Sonsonate: 3rd - 6th September 2025
3rd September – Wednesday.
I had my 2nd and last expensive breakfast at Captain Morgan’s today. I was very happy as he didn’t charge me for the orange juice, so it was cheaper than yesterday. Julio Pinto (one of the owners of my new hostel) was there on time to collect me, we had to go the long way round the lake as that is the only road out. We chatted for a while but I fell asleep after about half an hour. I woke just around the corner from the hostel; the journey took exactly an hour.
My room is very basic, but it is the first with aircon and it is very much needed, Sonsonate is very steamy. Considering the price per night I was expecting something a little bit plusher, but I do have a TV and a clothes rail and the kitchen seems to have everything I need. The shower and toilet are outside, I don’t mean literally, but if it rains I will definitely get wet accessing it, the same with the kitchen. There is also a security camera which must the first that actually works as it lights up in blue and then follows you around the courtyard, which is a little bit spooky. But safety comes first. I think Julio lives here, he has a room which looks well lived in, other than that I have not seen any other guests.
I had a quick walk around town. I did my usual and went the wrong way to begin with – lol. This place is about half the size of Sanat Ana and looks so much poorer. Again, it is very shabby, but in an interesting rambling kind of way. While walking the wrong way I came across a huge fruit and veg market, which looks like it could be worth exploring. And throughout town there were lots of women line the streets selling their goods, mainly fruit and veg, and there seems to be the normal array of shops ranging from $1 second hand clothes to several chicken shacks. I found a Dollar Land and bought an extension lead for $2.75. It is needed as the only plug socket in my room is not near enough anything to put my phone on. I’m sure it will come in handy in other places. Mountain View in Santa Ana actually provided a lead, I was very tempted to take it with me, accidently on purpose, but I’m a good girl and left it on the bed.
I didn’t take any photos of the town, the ones here were taken on my back from the food festival on Saturday, as I actually felt quite conscious of my presence as I did not see any other tourists, especially when I walked around the central plaza: Parque Rafael Campos. It was really busy with food stalls, trinket and jewellery stalls and an inflatable for the children. As with all the town squares I’ve visited, it had a church and the town hall flanking it and the locals just seem to sit and chill and watch the world go round.
I have decided to keep busy while I am here. I have booked to do the 7 waterfalls tomorrow, Friday I will go to the one of the national parks, probably Park Impossible, and Saturday I will get the bus to Juayua for the food festival. I am a little disappointed as I thought I could get a bus from here for the Santa Ana volcano hike, after all it is nearer. But apparently not, you have to get the bus into Santa Ana and then catch the 7:30am bus from there to the volcano. The bus from here to Santa Ana takes two hours! Oh why oh why did I not do the hike while I was in Santa Ana, I had more than enough time to do, just not the enthusiasm 
4th September – Thursday
I’m exhausted and it’s not from the 7 waterfalls hike. I watched too many videos last night of the 70-meter waterfall climb with no harness, just a rope. It really put me off, especially as one guy wrote ‘if you let go you will fall, it’s that simple’. All I could think about was the pain I suffered in my left shoulder after caving in Semuc Champey, and decided I shouldn’t risk it. Instead, I went on the Chorros se la Caera hike, which is merely trekking up and down a mountain side to see 3 amazing waterfalls, with man-made pools you can swim in. The pools were created the year I was born and the local area gets all of their electricity from them – bloody awesome. The first and smallest pool is called the children’s pool, the second the women’s pool and the last the men’s pool, each varying in depth accordingly.
They are located just outside of Juayua, where the weekend food festival is held. I had a choice of a morning or afternoon hike so I chose the afternoon. I left my room at 10:30am and walked to the bus station in town. It’s a 45-minute walk but, by then, it was so hot it felt like an hour and I was doing my usual sweating buckets thing. Sonsonate has what I would describe as a proper bus station, in that there are stands to catch the chicken buses from and each has the bus numbers that leave from it clearly labelled, so finding the 249 stand was very easy. The bus was more or less empty so I wished I had gone to the bus stop nearer to my hostel, but such is life and the walk was good. I actually quite like this town, it is so busy, everybody seems to be selling something from shops blaring out music, randomly placed market stalls and women/men sitting on the road side.
