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La Palma also serves as the gateway to El Pital, the highest peak in all of El Salvador (over 2700M). On our second day in town we decided to head to the nearby town of San Ignacio and attempt to catch a next bus up the mountain to the village of Rio Chiquito to commence our long and grueling hike to the summit of El Pital. Well, after a bit of confusion on all of our parts, various conversations with men, women, and children, we were eventually pointed in the direction of the bus stop. We traveled through portable video arcades, concession stands selling cotton candy and other sweets, peanut stands, slushy stands, and just about everything else you could possibly think of that may be present at a carnival...oh, did I mention there was a carnival going on?

It was 9:00 in the morning on a Thursday and school was in full session...Ahhhh, life in Central America. So, we boarded the bus, paid a dollar, and headed up a long and winding road for about 45 minutes. The views were breathtaking and passengers scrambled and climbed on top of one another to catch a glimpse through each dip, twist, and turn. When we arrived at Rio Chiquito, we were pointed in the direction of an old and faded wooden sign that said "El Pital -->" and after failing to wake the young girl at the little shop, we opted to head up the mountain with granola bars, water, a camera, and some hope of success. We climbed, and climbed, and climbed...and climbed. The guide book says its roughly a 90 minute hike...true, but it's pretty much straight up on an uneven, rocky road. Throughout the walk we passed many cows, a number of breathtaking overlooks, and a few Salvadoran farmers tending their corn and tomatoes.

So needless to say, all said and done, we had hiked to the highest point in El Salvador and lived to talk about it. We reached back to Rio Chiquito village around 12:40 and proceeded to wait for the 2:00 bus which oddly enough turned into a supposed 2:30 bus, which after waiting and freezing our butts off for two hours, fwe inally gave in and headed to the tourist police station...well, turns out there was no bus coming, at least not until the next morning or maybe 4:30pm, still lots of discrepancies. Thankfully Anthony's quick wit and impeccable Spanish earned us a private escort back to town (well, private if you don't count the five other police officers who each were carrying shotguns and other automatic weapons...

I assume these were to be used in the case of a rougue snake or jaguar attempting to overcome tourists, not sure though). We arrived back to town in 15 minutes, mind you it took 45 to get to the top. I think the officer driving was going for some new land speed record, or perhaps he was trying to impress a few out-of-towners, either way, it wasn't the safest way down through winding roads that hugged the cliffs edge which happened to be completely bare of any guardrail. We made it back alive, and spent the rest of the day in town eating and shopping for some art to bring back to Belize. The next day we were off to Copan Ruinas in Honduras via the border town of El Poy.
Posted by Belizean' A New Trail