Juayua

Yesterday we took a bus to the town of Ahuachapan on the way to Ataco, a little village up in the mountains. It{s the first village on the Ruta de las Flores and is a lovely ride up into the mountains. The fare for the entire trip (2 and a half hours) was $2.80 cents. All the bus connections were fine and we didn{t have any waiting around. The buses go constantly - every 10 minutes or so. Amazing. In Ahuachapan we were let off in the very busy market and had to walk through the closed in aisles to find the terminal on the other side. But there was the bus to Ataco and off we went.

Ataco is quite small and although there were several hotels listed we went first out to the highway to a place recommended out of town. But we didn{t like the idea of walking back to there in the dark after eating so we decided not to stay. Back in town we saw a sign for The hotel El Balcon de Ataco so walked up there - up a quite steep hill, where we found a quite nice room with an amazing view of the town and the surrounding mountains. Of course it meant that every time we left we had to go back up hill to get home.

The town had very little going on. We couldn{t find any of the other hotels listed, and none of the restaurants - although we did manage to find a place to eat. It was a "fusion" restaurant and we had a huge bowl of cream of tomato soup full of oregano leaves - way too many oregano leaves. A little too much. But the place was very nice - we sat out in the breezy garden amongst the flowers to enjoy our meal. Walked around town - the people were friendly, saying Buenas tardes (good afternoon), but there ain{t much to do.

We did find a gem of a place - a real coffee shop with delicious coffee well made from local Salvadorean coffee beans. This is coffee country with coffee fincas up the hillsides, all of it shade grown and maybe it{s even organic. We had a lovely orange cake with it, sprinkled with lime peel. Delcioso.

Supper was at the same place we had lunch because the other place we had found was closed for dinner. This time Geordie had pork marinated in red wine and herbs served with mashed potatoes while I had beef in a pineapple sauce served with ratatouille and little tiny potatoes about the diameter of a nickel. Lovely flavours.

This morning we got up latish after watching Spanish TV news (from Spain I mean). Lots of snow in northern Spain I guess. I hope Giorgio and Bertrand in Torremolinos don{t have it too cold. We went out with our packs and stopped at the restaurant that was closed last night. The woman who greeted us mentioned something about breakfast, I said si and the next thing we knew we had ordered it. I really have a hard time understanding El Salvadorean Spanish, so we get things we hadn{t planned for because I say si as if I understood. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with tomato, cheese, fried bananas and refried beans witha nice bread bun and coffee and only cost $3.25 each so I guess we can{t complain.

We had lots of help at the bus stop where we waited for the bus to Juayua. And when the bus arrived we were pointed to it right away. People are really very friendly. (Oh and I didn{t see anyone with a gun anywhere in town.) Our bus ride was lovely only a half hour but on a beautiful road with checkerboard coffee plantations going up the hillsides of the volcanoes. There was a long line of these lovely young volcanoes along the way and they surround the town of Juayua. There are at least eight of them I{m sure. Some of them are very pointy.

Juayua is very busy on weekends. It{s a gastronomes dream come true because they have a weekend long Gastronomic fair. The area around the square and the church and for several blocks radiating out are food stalls with hot food of all kinds. Chicken in Chicha, roast beef on the grill, argentinian ribs, tacos, pupusas (stuffed corn tortillas), roast rabbit, even frogs legs! It{s an amazing experience. WE walked around and around to decide, and finally chose the argentinian ribs with salad, roast green onions, and rice. It was tasty. Tonight maybe we{ll have rabbit or frogs!

This keyboard is exhausting my fingers. the keys stick like crazy and you may have noticed the odd apostrophes. Time to hit send.