El Salvador

Francois and I had a great climb up Volcan San Cristobal with a local guide who took us into the the active crater which was spewing sulphur gases from its bottomless pit. The view from the top was alarming to see that everywhere was agriculture and barely any remaing natural forests. Not at all what I imagined of central america. The next day Francois and I split ways and I headed towards El Salavador. biking into one of the largest citys in el salavador at dusk in the wild eastern side of the country where people are not use to seeing gringos was an experience. There were gangs of kids walking around with machettes and pistols, sketchy older dudes yelling gringo and the hotel i was trying to find from my lonely planet book didnt exist. With night falling quickly, and remebering the words of everyone about eastern El Salvador, ¨don´t go out after dark¨ I headed back towards the pan am highway in an effort to find a place for the night. Luckily there were no shortage of hotels near the highway and I checked into a beauty with ac, cable tv, and room service. Today I awoke early and headed 175 km west to a small beach village just past La Libertad in western El Salvador. Here it is much more scenic, less sketchy as there are other gringos around and thers also one of the best surf waves in central america called Punta Roca. Definatly a place to relax for a day or two.