Sand, Surf and Hammocks.

It was difficult to find anyway down to the beaches that we past on the CA-2 as it wound it's way along the coast. There are lots of small sandy coves that open up between headlands of rock that the road twisted and turned around. Another 10 out of 10 piece of tarmac. We eventually found a turn off that lead down to the Playa San Blas and the Hotel El Coral run by a Dutch woman called Jennifer and her husband. The pool was great if you didn't want to fight with the Pacific breakers and the sun sets were magnificent. We stayed 2 night with a restful day, walking the beach and Jill writing her massive entry in the blog. After a swim and a long talk with Jennifer who told us what it was like to live in El Salvador, we headed north to Suchitoto. It is said, and we agreed, that it is like Antigua Guatemala was 40 years ago, but with only one church, with interesting wooden columns, painted woodwork, a drawing of Christ crying, and a very eastern image carved into the alter. Empty cobbled streets, a thriving market and a nice hotel for us to stay in called the hotel Balanza which overlooked the lake. The next day we set off to visit Concepción Quezaltepeque where they make hammocks. The shortest way there is to catch a ferry across the lake, which goes when it is full and as the ferry was on the other side when we arrived we had to wait about an hour, but there were toilets and we have got quite good at just hanging around.
At last the ferry came into view and after discharging it's cargo, we were aboard, and Jill picked out the life ring she wanted if needed. We could pay the going rate of $6 and wait for other cars to come or we could pay $9 and it would take us on our own. As we had waited over an hour and nothing had turned up we opted to pay the $9. We arrived at CQ have navigated a very rough road for about 7Kms. On arrival we were befriended by Juan, who works for the local council and is trying to set up tourist information in the village. He took us to see the hammocks being woven, the edge pieces being crocheted and we looked around at the finished articles. The whole village is involved in hammock making and the hammocks are sold far and wide. We retraced our path and on the return ferry trip there was a group of 19 civil defence worker all travelling in the back of a Toyota truck who made a bit of a party of the crossing. Goodbye party boat.