The town of Santa Ana is really nothing to write home about. It has some nice plazas and a few interesting buildings, but it is predominantly street after street of nondescript low-rise structures. It is, however, home to some of the nicest people and the nicest hostel that we have ever stayed in. We would find the latter out later. Immediately after arriving to the bus station we started looking for another bus to take us to Lago Coatepeque, a summer vacation locale for the rich and famous of El Salvador. We had no idea where to catch this bus, and our ignorance must have been evident, as a local bus driver stopped, asked us where we were trying to go, then told us to hop on. Ever the cynic, I thought we were being taken for a ride, literally and figuratively. Then, I felt like an ass. He dropped us off at a bus stop on the far side of town, told us what bus to take, and didn’t charge us a thing. It was incredibly refreshing to come across kindness like this. Often times while traveling there are a lot of people looking to take advantage of the tourist dollar, but that never seemed to be the case in El Salvador. With hardly an exception, everyone was incredibly kind just for the sake of being kind. For this reason my love of El Salvador grew even stronger.

A few hours later we arrived at a veritable ghost town on Lago Coatepeque. We must have come during the slow season, as there were neither rich, famous, nor any other kind of people here. We were told that the hostel we had planned to stay at was closed, so the bus driver dropped us off at another hotel. Once again, being a cynic, I was certain that the bus driver just dropped us off at his buddy’s hotel and was looking for a kickback. Nope, I am still an ass. We wandered down the dusty road looking for our hostel only to find out it was in fact permanently closed. We made our way back to the hotel and booked a room for the night. This hotel was likely gorgeous in its time. It had a beautiful plot of land sloping down to the lake, a big indoor/outdoor lounge, a pool, a covered dining room on stilts above the lake, and exactly zero occupancy aside from us. This place hadn’t seen updates in decades and it truly felt like we were on a movie set for some 50’s doo wop party. It was eerie being the only occupants on this once grand estate.  The emptiness and dilapidated state of the repair made it impossible not to imagine the countless murders that had undoubtedly taken place here.  This is how any proper horror film starts.  The unknowing tourists with no other options reluctantly take refuge at an abandoned resort. The unsettled feeling never really left us, but we tried to forget it and made our way down to the vacant dining room on stilts to read and watch the sunset over the mountains. A heavy chill filled the air that the sun’s warmth once occupied, so we retired to our almost certainly haunted room for the night in order to catch the first bus back to Santa Ana in the morning.

We had wanted to get back to Santa Ana early enough to quickly check in, then hightail it to the main attraction of this area, Volcan Santa Ana. However, upon checking in our hopes were dashed when we were informed that there wasn’t nearly enough time in the day for such an endeavor. It would have to wait until the next day. Thus, we had most of a day to kill in Santa Ana. Any shortcomings that Santa Ana may have are made up for in spades by Casa Verde. This hostel hosts big clean rooms, enormous private bathrooms, a pool, plenty of hammocks, a soundproof movie room, a full kitchen, a rooftop terrace, and all at very reasonable prices. After wandering around town a bit, we had no problem lazing the day away in hammocks and consuming a massive bowl of homemade guacamole on the rooftop terrace at sunset before calling it yet another early night. Volcan Santa Ana awaited.

After another long bus ride which took us right past Lago Coatepeque, we arrived to the parking lot below Volcan Santa Ana. Santa Ana is famous for the beautiful acidic lake in its crater and gorgeous views of the aforementioned Lago Coatepeque. Up to this point I had never seen a crater lake and was elated at the prospect. Fate, well, she had other plans. There are several volcanoes to climb in this national park but the Park Rangers only go to one each day. We had come on the wrong day. Instead of Santa Ana, we had to climb its little bastard brother, Izalco. The summit of Izalco was below the parking lot we were at, so I was not very excited at the prospect of “climbing” this glorified mole hill instead of the magnificent Santa Ana. Unfortunately I was not very good at hiding this sentiment and quickly started to irritate my travel companion. I was bitching for most of the hour hike down to Izalco. This was definitely stressing our blossoming relationship. Luckily my mood started to shift on the hike up once I started to get over the fact that Santa Ana had escaped me. Izalco ended up being pretty amazing. While it was small, it was not without its beauty. It was perfectly conical and, being a relatively young and growing volcano, it was devoid of vegetation. At the top we had plenty of time to walk around the crater’s rim, take in views of the surrounding mountains, and pretend to be Smeagol emerging from the steam vents. By this time I had apologized profusely for being such a petulant child, left the fuming to Izalco, and we were back on the right foot again. In hindsight I really have to give Marlene credit for putting up with me. I was awful. We were surrounded by beauty on one of earth’s natural wonders and all I could do was complain. Thankfully she was there to right my wayward ship.

After leaving Santa Ana, we went back to El Tunco for a few more days to relax, surf, eat, drink and enjoy each others company before going separate ways. Marlene had a three month volunteer project in Nicaragua, and I would be heading to Florida to spend Christmas with my family. It was quite sad to be leaving someone to whom I had become very close. We parted with the hopes that our paths would cross again later on in our travels. Fortunately, later would be much sooner than either of us would have thought.