hwa-yoo-a?

My last stop in El Salvador was the small and unpronouncable town of Juayua, main base to explore the famed Ruta de Las flores, and home to the NICEST hostel I had been to for weeks. Get this, they had hot water. HOT WATER!! Myself and the other two girls in the dorm room were nearly shitting ourselves with happiness, since I guess it had been THAT long since any of us had come across a proper hot shower (or weather that would justify a need for hot water). For this reason alone I loved Juayua instantly. The town was tiny and uninteresting, and even the black jesus in the local church did little to impress me. The hostel was certainly the highlight in town. IMagine a lush courtyard covered with beautiful flowers, hammocks, padded seating...a yard that just whispered invitingly in your ear to do nothing more than lay in a hammock in the sun reading a book. Save the broken copy of "Up" (now i've seen everything but the end, goddamit!) and the bevy of mosquitoes, I couldn't really find fault with the place.

Outside of town was luckily a bit more promising. The goth german girl who only wanted to speak spanish, the girl from Arizona who eventually gave me a book on amish people, and myself headed together to the next town and did a light hike to a local crater lake. This was very pretty at best. But if you include the beautiful road in, lined with the beautiful flowers for which the Ruta De Flores is named for, the entire excursion was worth it.