finally, away from the beach

i never thought i would be able to motivate myself to leave! el salvador is simply unbelievable. the people here are incredibly friendly. everyone says hello, there are few hecklers, things seem pretty straightforward. that beach town, el tunco, was just a strange dream. up until that town i have been ready to move on after a couple of days of being somewhere. for me, the pretty beach towns or islands of the caribbean where nice but i couldnt just sit around and do nothing. until i reached the pacific, i suppose. by my second full day i knew it would be hard to go...but then i started meeting people who lived in town. and hung out with them. and suddenly i could see myself doing what they are - paying 180 dollars a month for rent and just chilling out. who is with me??

my last day there i finally gave in and got a surfing lesson. my first day there i rented a board and got thrashed around on rocks, and ended up just cutting my feet on rocks and calling it a day. but these young salvadorans who have been surfing since they were kids are intimidatingly good looking, and badass surfers. every night people gather on the south side of the beach and watch them rock these waves as a giant red sun sets over the ocean. i dont know how watching that could ever get old. absolutely incredible. back to my lesson...the guy who brought me out there looked 21, turns out he is really 32. they all look as young as him, so maybe they all actually are older as well! i showed him what i remembered from my one time surfing experience in oregon, and i remembered basically everything. sweet. we paddled out around 11. i did pretty well! youre supposed to jump up as soon as you feel the velocity of the wave take you, but its really hard to push yourself up on the board. not just because its supposed to be one smooth move to your feet, but also because it a board on water! as soon as i would start to push myself up, my board would sway. i ended up catching several waves, and most of the time i at least popped up onto my knees before wiping out. i think i got on my feet three times, my longest time standing up was probably 2 seconds. not bad for my second time! but after an hour i was totally wiped out. my arms just felt like dead weight. i wish i would have gone for a lesson my first day! the big problem is, i forgot to put sunscreen on my legs. and since my ass was in the air on a surfboard for the better part of an hour and a half....well, sitting here writing this keeps me in great pain. i definitely know better than to do that, i cant believe i actually burned myself this bad. and while i am listing complaints, i have caught my first bout of the traveler bug (meaning diarrhea). i know you dont really want to hear about this, but it is just as much a part of the central america experience as buying fresh cut fruit from a stand is. totally lost my appetite yesterday, and its still gone today. i wouldnt mind that so much if i wasnt currently sitting in the town holding a gastronomical fair that is pretty famous. i walked around it today. the food smells amazing. but my stomach just keeps telling me, oh hell no sara, you are not going to eat that right now. it closes at 5, so i am hoping that in an hour i can summon enough strength to try and get some of that food i am smelling.

later on today i will post a few pictures to accompany this post. both of the beach and this cool town in the heart of coffee plantations. in the next couple of days i plan to take a 6 hour hike to water falls, coffe plantations, and local villages outside of here. and then on to guatemala. it looks like a good portion of what i wanted to do in guate wont be happening now that i have taken so much extra time in these different places. but that is okay! i would rather spend time in places i like and make another trip happen another day to see the places i didnt have time for.