A Break in El Salvador

We initially weren’t going to spend very long in El Salvador, maybe less than a week. But over the last year or so the warnings that we had heard about it being a dangerous place were quickly taken over and out numbered by accounts of how wonderful El Salvador is to visit. From surf to volcanos to coffee plantations- it truly does have a lot to offer in regards to tourism. So when my brother decided he’d come spend a week with us over New Years and it seemed as if it would line up with our timing- he booked a flight to El Salvador!

We crossed into the country the morning that his flight landed, bought a couple coconuts, and picked him up at the airport. He booked a private room in a hostel in El Tunco- a famous spot among surfers and there we spent the next week. He was determined to learn to surf so he spent every day teaching himself until he finally got up! We ate too many papusas, drank a ton of piña coladas, and had a great time with him. There were many games of Settlers of Catan played (all of which I won! :)). There even happened to be a Hamilton super fan at the hostel who invited over his other Hamilton super fan friends over and forced Brandt (who was IN Hamilton) to sing the soundtrack with them. He was eating it up! (Thanks to all of them, now Zach and I can’t get the songs out of our heads and have since listened to the soundtrack basically on repeat.) And for New Years we spent it watching fireworks go off just 100 ft from us on the beach. My heart was so full when Brandt left; can’t wait for our next travel adventure together.

Picking Brandt up from the San Salvador airport.

His coco in a bag :)

NYE!

Hanging out at the Airbnb.

Time to surf.

He got up!

He mad cuz he's losing. Settlers of Catan.

Sunset on our last night with Brandt.

Best brother ever.

After we dropped Brandt off at the airport for his flight back home to NYC, we had decided to spend another week on a beach & landed at La Tortuga Verde in El Cuco. It is also known for surfing, but more of a beginners break- which is great for Zach as he’s really been working on his consistency getting up. We were able to park our van for $5/night and had access to showers, bathrooms, the common spaces with a ton of hammocks, the beach, surfboard rentals, space to do yoga, and the bar/restaurant on site. It was a perfect place to recharge.

  

Contemplating life, not a joke.

We’ve now been on the road for 7 months & in Latin America for 3 of those months, and we sort of just hit a wall. Now I’m going to attempt to explain why, but I know what you’re going to read: “Poor me, I need a break from my life where I get to travel full time with my husband and my dog and not have to worry about work for a while. Woe is me.” Which is what makes me so hesitant to try to convey just exactly how we were feeling. I’ve brushed over the things that can make this type of travel difficult in the past, like the logistics or simply highlighting things that people don’t really think about, but I haven’t really gone in depth to what that can do to our emotional state. Simply because I don’t think it really affected us to this extent until now. 7 months of constant planning and full time travel requires a whole different kind of stamina. Stamina we prepared ourselves for but still caught us off guard. 

I’ve mentioned logistics so let me try and list out what exactly I mean by that: 

1. Fill gas tank: every 350 miles driven.
2. Fill fresh water tank: every 4-7 days depending on usage.
3. Empty gray water tank: every 3 days if we cook every meal and therefore wash dishes multiple times a day.
4. Ensure battery power is sufficient: multiple times a day. We always need to make sure we are parked in a place with sun so we get enough solar power and be conscious of how much battery power our appliances use each meal we cook.
5. Ensure we have enough propane: as needed for our camp stove/outdoor shower.
6. Laundry: every 3-4 weeks or when we run out of underwear :)
7. Cleaning: daily. I sweep the floors every day and do a thorough clean once/week.
8. Grocery shopping: every 4-7 days.
9. Accommodations: every 1-7 days we need to find a new, safe place to sleep.
10. Exercise: when we can.
11. Showering: when available. We use our outdoor shower when necessary, but we have a limited amount of water on board so daily showers are out of the question unless we are staying at a place that provides showers.
12. Finding toilets: might need to find multiple/day since our poop schedules don’t always sync :)
13. Van maintenance: occasionally. Our home is on wheels and sometimes screws get loose so we need to tighten them or fix a drawer slide or whatever.
14. Vehicle maintenance: oil change, tire rotation, alignment, etc. Standard maintenance schedules.
15. Miles care: he needs to be groomed every couple months, vet care occasionally.
16. Budgeting: checking in every few days to make sure we are staying on track.
17. Wifi Access: as needed.

