Playa El Tunco

I woke in the morning to the same sounds of a blizzard, or pounding surf which is much more relaxing. I wandered outside the long hotel driveway to find that I’m right on one of the two streets in the town. Maybe three, since along the beach might count as one. It’s black sand and rocky.
Shrimp for lunch, lobster for dinner, a nap in between, just what I needed. I could watch the sunset and the surfers at high surf time when I walked along the beach, at dusk when all the backpackers were out. Monkey LaLa, the premiere sunset watching bar, is right next to my slightly upscale hotel. Hostels go for as low as $7 a night but I’m pretty sure they don’t have a view like mine.
The waiter at dinner was very attentive and gave me his number, for one of a few reasons – the lighting wasn’t very good, there weren’t a lot of customers since the city crowd has gone home, he wants to make some money by finding me surfing lessons, he thought I was nice, or it’s one of those countries where we want to visit and they want to escape.  There is a lot of poverty in this country but it’s not very apparent in this surf town.

The next day was Monday and it’s a ghost town. I managed to find a yoga class and a massage, and local specialties pupusas and ceviche for meals. A storm rolled in at night so I watched the sheet lightning over the thunderous ocean.

My group finally arrived, six of us from France Germany England US and Canada, with Sammy from Guatemala our tour leader. He took us by local bus to the port town of La Libertad to see the fish markets. The local buses are known as chicken buses and anything goes on them, travelling salesmen and women are in and out, music is loud, and as many people are on them as you can shove in.

That night saw an amazing sunsetfollowed by buckets of beer ($1 a beer).