The best thing about the bus ride was, just as we got into Juayua, Yasmin called me, just to check that I was ok after our last call. It was just so loving and caring and really made my day to hear her voice. Love you daughter 
When I got into Juayua I located the meeting point for my guide and then found a little café place just around the corner. I had delicious chicken, rice, salad and a drink and all for $2.50. Sitting opposite was a guy in white converse trainers, white sunglasses and blue and white suffering short. I did think to myself what a twat (it was sunglasses) and left it at that. When I was in the truck with my waterfall guide (Emond), he said to me ‘you were sitting opposite me having your lunch’. I checked out his trainers and had a little giggle to myself. Anyway, he turned out to an alright kinda guy, and it was just me and him on this hike, so we went at my pace which was nice. He pointed out a few butterflies, a crab, a few different trees and even had a swim with me in the men’s pool. Swimming was actually very difficult as there is a
cave/tunnel to the woman’s pool which the water flows rather rapidly to, so it was like swimming against the tide most of the time. At one point I tried to reach the other side of the pool to stand under the waterfall but my swimming is not that strong and I couldn’t make it. But we did traverse the edge of the pool, I did it crablike with my back to sheer drop so I didn’t feel too nervous, we went under a small cascade of water and dropped into another cave, which was chest deep with water. We inched our way into that but it was quite challenging as again the current was strong and against us. We weren’t that far in when I asked if we could turn around and leave. The guide was fine with this and told me to just lift my body as if to swim and let the water do the rest. Wow, before I knew it, I was propelled back into pool. It was so much fun.
The hike back up to the truck wasn’t too bad and I only needed to catch my breath properly once. I am so glad I had dry clothes with me so I stripped and dried off behind the truck before we headed back into town where Emond dropped me at the bus stop. Luckily a bus was waiting, so I got back quite quickly. Uhm, walking through Sonsonate and back to my hostel in shorts turned almost everyone’s head. Even the three armed police officers I passed made a comment, I believe it was positive (?). I got whistled at several times and plenty of smiles from the men and frowns from the older women. I hadn’t notice last night or this morning, but the women here dress very conservatively, in skirts, jeans or leggings, no-one had there pins out like me – lol. But I really didn’t care and to be honest would prefer to have my pins out that have a big fat bottom and bulging double stomach in leggings, which many of the woman here tend to sport – ug!
Merlin called me this evening, so that’s two loving calls in one day – I am a very happy puppy. I bought a lot of fruit and beer on my way back and am sitting comfortably under the aircon. My legs are aching but I feel good. It’s been an awesome afternoon.
6th September – Saturday
RIP Joyce!
I stayed in yesterday – I was just feeling so sad, I got a message in the morning that they had sedated Nessa and everyone was saying their final goodbyes. However, she made it through the night and woke this morning wanting painkillers and water. She’s a tough cookie and I’m finding this really emotionally difficult God knows how Vanera, David and Eliot are coping
Tina’s mother, Joyce, passed away last night – my heart and soul is with you Tina.
I was debating if I should go out this morning – my decision was made for me. So far things have been nice and quiet here, which is what I need right now. Last night the sister (co-owner) turned up. A fierce storm was underway so they (her and her brother) stayed in his room. However, this morning, she was up early and started blasting some awful, full on with the base, ragga style music – FFS. I showered, dressed and got the bus to Juayua, a food festival is held there every weekend. I did mean to go last weekend, but didn’t make it. This time I wished I had walked to the bus station, instead I went to the nearest stop, the bus was full and I had to stand all the way
The festival wasn’t that big, just two streets lined with stalls selling the most delicious looking meat and seafood dishes, as well as several drink bars. I really should have got a fish dish, however as I was perusing the dishes a woman gave me a taste of the beef and that was it, sold to the lady with the dreadlocks. It was so melt-in-the-mouth, and my plate of food was excellent, bar the cheese tortilla, which I left, but I demolished the meat, roasted veg, rice and potato salad and green salad. I was so stuffed. I’m really not sure why I bought a pineapple cocktail after, or how I even managed to squeeze it in – but I did. After that I sat in the town square for a little while and watched the world go by, Juayua is quite pretty compared to Sonsonate, and a lot cleaner, the whole town is.
On the way back I sat at the front of the bus and what a delight that was. Juayua is on the Ruta de Flores and although I had read this is the wrong season to enjoy it, what I did see was very beautiful. The trees arching over the road and so many beautiful bushes in bloom with mainly red, yellow, purple and white flowers. The bus also passed through a town called Solcoatitan, which looks really beautiful and so colourful, and I could see they were enhancing the town centre, along with Juayua, in preparation for the high season, which starts at the end of this month. If I ever find myself in El Salvador again I will definitely do the Ruta de Flores and also make sure my shoulder is strong enough to do the 7 waterfalls.
I was going to ask to extend my stay here and do a day trip to the beach, however the base has not stopped since I got back, in fact it is louder now, and they have friends over, and they all getting very pissed and sitting in the courtyard and being so bloody loud and it is really pissing me off. Yes, I know it’s Saturday night and they are young but this is not a youth hostel and they really seem to have no concern that they have a paying guest here. Would I recommend this place to families or older travellers, no I wouldn’t. Anyway, I spent the evening researching
hotels along the beach and have booked myself into a beachfront hotel just outside of a town called Acajutla for the next three nights. It has a pool and breakfast is included and my room has a balcony I leave tomorrow, and it is only $14 in the taxi to get there. I could go by chicken bus for $1, but the uber to the bus station is $2 and then I will need another uber when I get to Acajutla, which will be $3, so I may as well pay the extra and not have to struggle with my rucksack, which seems to be far heavier than when I left the UK – lol.