Now let me attempt to explain the difference of accomplishing a few of these things in Latin America(LA) versus US/Canada:

• Fill water tank
• US/CAD: any tap would do and we could feed a hose directly to our water tank.
• LA: must find a purified water store where we must fill a 5 gallon tank 5 times and pump 4 of those fill ups into our bigger tank where our water system is held.
• Note: We’ve been finding less and less of these water purification stores the further south we go so accessibility is even more scarce.
• Propane for our camping stove:
• US/CAD: any Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Target, REI, etc. had them available for a very low price ($5-$7/each).
• LA: Mexico had them, but they were expensive ($18/each) and more rare to find. We haven’t found a single one since we left Mexico. This just means we have to use our electric appliances more often and therefore puts more stress on making sure battery power is always at a sufficient level.
• Grocery shopping:
• US/CAD: any grocery store had anything you could ever want from all over the world.
• LA: supermarkets are available but finding things like quinoa or whole grains or even a bigger variety in fruit/vegetables can be impossible or hit or miss. Seasons and local agriculture are more relied upon versus importing from all over so this makes sense.
• Finding safe places to sleep:
• US/CAD: free, safe camping was available EVERYWHERE. I think we paid for a spot 2x in the 4 months we were there.
• LA: security is more of a concern but access to toilets, showers, etc. is also much cheaper- camping with facilities anywhere from $3-$10/night versus a $15-$65 for up north.
• Internet/Phone
• US/CAD: we had unlimited data with our phone plans + free, fast wifi was widely available at any Starbucks, McDonalds, library, etc.
• LA: we still have unlimited data with our phone plans but we do not have the ability to make free phone calls back home. In addition, in the rare occasion Wifi is available it is usually SLOW or down completely. Makes it a bit harder to upload a blog post or video, or even download a book.

All this is to say that in US/CAD things are just easier- you don’t have to plan as much about always keeping stocked on resources because they are always available with little effort. In LA you just have to be more mindful about what your upcoming plans are to ensure the things that you are going to need will be available when you need them and if they won’t you might have to change your plans. Bigger cities usually have more to offer in terms of larger grocery stores, mechanics, veterinarians, water stores, etc. And sometimes there may only be 2 bigger cities in the entire country, as was the case in El Salvador. In smaller towns it is rare to find anything other than a tiny tienda. Also, if you find yourself in a situation where you need something, you need to be able to communicate it. In US/CAD we had zero issues with communicating our needs. In LA, it’s a little harder :)

Speaking of keeping stocked up on resources, what if we need something shipped to us? Amazon lockers are all over the US- easy peasy. How does one get shipped something to LA? We don’t know and we haven’t found out. Luckily we have had so many visitors so we have been shipping to them and they graciously bring down the supplies we need. I already have a huge list going for when my parents come to meet us in Costa Rica! Future visitors, consider yourselves warned- you might need an extra bag!

SO, if you’re not exhausted already, good! You might be built for this type of adventure :) Let’s talk about what all of this can do to our emotional state. But first let me paint you a little picture: our van has 60 sqft. of living space with the majority of it taken up by our bed, bench seats, and kitchen cabinets. The actual walking/floor space is approx. 15 sqft. This is for 2 people and a dog. We are on top of each other all of the time, breathing each other’s air and for the most part we wouldn’t have it any other way! But there are times when that’s definitely not the case.

