fitness and gorging in the mountains

So, if i were to believe in Karma, it certianly came round quickly for me on this little leg of my journey!

I lugged my pack up to the main road where i was told i could get a bus to Juayua up in the mountains, via 2 other destinations first (nothing seems direct here!) As i got to the road I saw a man with a pack and asked him where he was going. It turned out that this (remarkably good looking) guy was going to the same place as me but had been waiting for the bus for an hour without success! I asked the spanish lady accorss the road when the next bus was and it would have been about another hour so we decided to hitch (sorry mum but i was with a guy and everyone does it in el salvador!) We got picked up almost immediately by a lovely man who took us to a place where we couold get a connecting bus. We sat in the back of his truck which afforded fantastic views of the coastline as we zoomed along and the first nice breexe in 5 days! From there we took two less comfortable chicken buses and finally ended up in the lovely mountain town of Juayua. We found a lovely hostel, opting for sharing a room rather than sleeping in a dorm, and then went our separate ways to explore.

Juayau has a food fair at weekends and it was fantastic to sit in the main square eating lots of lovely food whilst watching a local man sing latin american hits to a mesmerised crowd. The array of food on offer was dazzling- ranging from plain chicken to grilled frog, rabbit or snail!

That evening Eric and I (the lovely aformentioned man) sat and chatted over wine and music and found we had a lot in common. I think it will suffice to say here that we had a VERY pleasant evening and that i was very sorry to see him go in the morning to continue his travels!

However, life goes on and today I got up and went out on a 15km guided hike to see 10 waterfalls in the area,. The lady at the hostel had called it an "adventure hike" and it was certainly that! We had to walk up and down through a coffee plantation where the ground was less than stable for ages and when we reached the waterfalls we had to rock climb up them! I was soaked to the skin and that made it very slippery- i`ve never rock climbed without a safety rope before! however, despite my moaning at my 5 ft, 12 year old guide (well, he may have been older but he looked 12!) i did really enjoy it and the scenery was stunning, especially the waterfalls against the lush green coffee plantation backdrop! I was glad for my spanish knowledge as it was only me, the guide and his 4 dogs (who kept getting in the way on the tricky bits!) and he didn`t speak any english! All good practice whilst panting and sweating my way up hills! We also saw so many species of butterfly- some as big as small birds!

The hike finished up at some local waterfalls which were packed out with people swimming. I bumped into some swedish girls i`d met at roots bar in el tunco and it was nice to swim and chat to them and their friends. A sweaty, dusty hike uphill later and I was back at the hotel, truly exhausted but happy!

Tomorrow I`m off to Tacuba to mountain bike and hike national park "el Impossible" which I hope doesn`t live up to its name!