Armed with crappy maps, a guidebook, translation dictionary and detailed driving directions, we set out. We hadn't gotten that far when we realized we were both unsure about my car's capability to make it all the way to El Salvador and back. Not to be deterred, we pressed onward. Although our driving directions were very specific, they were not helpful once we realized we had missed the first turn (it was easy to miss, trust me). So we began to refer to our sh**y map and many locals to guide us along the way. I had been told that Guatemalans are helpful, to a fault. They will tell you what you want to hear, even if it's wrong, just so they can be "helpful." We found this to be very true through our drive. We stopped at many different points to ask directions and were often times led in circles (one woman told us to just follow the bus, which we did, until it dead ended us into a street in Nowheresville).
Parts of the drive were very beautiful.
And, eventually, we made it to El Salvador.
OH THE JOY!
Here was the town we stayed in: Tunco, ES.
We quickly checked in to our AWESOME, CHEAP hotel (thank you Jean Ah Lee) and went down to the beach. It was beautiful, warm and full of life.
We ended our evening with dinner at an awesome beach restaurant, D'Roco's.
Next morning, we were up bright and early to sun ourselves. We hadn't driven 7.5 hours (normal drive = 4), to waste it sleeping! We took some pics of the hotel (again, highly recommended) and then hit the beach.
Ahh, beach, I miss you and will return soon!