Now, on a day where we have a lot to do (i.e. grocery shopping, gas fill up, water fill up, searching for propane, shower, find toilet, and find a new place to sleep) it can go one of two ways. Some times we have days where we stock up on groceries and even hit the jackpot on small luxuries like everything bagel flavored pretzel chips and even affordable quinoa! And other days we go to the grocery store and have a hard time finding half of the things on our list. There are days when we get to a water purification store and get topped off within 10 minutes. Other days we drive to 3 different locations to find one that is actually open (we are quickly learning that Google doesn’t know everything :)) and then our external water pump struggles to work and needs to be lubricated, further complicating the process. There are times when we get to a spot to sleep and it is just perfect: good temperature, nice breeze, showers, toilets, space for Miles to explore, friendly people, good price, etc. And there are times when we are scrambling to get to a place before the sun goes down and end up sleeping in a parking lot or less than desirable location that may be expensive and have little in the way of amenities. 

So if everything goes well in a given day, it is a GOOD day. And it shows. There is little stress & therefore little reason to be frustrated or irritable, and there are usually high fives being thrown around in celebration. But let’s say we have a bad day, where nothing goes well. Where even communicating en español is lost in translation, doesn’t matter how hard we are trying. That shows too. Throw in rising temperatures and constant sweating and then it’s really bad. We both become grumpy 3 year olds who haven’t had a nap, need their blankie and a snack. And when we both become tired, hungry, grumpy 3 year olds it’s no good for anyone. We start taking it out on each other, being short with one another and finding the littlest things to be set off about. It’s not rational. It’s never anything serious. But after 7 months, the last 3 being the toughest, of occasional fights and things becoming increasingly more difficult, I started to feel a little stifled. A little stunted in accomplishing every day tasks. A little unrealistically hopeful in my expectations. And therefore, starting to feel a little burnt out. It felt as if I had sank into a hole, where doubt began to creep in about my personal ability to keep pushing forward with the same eagerness and curiosity that has fueled so many amazing experiences in the last 7 months. And without that openness for new experiences, the next 9 months seemed impossible to me. 

Enter La Tortuga Verde and some time to focus on getting back to normal & reignite the curiosity I felt I had suddenly lost. We stocked up on groceries for a week, topped off our water tank, and drove back to the coast. We stayed for 8 nights and each day was more or less the same: woke up, ate overnight oats, packed a bag, headed to the hammocks and tables in front of the beach, did some yoga or a circuit work out, drank water, relaxed in hammocks and read, swam a bit, made some lunch, Zach surfed while I read, watched the sunset, made some dinner, took a nice cold shower, and fell asleep with all of our doors open to let the breeze in. We kept it simple and focused on filling our bodies and minds with the things we needed. After a few days I really started to feel more myself, like I had more energy. Like I had gained enough "strength" back to keep moving forward. And by the end of the week, we really felt like we had a better understanding for how we got to where we did and how to help curb it going forward. It seems silly to need a “vacation” from our “adventure” to put it all in perspective, but that was the best medicine we could have had. After all, full time travel is much different than a “vacation”, regardless what the pretty Instagram photos portray, and it’s OK to need a break from time to time. So if we need an occasional pause in the future in order to keep this adventure going, then so be it. We just won't wait so long next time :)

R&R.

Zach got up! And then he fell right after this.

Ruben the resident pelican.

El Cuco sunsets are unreal.

A little family photo shoot.

Awwwww.

I do wish that we would have done a bit more. Wish we would have hiked some volcanos or visited some coffee plantations. But putting our well being first is what I'll remember when I look back on El Salvador- a reminder that it's OK to pause. It's OK to not do everything. And it's OK to not love every second of this trip. Now, again, in no way do I want this to come off as complaining. Because woe is certainly not me (how lucky am I to be saying that). I only want to show the "other" side of those pretty Instagram photos. To discuss the realities of full time travel. To remind myself and perhaps others that it's OK if something isn't everything you expected it to be. It's about how you handle that realization that matters.