Chicken Buses & Chickens in El Salvador

After León I went to another town in Nicaragua called Matagalpa. It's a mountain town famous for both coffee and cigars but I didn't sample the latter. My next plan was to get to El Salvador since I thought I was going to skip Honduras. There's three options in Central America; expensive comfortable tourist buses that go between capitals, even more expensive shuttles that will take you between tourist towns or the infamous chicken bus. 

I was too far away to return to the capital and too poor to afford the shuttle so it was to be a long day of travelling via chicken bus. My first bus left Matagalpa at 5.15am. I crossed the border between Nicaragua and Honduras after 3 buses at around 11.30am and then waited almost an hour on the other side for a ride to the nearest town. 

After 3 more buses I was at the border of Honduras and El Salvador. It was just after 5pm and getting dark. I crossed into Salvador and a local guy suggested I stay in the church (for free). I said I would feel guilty since I didn't believe in God. He then offered to take me (and my enormous backpack) on his motorbike to the next town. I politely declined and eventually the bus came. I arrived at the terminal at 7pm and grabbed a room at the closest hotel for the night. 

Next morning I grabbed a nicer express bus to the capital San Salvador. The Salvadorians are known for being extremely friendly and I do agree. A kid got on the bus selling bags of white liquid  (drinks come in bags here) and when I asked the guy next to me what it was he promptly bought me one. It was like drinking a rice pudding smoothie. Delicious. 

After several hours we make it to the capital and I spend ages trying to figure out where to get the bus to my next destination of Suchitoto. There's no real system and if you ask people you'll get sent all over the bus station or the town. I had five different people tell me different things. Eventually I had a shop keeper assure me that the bus would pass the road I was on but that was after arguments and discussions between several other neighbouring shop keepers. 

So I wait on the street while I'm lectured by another shop keeper about how I shouldn't travel alone. Next minute a woman and her child walk past with a box full of baby chickens for sale. She tried to sell me some but again I politely declined and just asked to take a photo.

Soon I was on the bus to Suchitoto and I purchased a bag of rambutans for the trip. I asked the girl what they're called in Spanish and she tells me 'lychees'. Haha. 

After an hour and a half I arrive in the cute little colonial town on Suchitoto. Complete with dogs and drunks on the street. 

It was quite hot so later in the afternoon I took a stroll down to the lake and on the way I saw this stencil on almost every house. 

When I got to the lake I realised they had a slight problem with the vegetation. This is where you would take a boat ride from.....if it was possible.

The next day I managed to find a good view of the lake from someone's property. I thought the view was amazing because of the weeds!

One of the main touristy things to do is to visit the nearby waterfall which has unusual rocks. I was told that I could visit with the police which sounded kinda strange and unnecessary but apparently there are occasional muggings and they like to protect their tourists since they don't have many. 

I turned up at the police station at 3pm for the tour with the tourist police (yes that is a thing in this part of the world). They asked me how many people in my group and when I just said me they looked perplexed. I said it's ok I can just go by myself (it's less than 2km from the town) but the main guy at the desk said absolutely not and that I should wait. Five minutes later I had two cops to accompany me and a chauffeur service to the falls in a police car. Here's my new buddies who kindly agreed to pose for a photo.

I mainly went for the novelty of the police escort but it actually turned out to be a pretty cool waterfall. Here's some pics...