Today I woke up at 8 and went out to the kitchen to make coffee. I also drank a peach yogurt drink we picked up last night on the way back to our hostel. Once Kara got up and came outside, she made some bean and cheese quesadillas with ingredients we had left over from San Salvador.
We went inside to pack and get ready to leave for San Salvador. We were going to try taking the 102A bus again, but it should be easier going this way since we’re leaving from such a small town. I asked our hostel host and she said the bus would pick us up right on the main road, which was about a 5 minute walk away.
I also had a gansito, my go-to travel day snack that I discovered with Keith in Merida.
Once we were all packed, we grabbed all our stuff and marched up the road to Ceviches Baldizon where we had been told to wait for the bus. Not 5 minutes later, we saw a 102A and I flagged it down. The fare was $3 USD per person with bags ($1.50 without luggage) and we sat at the back for the 1.5hr ride. At one point, a local woman got on the bus, sat in front of us, turned around, and waved at me and said “Hola!”. She then ignored us until she got off the bus later, at which point she waved at me enthusiastically and said “Adios!”. It was so cute I don’t know why she was specifically choosing me because there were other tourists on the bus but I guess she didn’t see very many white people with light hair.
We were dropped off at the Terminal de Occidente and ordered an Uber to another station (Terminal Nuevo Amanecer) to catch our next bus. René (our uncle) had told us how to get to his family’s village, and we only needed to take one more bus. We got to the terminal and were told that our route, 428, only left at 3pm so we had an hour and a bit to wait. We went on a hunt for some food, found an iced tea, a ham pizza (honestly not bad it tasted like school assembly pizza), and a milky way. A girl we did the Acatenango volcano hike with in Antigua a couple weeks ago also showed up, so we chatted with her until our bus arrived.
We had a 2.5 hour bus ride from San Salvador to Chapeltique, a small town close to where René and his family live. The ride there cost $5 USD per person and we were dropped off at the park.
We waited about 5-10 mins for René to pick us up, and every single person who passed by us was turning their heads to look. It wasn’t intimidating at all just very curious, you can tell it’s really not a touristy area.
René picked us up and drove us the 10 minutes to a small town nearby called El Jiote. On the way there, we encountered some cute cows on the road.
Once we entered the gate to the property, we were invited into his sister Mayra’s home and shown around. It’s a beautiful open-air living room with hammocks and couches. We were introduced to Mayra, René’s 90-year old dad (also called René), and one of René’s brothers in law from Houston who’s here building a house right now. Mayra is so funny, she looked at Kara and said “Ella parece a Andres” (“that one looks like Andres”, our cousin), then she looked at me and said “y ella es más blanca” (and that one’s more white)!
We were invited to sit at the table to eat. Mayra prepared us rice with beans, eggs, cheese and tortillas, along with “jugo de marañon” (cashew fruit juice). It was delicious!
She also offered us coffee but we were pretty tired and just wanted to settle in, so René showed us to the guest house where we’ll be sleeping. It’s gorgeous! The house belongs to another sibling living in Houston, but they use it as a guesthouse on this property. Kara and I each get our own bedroom with AC and a double bed.
Once we’d said goodnight to everyone, we called my family and chatted for a while. Eventually they went to bed and Kara and I played cards before I showered and headed to bed.
I’m really glad we’re here and we get to visit René and his family, they’re so lovely! See you in the next one!