San Salvador, Locale

The big welcoming from Mario with steaks and some greenery to spoil it but a great feast was had and a barb q that would make most kiwi blokes envious, Mario set the bar high.





We had a few drinkies talking about life and things as you do comparing countries, costs and services, all with pluses and minuses each way. 



How could you not smile with this in front of you!!!



So this is the start of our new approach to seeing the places on our RTW trip whereby we bunk down at a central location, ditch both panniers and box and ride day rides out with just our wolfman soft bag for our wet gear and some water.

The decision was made to send all our camping stuff home to make life easier for me weight wise so our total gear is simply two side cases and a top box, if it does not fit in there it does not come. ... they are however optimally packed, so this now it our total kit.



Sooooooo, after setting up base at Marios hill we got the low down on what to see and where to go with outstanding knowledge from Mario knowing what adventure travelllers like to do.

This was all done in luxury of course ...



And this is the garden view we had to put up with 



We took a walk to the Crater at the top of the Volcan, if you come through El Salvador you have to come to San Salvador and make the effort to go as it is a fantastic place with views from the top of the crater like we have never see before, breath taking from the top.

View from the top



The centre of the crater down inside



The writing with the rocks at the very bottom



It was 6.2 km up so we were tired when it was time to return, we met some locals at lookout No 3 of 4, we asked them about the bus and they said they were heading the same way so would give us a lift although we didn’t know the name of the town, it was so nice of them cos I have dodgy knees, walking up and flat is no problem but walking downhill kills them very quickly.

Even with my Parque Imposible custom handle on my walking sticks (cos one fell off in Mexico somewhere)it was nice to sit in the car on the way down, “thank you” locals.



That night was hot dog night.....Mario knocked up some superb hotdogs which went down like a treat, we had bougfht some dark Bacardi Rum too which evaporated in the heat pretty quickly, see in the photo I think we caught a bat ripping through in a split second.