The trip from Guatemala to El Salvador is an easy one. El Salvador is tiny, hence distances are short and transportation is simple. Also crossing the borders are pretty much the simplest affair I´ve experienced since French Guyane. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua are all a part of a co-operational project, so when you´re given a tourist visa at entry to one of them, you can cross the borders between the four countries freely as long as you don´t overstay your visa. El Salvador is supposedto be the bad dog of Central - America, and although it has improved immensely the last years, its reputation is still on the shady part of the scale. However, my first impression of the country exceeded it´s reputation wastly. I hopped of my bus in Playa Tunco, a small surfing village just west of it´s noisy big brother La Libertad. The hostel I found for myself was excellent and cheap, the people were friendly and security seemed to be a priority.
My plans for El Salvador wasn´t any more detailed than: "check out the surf". I knew that in the rainy season the waves are bigger and the beaches are nastier, so I dind´t really know what a beginner as myself could expect. I asked around and was advised by the local surfers to just chill out a couple of days before going into the water. The swell had been huge the last week and the waves were massive. As a beginner, only having my short time in Montanita on my resumé, I trusted the locals and did what I definately don´t do the best, chilled out.

Unlike the beach in Montanita, theese beaches have rock-floors, wich kind of freaks me out a bit. If you fall and get knocked against the bottom on a sandy-break, it just hurts a bit. If you do the same on a rocky bottom, it´s more serious. For this reason I decided to start my surfing career here in El Salvador with an instructor. And finally, after a day and a half waiting for the waves to decrease, I got my bord and headed for the famous point break (where a wave breaks as it hits a point of land jutting out from the coastline) of "El Zunsal". I had a great time in the water, catching a couple of decent waves and dodging the biggest ones. As always when you say "just one more, and I´ll stop", they great time ended. A massive set of waves came only seconds after I said just that, and I whiped out. Whipíng out, falling of the wave and getting hurled around under the wave, is not a very comfortable affair. You flip around under water, holding your breath, trying to figure out wich way is up, and when the wave finally lets you go you rush for the surface to get some air. I did reach the surface, only to see the next monster - wave smash me down again, just to do it all over again. This happened three times, and in the end of it, when I finnaly got out of it I was just exhausted. Luckily I dind´t hit the rocky bottom with anything else than my toe, and I was all ok.
The only problem was that this experience scared me a bit. Especially since the massive swell from only days before sent an experienced surfer from the states almost lifeless to the hospital. I decided to wait a day to go out again.
Fortunately, there´s a big social frame around the surf-spots, and nice people to spend your time with. Even met the four of English girls I had shared dorms with in Lanquin, so satying here for a day without surifng was far from horrible.
Once again I entered the water, two days after the last time. This time without an instructor, but with my israli surfer-friend as a care-taker. Also this time I started out in a good fashion, catching the first wave I went for. But the next dind´t go quite as well, and the waves started throwing me around abit. For the first time in a while, fear got the overhand and I swam towards shore. Spent that afternoon being a bit pissed of at myself for giving up and when my Israelian buddy asked if I wanted to go for a new attempt I said yes, eager to prove to myself that I could do this. This time we hitch-hiked to the neighbooring beach El Zunto, were the waves are more forgiving. As history has a bad habit of doing, it repeated itself. Only this time, when I got out of the wave I was standing in hip high water on a rocky bottom. In that second i decided that my surfing adventoure in El Salvador was over, and that I´ll wait for the sandy beaches of Nicaragua instead.

El Salvador does not bring in alot of tourists. Still some of them make their way here, and the ones who do don´t seem to regret it. My fourth day I met a dutch couple who had bought and remodelled an old american school bus into a house on wheels. They were now touring Central-America, and with bed-space for an extra 6 persons they were working as a sort of hostel on wheels. Since my surf-adventoure was already over I figured I might aswell start a different one and jumped on the "Benny-bus", as they called it. We had a couple of great evenings, cooking fresh tuna bought at the great marked in La Libertad on bonfires and enjoying the inviting and relaxing night life in Tunco.

My surf-trip was, surfwise a disaster, but in every other manner a succes. I have hardly spent any money, El Salvador is very cheap, I´ve been cooking my own healthy meals, worked out and met some new travel-companions and had a really good time. Although the waves weren´t to nice to me, the poeple and the sheere authenticy of this placy has really gotten to me. Now for a couple of days on the road with the bus before I head for the highlands to trek and eventually leave for Honduras!