February 24-25
Hello everyone!
No need to chase them when there are so many in close proximity. Seven, in fact.
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| One of the 'siete cascadas' |
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| A hike which included clambering up rocks! |
Welcome to the area surrounding the village of Juayua, a stop on the ‘Ruta de las Flores’ or ‘Flower Route’. I’ve mentioned before that one of El Salvador’s methods of boosting tourism away from the blackened beaches of the Pacific Ocean is to create a variety of ‘routes’ such as these, which take a visitor to vaguely interesting places inland.
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| This route starts in Sonsonate and heads north to Ahuachapan |
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| Not many flowers visible by the waterfalls |
It’s not the easiest town to pronounce. Any guesses? Joo-ah-yoo-ah? Jwa-yu-wah? Huh-wuh-ah-yoo-ah?
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| Welcome to where?? |
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| The outskirts have pretty art painted on gates |
‘why-OO-uh’ is the correct way to see this cute little town, which has developed a reputation as a nice place to visit. This is particularly pertinent on Saturdays and Sundays, when it hosts a weekly gastronomic festival. We’d seen this once before…at about 9am, when the only stall open was selling Taiwanese dumplings. As part of a whirlwind 24 hours away from the big city, we started by exploring the food available in Juayua on Saturday afternoon.
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| Apparently the church is famous for having a 'black Christ' inside |
Walking across the main square from the imposing church towards a series of canopies, you’re initially hit by…noise. Specifically, blaring music. Speakers mere metres from one another compete to fill any possible semblance of silence. Not even the smoke billowing up from the grills is able to dampen it.
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| There were three or four different streets with entrances such as this |
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| Wondering how to satisfy hunger |
I don’t know why but in my head I had imagined food from a variety of cultures being hidden under these canopies. There are a variety of…carbs. To go with your meat.
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| Rice, bread, pasta... |
Oh, and your michelada, of course. The effort it took to make what is essentially a Bloody Mary, into which you pour beer, was something to behold. The man’s careful and deliberate sequencing and placing of elements into and on the drink made it seem as if he was creating a sculpture for the ages. His sculpture lasted about 15 minutes. I was thirsty.
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| I think micheladas eminate from Mexico |
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| Your beer comes separately and you then mix the two together |
A slightly underwhelming food experience, though very filling to the point where we didn’t need proper food for the rest of the day. Lucky that, as we were staying a bit out of town…
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| This is a dome. We slept in it. Marvellous. |
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The Santa Ana volcano, El Salvador's
highest, is hidden behind that tree on the right |
This was the real reason for going away. I had found Kafen on Instagram, had a look at the domes and thought “por que no?” And why not indeed with a view that stretched south almost to the sea and north to mountains and green-tinged volcanoes.
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| The place has three domes and one hut |
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| The cold outdoor shower had a great view |
It stayed pretty light throughout the night as it was close to a full moon. We were surprised by how windy it became but had a lovely stay.
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| Sunset looking towards the ocean |
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| We had our own fire for an hour #marshmallows |
The following morning we had arranged to do a popular hike colloquially known as the ‘seven waterfalls’ trek. A dusty drive along roads reminiscent of Malawi took us to…well, nowhere really. The car was parked, we brought a small bag with what was needed and got going a little while after 8am.
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| The start of our walk |
The initial descent reminded us of the frustrating trip back down a volcano we had taken two weeks before. However, this dusty walk down was brief and soon stopped with some waterfalls visible in the distance.
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| Oscar was our guide |
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| The first waterfall we visited |
A little bit further down we were asked to change into water shoes. This part involved walking through the river - apparently it is creatively named ‘seven waterfalls river’ - to get closer to the waterfalls.
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Each fall has a name, this is Bejuco
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| This waterfall is 50 metres tall, the tallest being 70m |
After seeing the beautiful 50-metre-high fall shown above, we approached what I think is waterfall number four. We got a little bit closer to this one…because we had to climb it…
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| The surprise of waterfall number four... |
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| We used a rope to get up. No helmets needed! |
It was harder for our guide, admittedly. He had to clamber up the slippery rocks without the rope. He's a little bit of a daredevil, though - you'll see a video showing that later. The other waterfalls seemed slightly tame in comparison, though all were breathtakingly beautiful.
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| Oscar scrambled up far faster than us |
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| View of some of the later waterfalls |
Rather than heading back straight away, our guide took us in a different direction. We headed to the Chorros de la Calera, a popular bathing spot under several small waterfalls.
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| There is a mural painting of this in Juayua, it is very popular |
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| Me cooling off under the falls |
I wasn’t inclined to jump from the top, like our guide…
El Salvador may be known as the ‘Land of Volcanoes’. It has plenty of waterfalls as well!
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| Stunning |
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| Stunning |
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| Stunning |
Love you all,
Matt
