Ruta de las Flores!! Today a new Couchsurfer arrived to Rene's place; a Polish girl by the name of Asha who has been living and travelling here in the Americas for the last couple of years. Around mid morning we loaded up in Rene's car and headed out towards the coast and the famous Route of the Flowers - a famous tourist route that follows coffee plantations, orchards and old colonial towns through the mountains. The weather wasn't looking so nice but the drive was magnificent winding our way through the mountains, past coffee plantations and to our first stop a little town hosting a Food Festival. This place was heaven for me with all the best of Salvadorian food on offer from soups, seafood, frogs, rabbit and everything else inbetween. It must have taken me an hour to decide on what to get with so many different things and little food stalls to choose from. I eventually settled on a very popular stall and ordered pork steak and ribs with salad, avocado and tortas. I also got to try BBQ frog and rabbit which were also both delicious. The atmosphere was so nice with good food, an old man singing in the garden and kids and families enjoying the occasion. There were loads of interesting snacks and sweets being sold but luckily I had eaten a huge lunch and couldn't fit anymore food in, I did sample the delicious Camote though. Camote is like a potato but is eaten as a desert and is quite sweet - it's a favorite of many El Salvadorians and a favorite of men now to. Continuing on to the next town we were suprised to find huge traffic jams and what was to be a huge festival taking place in Ataco. The festival was a celebration of the Virgin Mary and there were literally 1000s of people flooding the streets. Once again this festival was centered around food, drink, music and dance but on a much bigger scale then the last town. The atmosphere was electric with different smells, sights and sounds. I tried more sweets, drinks and watched all the strange things going on like people holding giant snakes to guys selling shots of whiskey on the street corners.
Whilst walking along one of the streets Rene ran into his friend at his house who lived literally in the centre of the festival. The friend invited us to join them for drinks and sit on their balcony and watch the festival taking place. I got to meet Rene's friends whole family - some of which spoke English and the youngest daughter who is off to live and study in Australia next year. The friend of Rene's is a surgeon and after explaining I was taking antibiotics he told me that there was no problem if I have a few drinks. So out came the rum and ice and we drank to the special occasion. It didn't take me long and I was quite drunk and so decided to go for a walk around and try find some food. The festival was now in full swing and there were bands playing, people dancing in the streets and food stalls everywhere. In the end I couldn't decide what to eat and settled on a hot chocolate before making my way back to the house. Everyone else had now also gone out for a look around so I grabbed a couch and fell sound asleep. Around 11pm the others came back and woke me up and we headed back to Santa Ana.

OBSERVATIONS:
- Met Asha CSer
- Ruta de las Flores
- Food Festival
- Ataco Virgin Mary festival