The Celeb's of Zacatecoluca

Shortly after arriving in Bahia Del Sol, Serena and I took a bus into the closest town, Zacatecoluca (Zacate). The other cruisers in the marina had told us that they had done the trip by bus rather than taking a taxi, so we thought we would also try the same. It did involve changing buses half way through the trip which would be challenging as despite our three Spanish lessons we still have little communication skills! We were also told that the town is never really visited by tourists so be prepared to be stared at when we arrived.

As we approached the gate to the hotel we heard the horn of the bus blasting as they drove down the street (it is sounded often to let people know it's a approaching). There are not any bus stop signs, but we just waved out to the driver and he stopped for us. I say stop, but we found out that the bus only comes to a complete stop for old ladies and the amount it slows down is dependent on your age. Let's just say that if your a teenage male then it's a run and jump to make your ride!

The other patrons were surprised when we got on, but everyone was friendly enough. Soon after a man came down the bus shaking some coins in his hands and saying something in Spanish. We weren't sure if he was selling something or acting in some official capacity, but everyone else was giving him some coins so i gave him a dollar for Serena and I and he seemed happy and carried on. Definitely a cheap way to travel.

We had to change buses half way through in a place called Arco. Even we could understand this meant arch and is essentially where one road crosses over another under an arched bridge. This is the main bus change point and Serena and I joined our fellow travelers with their bundles of sticks, livestock and replacement car parts as we all scrambled up a dirt path up the hill to the road above us and our change point.

When we got to the top of the hill a man was calling out Zecate, Zecate which is a short form of Zacatecoluca. We quickly jumped on the bus which had a Real Madrid football scarf across the front, stuffed animals hanging from the roof, dance music blasting from the stereo and flashing lights. This bus drove as fast you'd imagine a mobile dance club would and we were soon in Zacatecoluca and jumped off on the main street.

As soon as we jumped off all heads turned our way and a girl came running up to us and started pointing at her camera and wanted to take pictures of us. Serena had a number taken of her first before she started taking pictures of me. She seemed pretty overwhelmed by it all and we quickly headed down the road before word got out. Everyone seemed friendly enough and a lot of people just wanted to come up and talk to us, but with my Spanish limited to being able to order beers and them having no english we weren't able to communicate effectively. They didn't have any beers with them so i just smiled.


You can buy all sorts of things in Zecate. Baby chicks were a big item on the streets.

If Serena had had her way on the trip so far we would have had three puppies, two chicks, a parrot and a lizard! Thank goodness that quarantine procedures between countries make such discussions quick and we still have no pets onboard Solent.



All the stalls seemed to specialize in torches, radio's and TV aerials. Amazingly they all seemed to sell the same items with very little differentiation between each stall.



We didn't buy much, but i did take a look at some really cheap Swiss watches!

These types of buses take people to places where the main buses don't go

They say everyone has five minutes of fame and we more than used all that up in Zacatecoluca!