In which Layla and Roz embark on an adventure to El Salvador, face down a nocturnal predator, and indulge in many drinks

by Layla

Deciding where to go on holiday for us often involves flicking through our Lonely Planet coffeetable book of every country in the world, and making a selection based on the recommended months to visit, and whether it sounds cool. When Roz came up with El Salvador, I was unconvinced, but the months were right, the war was over, and its claim of being the least visited country in Central America was just too tempting. We booked the flights and ordered the one guidebook that's available for the country. And decided to fly into El Salvador and out of neighbouring Nicaragua, for no particular reason except that we could and it sounded fun. And is the second least visited country in Central America.

With snow closing Heathrow Airport days before our flight, we thought we might be doomed, so it was with glee that we boarded the plane and zoomed across the planet to the delights of Central America.

We arrived last night in trepidation; I had heard too many tales of the complicated nature of San Salvador airport and had braced myself for an hour of customs and passport horrors. In fact there was a short queue, nothing to pay, a quick stamp in our passports, and we were sent on our way. I felt cheated of my stress! We stepped out into the arrivals hall only to find that our hotel transfer was not there (probably because our flight had been revoltingly delayed by one and a half hours). As we stood looking confusedly around, a taxi tout appeared. He asked us if we wanted a taxi; we explained we were waiting for a driver whom we could not find. Said man then called the hotel for us, established the driver ought to be here but was not, and he found us a comfortable big taxi at a fair cost. He was very sweet and I felt fairly confident that if our driver had been there, the tout would have led us to him, rather than trying to poach our business. Soon we were speeding efficiently towards our first destination: Suchitoto.

It was quite a long drive: over an hour in the dark, through the capital and into the hills. Finally, having been travelling now for about 21 hours, we staggered exhaustedly out of the taxi to be greeted by Pascal, former French ambassador, designer, and owner of El Salvador's poshest boutique hotel, Los Almendros de San Lorenzo. After the delights of the posh hotel in Beirut, we have forged a new tradition of spending the first few nights of our holiday somewhere glamorous, and when Pascal greeted us with 'Welcome to Paradise', we knew we had chosen well. We were shown across a courtyard and past a swimming pool to our room... or should I say apartment. It's over two floors, with beautiful, contemporary design, high ceilings, private veranda overlooking Lake Suchitlan, and absolutely fit the bill for 'somewhere glamorous'. We dropped our bags and returned to the bar to sip excellent mohitos before retiring exhaustedly to bed.

I fell straight asleep, but Roz was not so lucky. I was awoken an hour later by a trembling voice. "Layla... I think there's someone in the room... or a rat..." I rubbed my eyes, rather disbelievingly. Like a brave girl I got out of bed and shouted "hello?", ran down the stairs, put on all the lights. "Nope, nobody here!" I shouted reassuringly. In response, a shriek. I leapt back up the stairs, only to see something flying straight towards my head. A bat! I'm afraid my response was to shriek too, dive into bed, and put the covers over my head, where Roz was already cowering. Hmmm a predicament. I really had no idea what to do with a bat, so it was clear that external assistance was required. In terror I got out of bed and tried to call reception, but the phone didn't work. Then Roz, like a hero, got out of bed and went to find some hotel staff. The reception was deserted. But then she spotted a man wandering around the grounds who seemed to be staff, and decided he would have to rescue us. Which he duly did. My description of 'una rata... negro...' and flapping my arms descriptively made him fear for what he was about to encounter. Fortunately, the bat made another appearance, flapping wildly. Roz and I shrieked on cue and shot downstairs, abandoning the man to his fate. Fortunately he rather efficiently disposed of the beast, and we returned to bed, adrenaline pulsing. We really aren't as intrepid as we like to believe!

Up too early this morning with jetlag, we indulged in a glorious breakfast at the hotel, including fresh orange juice, fresh fruit salad, banana pancakes, tea and coffee, eaten in a pretty outside courtyard. And then we ventured out into the quaint cobbled streets of Suchitoto. It is a very sweet little town of art galleries, cafes, a market, and a central square with a big church. We wandered around a little, then headed off on the 1.5km walk downhill to Lake Suchitlan, pausing for a drink at a cafe overlooking the lake. Which was our first introduction to liguados, delicious fruit drinks that I suspect will become a staple. We walked past lots of pretty little houses, most with stencils on their outside walls stating that there was no violence towards women in that house - presumably a campaign, and rather a nice one. Onwards we walked til we reached the lake, and hired a boat and boatman to take us round the lake - very picturesque and serene. Afterwards I topped up my liguado habit, and Roz sampled the local beer, Pilsener. We vaguely thought of walking back up the steep and untempting hill to Suchitoto, but the delightful appearance of a local bus tempted me too much. Grabbing a reluctant Roz, we hopped aboard and were back in Suchitoto ten minutes later, along with a large number of the local population.

Lunchtime! We proceeded to a recommended restaurant owned by 'Gringo' Robert, a US expat, who gave us the local delicacy, pupusas (delicious), two chimichangas, some nachos, some beer... and lots of advice. He also runs a tour company and we arranged a tour tomorrow, which seems to involve climbing up a very mountain and learning about the civil war. My legs hurt at the thought of it...

After lunch we returned to our room for a nap, then had planned to go for a swim. Roz was brave but the water was icy and I just couldn't manage it. After I had bee pathetic for a while, hovering by the water, she emerged and we both got dressed and returned to the main square where we have settled ourselves with beer and liguado in Artex Cafe, complete with Wifi, to watch the world go by and indulge in a little preprandial blogging.

We haven't seen another British person yet, and couldn't be happier!