After 12 hours of bus rides in four days, we're ready to fly again. It took four hours to return from Panajachel to "Guate" (mostly because the bus stops everywhere). Another four hours to bring us back to San Salvador, and then another four hours two days later, to get us to the beach and back. (This time, the chicken bus actually carried chickens, and a squirrel). Needless to say, we don't want to see, hear, or smell another bus again.

The beach we went to, El Zonte, was the first time we actually swam in the Pacific. It wasn't so pacific (in fact, it's famous among surfers), but it was peacefully devoid of tourists. Instead, there were hundreds of little Hermit crabs scurrying across the black sand.



We enjoyed our last beach day of the trip, as well as the penultimate trip week by taking it easy. We've been spending some time with Ana and Eugenio and visited their new place in Suchitoto, a beautiful sleepy town by the Suchitlan lake.



In San Salvador, we visited both the busy, noisy street markets in the downtown area to the glittery, air-conditioned mall in the affluent part of town. This is the most Americanized experience in this trip (save perhaps the Walmart in Playa del Carmen). By this time next week, if the weather cooperates, we should be back in the States, where fancy coffee shops are the norm, not the exception. It's probably all Central American coffee anyway, that's too expensive to sell in Central America. And with a little luck, we'll be in Mexico by lunchtime tomorrow. Adios!