Zunzal, El Salvador to Ahuachapan, El Salvador
December 16, 2009

Surf at Zunzal
Waterpark
Wood in the RV
Cliff
Sorry, wood in the rv again

Today we did not travel far or for so long. We arrived at our destination a water park just outside Ahuachapan, El Salvador just around noon time. We took the Hwy CA 2 along the coast to San Julian and it was a wonderful drive and they even have lookout point here in El Salvador for viewing the coastline and the mountains.
Bev was a little concerned when we stopped at one of the viewpoints and there was a tour
?{s of Canadians there with two armed guards to protect a bus of about 20 people. Ah well the adventure continues and we are either intrepid, skilled or just fools.
Here the mountains and the deltas were not too steep and we managed quite fine. We also managed the five tunnels along this route well. Clearance for the RV was no problem but these are really dark tunnels and even with the bright lights on trying to see the side walls of the tunnels was very difficult. Thankfully there were no oncoming cars and so I really straddled the center line of the tunnels. Then we turned east towards Sonsonate and inland hoping to catch the Ruta de las Flores which is quite a beautiful drive into the mountains among the coffee fincas that are here.
Sonosate seems to be a furniture making area and there are lots of shops that line the road all building furniture mostly out of Laurel wood. Quite beautiful with lots of hand carving and natural finish. Again the wood is a hardwood with multicolored grains in the finished product. It’s just too bad there is no way that these small shops are equipped to ship the products north to us in Mexico.
After lots of “Donde esta” we were finally out of Sonosate and into the Ruta de las Flores and let me tell you we were into the mountains again.
These are 6-8% grades with uphill from the ocean all the way. We had to stop twice to let the transmission cool down along the way.
It was decided that we are now about 10- 20 miles from the border and at 12:00 noon we did not want to cross the border which may take 2-3 hours and then have to find a place to stay. So here we are in a park with a waterfall and public pools again.
It seems that this is the area where all of the women of the local area come to wash their clothes. Below the pools are long lines of wash tubs that are used by the community as a sort of communal laundromat.