying there was something wrong with the tire, so we pulled over at one of the many Pinchazos (flat tire repair place) and discovered that the front left tire was completely bare and the others didnt have much more tread.  The front left one was about to rip open it was so worn out, so we watched as 2 repairmen replaced the front tire with one from the back and put the spare on the back, all for the price of $2!  So people use their tires until they basically blowout and then pullover at one of the millions of repair places and get a new one, just in knick of time!

The guy dropped us off in the Central Plaza in La Palma and refused to accept any money from us!  We were amazed!  We have encountered nothing but really nice people here in El Salvador, so many people have gone out of their way to help us!  We pushed our bikes a short way to the nearest hostel very glad that we were able to cut a day out of our travels.

Today we hiked to Cerro El Pital, which is the highest point in El Salvador.  We had to take 2 different buses to get to the trailhead, which took about an hour.  There is a road all the way to the top, as someone owns the top of the mountain!  It cost us $2 to get into the private property, which is filled with a combination of farmland and campgrounds.  It would have been a really nice place to camp.  The summit itself wasnt too exciting, it was a little foggy/misty when we got there and lots of trees were blocking the view.  We did the hike with a French couple we met at our hostel, they were very friendly and that was nice, as I feel most French people hate Americans.  They left shortly after we arrived at the top to get back to town and onto their next destination.  We continued on to Pena Rajada, which was briefly mentioned in the Lonely Planet as having something to do with a sketchy bridge crossing.  We couldnt find the trail and ended up on anther part of the summit with a fenced in cell phone tower.  A guy popped out somewhere inside and offered to show us the trail.  His name was Esteban and he wound up doing the whole hike with us, and its a good thing he did cause we wouldnt have found it ourselves.  We walked through cloud forest with huge trees that were covered in plants and orchids, they were very impressive.  We came to a narrow but very deep canyon and the bridges we read about were trees that were pushed over the gap.  There were 2 bridges, each having a wire above it for balance.  It was a little scary but very pretty.  Esteban stayed with us the whole time and took pictures for us and even took some with his cell phone camera for memories! :)  Yet another nice person we have met in El Salvador.  He led us on the right track back to the main campground and we said our goodbyes.

We got back down road in good time and didnt have too wait to long for the first bus.  When we got back to the main highway to catch the second bus, we were only about 3 km away from La Palma, so we decided to just walk and see if we beat the bus (even though we knew it would be uphill).  We were walking for about 30 seconds when a truck began to approach us and I put my thumb out to see if we could get a ride.  They pulled over immediately and we hopped in the bed.  It was a truck full of men going to a construction site not far down the road, and one guy in the back seat popped his head out the back window and told us in English that they werent going far, they just wanted to see my legs!! :)  Guess they liked my cool tennis skirt, we cracked up, haha!  So they took us about a km and less then a minute later a bus picked us up.  What an awesome day! :)

Tomorrow onward to Honduras!

View from the top of Cerro El Pital

Another view from Cerro El Pital

Bridge over Pena Rajada, maybe 100 ft drop below us?

What the drop looks like from inside, basically two separated boulders

Orchid covered trees, not many flower right now but still very pretty

Cerro El Pital from below, with Pena Rajada rock all the way to the left

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