Adventures in Central America: Cascadas Tamanique, El Salvador

Surfing and yoga seem to be what most El Tunco tourists do, and since I am not into either, I decided today--my last in Central America--to try to visit the popular waterfalls, Cascadas Tamanique, which are further inland from the coast.

But first I had a huge breakfast on a balcony overlooking the ocean.

There are cheaper ways of getting to the waterfalls, but I opted for easy, and hired a guide--Edwin--and his SUV for $30.

We drove up to the town of Tamanique.

We parked by the square there, and walked out of the town, past a farmer's field or two, and then cut off the road and onto a trail.

At one point yesterday I wondered if I could get to the waterfalls by myself, but I would never have identified the trail without the guide, as it began literally at a break in a fence.

The trail began descending into this valley almost immediately.

You can tell that we ascended quite a ways from the ocean.  The pictures also give a sense for how dry it is right now--Central America's wet season will begin in May.

The hike down is probably half an hour or so, and it is actually quite rough.  Edwin was wearing flip-flops, which was madness if you ask me.  

These sections of the trail are two of the best, so you get a sense for how rough other sections are.

Eventually we reached the first of the set of waterfalls.

There was a family at this set, obviously having a picnic.  They looked like they were set up to be there all afternoon.  Other than them, Edwin and I had the falls to ourselves.

This spot here is probably the loveliest of the falls, and I think it is the third one.

We jumped in here, "showering" under the falls, and swimming.  The water was tremendously refreshing.  There was not much sun today, but it was still very hot, and after our hike (even downhill) we had gotten really hot.

In the dry season the water was probably no deeper than two metres in this pool, but Edwin showed me on the cliff how high the water can get in the wet season, and it is significantly higher--must be more like six metres deep at the deepest.  Edwin also pointed out where people jump from, and even with the water at its highest the jump must be ten metres at least.

While there was no way jumping that was a good idea this time of year, there was a spot Edwin showed me I could jump from in the second pool.  Even here--maybe five metres high--I was far too scared, and it didn't help when Edwin said he had hurt his arm jumping last time and wouldn't jump today.  I knew I would regret not jumping, however, so I simply climbed further down until I got to a point I thought was reasonable:

If I'm generous to myself I could say it was probably about three metres, but it might have been even as little as two.  I was still terrified, but Edwin counted to three and I leapt.  It was exhilarating and wonderful.  I did it two or three more times, but always from the same spot.  Thankfully there were no little Salvadorean children there to make fun of my cowardice.

I suppose in total we were at the waterfalls for an hour.  That was plenty for me, but I'm sure if you brought a picnic you could stay much longer, because just sitting beside the waterfalls was as nice as jumping into them (albeit less of an adrenaline rush).

Of course, climbing out of the valley was a lot more work than descending, and I am not exaggerating when I say this is a pretty serious hike, even if it is only half an hour.

Back in Tamanique Edwin and I bought $1 beers at the corner store and drank them on the drive back.  I had a postcard I wanted to mail, and Edwin told me the only post office was in La Libertad, about ten minutes down the highway from El Tunco.  I asked him if he would drive me there for another $5, and he agreed, so we did that and then he dropped me off by my hotel around 14:00 or so.

I was lazy most of the rest of the afternoon, but I did get into the ocean again for a bit.  I was also lucky to run into a Canadian couple from Winnipeg who I had actually met in Antigua.  It turned out that they're heading home tomorrow too, on the same flight, so we agreed to share a cab to the airport bright and early tomorrow morning.  

Before dinner I enjoyed the El Tunco sunset once again.  Even with some cloud cover it was still spectacular.

Adventures in Central America: El Tunco, El Salvador

Another early day; this time, I was outside the hostel in Copan before 5:00, and picked up around a quarter after.  Thankfully I had slept much better than Saturday night, and this shuttle was especially comfortable, and there were only three of us, so that meant lots of room.  I got to lay across three seats and nap.

Although it is not intuitive, the fastest way from Copan, Honduras to El Salvador is through Guatemala.  So we began our morning at the border crossing I had crossed two days ago.  Once again it went really smoothly, and there were no taxes from either country.

We drove in Guatemala for about 90 minutes, I think (I was dozing, so not quite sure) before we reached the border with El Salvador.  Here we got out passports stamped, but my Guatemalan stamp clearly indicates "entrada" rather than "salida" (so I now have three "entrada" stamps and one "salida" stamp), so I think the woman might not have realized what direction we were traveling.  Then in El Salvador the guards simply came to the van and talked to us.  They seemed confused, and we had lots of difficulty communicating but eventually they waved us through without stamping our passports.  Apparently this is normal--I guess I will see how it goes over at the airport on Thursday when I leave El Salvador.  In any case, for now I am somewhat pleased because, as much as I love passport stamps, I realized that two years into my ten year passport I have already filled it halfway!  It would be a shame to have to renew it before it is much closer to expiry.

We stopped in El Salvador in a town called Metapan at a chicken fast food place for breakfast.  It was a bustling place.  Here was my view sitting by the shuttle waiting for the driver:

I got a coffee and a muffin at the chicken place, then walked down the street to get a banana.  They use US dollars in El Salvador, which is kind of nice because it is familiar.

I stayed awake the rest of the way, watching the El Salvadorian countryside and cities of Santa Ana and Santa Tecla (a suburb of San Salvador) go by.

We could see the Pacific Ocean by 10:30, and arrived in El Tunco by 11:00.  I could not check in at my hotel until noon, so I sat at a cafe and ordered a banana smoothie and chicken quesadilla.

The smoothies in Central America have been wonderful, and by Canadian standards really cheap (usually +/- $2).  

I was pretty lazy for the rest of the afternoon, just relaxing in the shade, mostly, and enjoying the ocean view.  

Around 16:00, with the sun a little less intense, I donned my swim trunks and went on in.  The beach is actually quite rocky at first and not very pleasant, but after that there is lovely sand, and the water is a perfect temperature. 

After swimming I showered and changed and got up onto a patio of a bar to watch El Tunco's famous sunset.