Peru Day 2 (El Salvador and Lima) - Part 1

The wake up call from the front desk jarred me awake at 1:45 AM on the nose.  It came in just as I was finally beginning to fall asleep, typical.  I guess I won't sleep today.  A quick up and out of bed, brush the teeth, put on my clothes from the day before and out the door.  This would make day 2 in the same clothes.  Because the bulk of this trip we are planning to pack it into the back country we are traveling super light.  Also the way we routed our flights, we would not get our bags until we reached Cusco tomorrow afternoon.

We were told to be at the airport 2 hours before our 4 AM flight and arrived a little after 2 AM.  For future reference the airport itself does not open until 3 AM.  Apparently we could have slept another hour.  Oh well, as we stood around killing time, we learned that we could need to get our bags "Banana Wrapped".  This is where they cover your bag in industrial strength plastic wrap to protect it on the flight down to Peru.  We decided that since out luggage was going to be sitting in the Lima airport without us for a day, it wouldn't be a bad idea.  When they were done my bag looked like a giant burrito from 7-11.  Finally they opened security about 3 AM and we went through without a hitch.  Now I was getting excited.  We are finally off to Peru!

Welcome to El Salvador

I did manage to get a little sleep on the plane, but not much it didn't seem to take long to land in El Salvador.  Here we had a 7 hour layover so we decided to do a little exploring outside of the airport.  When we got to immigration, we met Officer Dominguez.  He not only helped us with our entry visas and paper work but provided us maps, directions and advice about where to go.  Things were off to a good start.  Outside we grabbed a cab and asked to goto the beach Officer Dominguez recommended La Libertad, but the cabbie thought it was a bad idea.  He recommended Costa Del Sol instead and we were off!  We go there and chowed down in an open air restaurant that looked like it was an abandoned 4 story open air building that had seen better days.  The atmosphere and beach were incredible.  Everything you could have wanted from a small central american town and more.

Our Lunchtime View

Yes that's a dog dropping a deuce on the beach. 

Lunch consisted of Shellfish Soup for the Elk and $11.00 fresh caught lobster for me.  It went down good and after lunch we went out onto the beach for a walk.  Amazingly it seemed deserted there were maybe only 50 other people as far as you could see and 22 of them were kids playing a pickup game of soccer barefoot.  There was also a fisherman throwing a traditional net waist deep in water from the shore and hauling it in.  It was very cool to watch.

The soccer kids had set up some bamboo goals and were amazing to watch.  These kids ranged from about 11 to late teens and some of these guys had moves that several pro players would be jealous of.  Most of the people, especially the kids were poor, so poor they were using their underwear as swim trunks and shorts.  Of course I fit right in, I was not about to leave without swimming in the ocean, so I stripped to my boxers and ran into the water.  It was awesome, warm and clear and it felt really good to swim in the waves.  I laid down on the shore for a while and let the sun bake me dry.

In the afternoon we walked around town and looked in several little shops.  Then got back into the cab and headed off to the airport.  and a flight to Lima.



To Be Continued...

Kids Playing Soccer on the Beach.