central-america – The Adventures of Elle Coco

Take me (back) to Nica, for pinolillo, lapchickens, and a volcano in a lake!

It’s March 2018 and we’re leaving the deceptively challenging surf breaks of El Salvador and the flamboyant, overly inquisitive macaws of Honduras behind us, and continued on our merry way south. For the next couple of weeks we would base ourselves in Nicaragua; a country that had stolen my heart back in 2016, when I not only visited my first ever cacao farm, but made lifelong friends in the process. This time round there would be more (pinolillo) a scattering of unusual islands (including one with absolutely no motorised forms of transport, and a volcanic one in the middle of a lake), a few old haunts, and a country on the cusp of something none of us saw coming.

Fly to El Salvador

After our Honduran Interlude, we made it to Central America’s smallest and most densely populated country, and the only country in the world named directly after Jesus Christ – ‘El Salvador’ translates to ‘The Saviour’ in English.

We didn’t actually fly into El Salvador though, contrary to the title of this blog post, we just caught the ‘chicken bus’ over from Honduras. But ever since listening to London indie rock band Athlete’s song lyrics to the aptly named ‘El Salvador’ on my bus journeys to school all those years ago, humming along to the lyrics “Fly to El Salvador, I don’t know why and I don’t know what for…”, I’d always had an urge to go to the place, to find out what the “what for” in the song was they were always singing about actually was.

A Honduran Interlude

During our sojourn through the Americas; leaving the kak’ik (turkey stew), Atol de Elote (corn and cacao drink), picbil shawls and active volcano hikes behind us in Guatemala; we dipped in to Honduras, for the ancient Mayan site of Copán Ruinas, beautiful ruby red macaw parrots, ‘pupusas’, and yes, a little bit of chocolate!.