Day Trip to Suchitoto

I spent the day in the colonial town of Suchitoto, which isn't that far from San Salvador, but takes more than an hour on the bus because of the constant stops for passengers to hop on and off.

Starting in Kaleo Hotel, I got an Uber to the bus terminal where I caught the #129 to Suchitoto. Traffic in San Salvador is beyond shocking, and sitting in the diesel plume of a bus hasn't gotten any better in all the years it's been since I last encountered one.

In the Uber, we passed a man juggling in an intersection. Another man selling steering wheel covers car to car. People improvise, do what they can to survive. In some ways, San Salvador feels like Manhattan in the 1980s.

But then I'd get a glimpse of corrugated steel, of chickens and stray dogs, and a whiff of damp air, the smell of sweat and dirt and vegetation mixed with the diesel. 

I'm comfortable in this environment, used to it even though it's been a long time since I spent more than a few days in it.

In Suchitoto, I visited Casa 1800 for coffee and a view of the lake. I wandered the town, checking out the small square, the church, the shops specializing in local indigo, an art center, and the quirky Museum of 1000 Plates. I tried a cebada, a barley soda with cinnamon and strawberry, and after a few hours, grew restless, and caught the autobus back down the mountain to San Salvador. 

The driver put on his playlist, and we lived La Vida Loca back to the bus station, where I called an Uber to head back over to San Benito.