Sunsets and sand crabs, El Salvador

We had a nice drive to the border. We chose not to climb the steep road back to Guatemala City and endure that traffic and went mostly downhill towards the coast and the El Salvadorean border. We squeezed between two of the volcanos 'fuego" and "agua". There were radio towers on volcan de agua but gray smoke was puffing from volcan de Fuego.

The border was a painless affair. I used the printer scanner to make copies of my exit stamps and of the cancelled TIP. I forgot to exchange to rest of my quetzals. The El Salvadoran side was also painless. I had preregistered the RV online but still waited a while for our free TIP. We paid $12 per adult to enter El Salvador.

El Salvador uses US dollars and even has $1 coins in circulation, the size of a quarter but yellow colored. 

The roads were nice and paved, but mostly single lanes, so slow when stuck behind a semi truck. The land is lush and the skies were dotted with clouds that made it look endless to the horizon. There were shacks of corrugated metal on the road side. These tropical countries look so similar. Latin American could easily be Southeast Asia. Road side stands were selling coconuts, bananas, and even dragon fruit.

Eventually the road made it to the coast and winded along like the Pacific coast highway, high on the cliffs with the sea far below. There were restaurants perched on the cliffside with no obvious place to park. We passed El Zonte and El Tunco, two surf towns, and made it to Playa San Blas. There are beachfront restaurants dotted along the area with swimming pools and beach access. Sol Bohemio was on ioverlander and allowed overnight camping for $20. It also had a few hotel rooms. We ordered chicken tenders and fries for the kids and they liked them so much we ordered seconds. Christine and I shared ceviche. We had frozen drinks: papaya, watermelon, pineapple, and lemonade. We also ordered a steak with mushroom sauce which looked like cream of mushroom soup. The food came to $50. 

The sand is black, volcanic, I read. The water is cool but not cold. The beach was not busy but there were locals tourists playing in the water. Dogs roamed the beach and there was a small amount of normal beach debris. The other beach clubs were pretty empty. Our restaurant closed at 5pm and only a caretaker remained. The sunset was beautiful the skies lit up orange and it lasted forever. The kids played restaurant on the beach setting up a table and chairs. Black sand crabs blended in with the sand and only appeared when they scurried away. Dd expertly scooped them up, and they did not pinch.

We ate the second dinner under the light in the lobby before hiding in the RV for the rest of the night. There were no other guests here.

Christine found a water leak under the sink from the drain which I tightened back up, but needed to wash all the things in the top drawer. The weather was warm and humid and we had the AC on again within seconds of being in the RV. I preregistered for Hondurean visa online. Google maps suggested flooding in southern Honduras so I reached out to the pan American Facebook group which indicates big puddles but passable roads.