We ended up in El Tunco kind of randomly. El Tunco is a tourist bubble, big in surfer circles, on the coast of a country in the midst of a war on drugs, gang members and police fighting to the death. As we sat in our little private hut, the fan humming loudly over the torrential rains outside, I browsed news coming out of El Salvador on the BBC and learned that 904 homicides had been reported in just the previous month (August). Though none of these deaths were tourist related, it was this chilling statistic that assured we would steer clear of the capital and we ended up spending four days in our bubble before heading back out of the country. El Tunco, the rock for which the town owes its namesake. El Tunco is El Salvadorian for hog or pig and the rock looks something like a pig with its legs up in the air. Let your imagination run wild.

Volcanic beach sand

Julien surfing!

Surfer in the sunset

To get from El Salvador to Nicaragua, we had to head through a strip of Honduras. Some boarder crossings require physically getting out of the vehicle, getting an exit stamp, walking (many times across a bridge) to the next boarder to get an entrance stamp, and then finding your vehicle. Some let us just hang out and pass our passports through the sliding door before continuing on our way. This is one of four border controls we went through on September 25.