El Salvador - The Coast

I didn’t travel far, only about 80 kilometres and stopped at a beach Playa Los Cobanos that I had marked to visit. It was a small fishing village right on the beach with a ramshackle series of thatched cabanas adjoining each other. The bike got lots of stares and I really just wanted a coffee but all that was on offer was instant and I have some of that with me. Eventually I asked about a hostel and I was directed to a nice place down the beach with parking behind a large fence and steel-sheet gate. It had a pool and was right on the beach. The rooms were $59 but they had a dorm for $10. I was the only one in the dorm.

It was a busy beach with lots of fishing boats

I hired some snorkling gear for a couple of hours to swim around the rocky reefs but it was low tide and looked like this most of the time.

I followed the very interesting looking road along the coast with its bends and tunnels and local agriculture.

While there is a genuine attempt to educate the population on recycling there is still some way to go. 

I stayed a couple of nights in El Tunco, a renowned surfing beach. While I was there a brown stain washed down the river from a recent thunderstorm and at the time it made it not very nice to swim in but over subsequent days there was a huge fish die-off due to lack of oxygen and I heard that for the following two weeks the place stank of rotting fish. Real shame for such a nice place.

Black sand