Ruta de las Flores

We drove the remaining kilometers in the morning and were at the border crossing shortly after 8. Julia managed the whole procedure and I was just occasionally moving Ruedi and standing in the way 😅 After just a little bit more than an hour we were on El Salvador soil and driving on a perfect road 😍 The contrast was extreme because the street leading to the border crossing on the Guatemalan side was awful with huge, deep potholes and people swerving over the whole street, which made challenging trying to avoid them.

Some stats or things we noticed from Guatemala:
- The people are super friendly and it feels very genuine, we felt very welcome, comfortable and safe everywhere we arrived.
- It has a lot to offer (we skipped some things) for it's size.
- The tortillas are massive compared to the Mexican ones.

The arrival in El Salvador has been very easy and efficient. The only thing that lacked was that we didn't get a stamp in our passports 🥲 you can just get them if you arrive via airplane.
Right after the border we changed the remaining Quetzales into US Dollars, the official currency with the second currency being Bitcoin 🪙 It was just a short drive of about half an hour to Concepción de Ataco, the first of several towns making up the Ruta de las Flores. We stopped in the city center and walked around a bit until we found a good spot to try El Salvador's national dish: Pupusas! Freshly baked maíz (and rice dough) filled with anything your heart is craving for, like cheese, frijolitos, jalapeños. I've tried the Pupusa loca, filled with everything that's possible and about three times the size of a regular one!! 😅
We stopped at more towns, walked the town centers, drank a tasty coffee with fig cake, bought some lychees at a market and got an "El Salvador" Patch as a gift from a police officer. It was a perfect day, especially in the town parks where the temperature was a bit cooler. My cold is getting a lot better, it's mostly just the coughing left.

For the end of the day we drove up to a hotel called "El Tibet" which is also the trailhead to go up to the volcano Santa Ana. We arrived there pretty early and had some time to sort the van and finally take some pictures and videos of the insides. Then we walked a little bit to a nearby viewpoint and then ordered some more Pupusas for dinner ☺️ Tomorrow morning we're planning to walk up the volcano 🌋 It's supposed to be a lot easier than Acatenango, but we're expecting the worst now 😁Read more