Eating Adventures, Gourmet Burger Company, San Salvador, El Salvador

When I first arrived in El Salvador, I was tipped off to this great burger place, Gourmet Burger Company. They allow you to build your own burger. You get choice of meat, cheese, toppings and sauce. This makes for almost limitless choice. Even with so many option I have stuck to the perfect burger I ordered my first time there. One pound of ground beef, Colby-jack, avocado, bacon and hot sauce.

After I while I cut the one pound down to a half pound. Then a little later I discovered the lettuce wrap, replace your bun with a whole head of romaine lettuce. This was my got to food twice a week for almost 11 months.

Today I decided to step it up again for a little eating adventure. I wanted to challenge myself so I went for 1.5 pounds. Sadly they were out of avocado, so they doubled up on bacon. I knocked out the first half with no problem. Then I did something I have never done it Gourmet Burger before, I set my burger down. I did manage to pick it back up, but that only lasted a few bites. I had hit the wall. I split it down into a more mouth friendly two halves, then attacked it with a fork. Around the time I everyone else was finishing their 1/2 pounders I ate my last bite pf this delicious beast. I even finished my fries and salad for good measure.

If you find yourself in San Salvador I highly recommend stopping by Gourmet Burger Company.

Paintball San Salvador, El Salvador

After two years and living in two countries that do not allow paintball, I was pretty excited to learn that El Salvador had a field. The field leaves a lot to be desired, but thats ok. It is a place to get out and shoot at my friends. It also gives me the opertunity to put the many dollars woth of gear I have collected to use. Paintball Navarro is just outside the city. I have spent a good number of Sundays out there shooting at people. Sadly the field is pretty unorganized. Unless you bring your own group, it is pretty hard to hook up with any local groups. There are some refs, but they mostly only go out to the field if there are little kids around. Dispite all these short comming it is still a blast. It is the perfect way to end the week. Below is a little video that I took on the speed ball field using my JOLE Autococker. The field was pretty bad this day. Most of the air bunkers were flat or not full. There was also a good amount of cow droppings on the field, not exactly what you want to slide into. Coordinates are +13° 40' 27.51", -89° 12' 27.95"

Mountain Bike San Salvador

First post of the new year. I finally got my bike out on the trails. It only took being in San Salvador for six months. To be fair to myself, my gear took four and a half months of that six to arrive. I found out about a ecopark, Ecoparque El Espino, that is on the edge of the city. I found this park on google after seeing it talked about in a local Bike association's video. I have tried to get somebody to head over there with me to check it out. After two months I was still not able to convince one of the guys to go with me. Once I got somebody to try and find it with me, but we had limited time and my information was a little off. Sunday finally I talked a local to try to find it with me. She had never been there either. We were successful. The place seemed safer than I expected, despite its location. We took a short walk and the park seemed pretty nice. Monday, as soon as I got off work I decided to take my bike over there. As could be expected, I couldn't get anyone to head over there with me. Since I had already done the recon, I felt I would be ok with doing it alone. I got dropped off at the top of the hill and just went for it. The trails seemed a little sketchy but I managed to only fall once(5:16 on the video). This one run got my adrenalin going. Also I got some good GPS reading on one of the trails and the shaky video below. Too bad I found these trials right before heading out of the country for two weeks. When I get back I will step it up with the mountain biking and hopefully climbing also.

Coordinates are +13.700946,-89.277391

La Puerta del Diablo 2

This weekend I returned to the Gate of the Devil's. Being the weekend, it was much more crowded. There were many locals walking around and all the little restaurants surrounding the parking lot were full. The weather was still very foggy, but still at least twice as clear as the first time.

We again climbed the tourist rock. Which was very crowded? At the top we even managed to get a peak at the surrounding cliffs during a short break in the clouds. After more pictures than were necessary, we descended and ate some pupusas.

After the lunch of pupusas, we looked for the other trails. The first one we found led to a large cave on the back side (side opposite the road) of one of the rocks. This is also when I started to discover some of the climbing routes. To my surprise, despite being in a constant fog, the routes were mostly dry and the rock grippy. This was in stark contrast to the routes I found last time that were covered in a wet slime.

Standing in the cave

Pro on one of the slimy the routes

After finding the end of that trail, we headed back to the parking lot, where I found another trail. This one led to more of the rock climbing routes, and the top of the larger rock. There weren't any other people on this trail, which was kind of nice. When the lack of people was combined with the fog, you really got a sense that you were alone. The climbing routes on this rock were all dry and looked very good, but difficult. Now I just need to find somebody to climb with.

Most of the climbing routes

SCUBA Diving Lago de Ilopango, El Salvador

One more thing I quickly knocked off my list of stuff to do in El Salvador, SCUBA diving. I have been missing the water for the last few year. Going from a landlocked country to the desert. When I heard there was diving to be had in El Salvador, I was excited. One more good way to spend my weekends.

My first Sunday here I joined one of my coworkers on a dive trip to Lago de Ilopango. Before going, all I knew is it was near the city and a fresh water volcanic lake. I was warned the visibility would be low. Having done most my diving in the ocean, low to me is 20 feet. Here between the dark water and a foggy mask, my visibility was limited to about 4 feet for most of the dives. At times, like when we tried to go deep, it was much less.

It was still a fun day of diving once I worked the kinks out of my gear and new dive buddies. The first site we went to had tons of small fish and crabs. There were also some soft sponges. When my gear gets here I will try to take my camera and get some pictures.

I was told that the coolest site is the volcanic vents, called the Devils Cauldron. We did not do that site, but it just gives me a reason to go back.

La Puerta del Diablo

The Gate of the Devil.

The group of us found out about this place through different avenues. Some by word of mouth and others with the Internet.

The Gate was of interest to me, because it the the main rock climbing sight in El Salvador. The day we ended up going, the fog was so thick that it was almost impossible to see more than 20 feet. While this made the scouting rock climbing routes a lost cause, it did create an interesting view.

At the top of the Gate, you were completely enveloped in a cloud. In one direction there was a tree, nothing else was visible through the cloud/fog.

I did spot some climbing bolts near the parking lot, and one bolt at the top of the climb. I will have to return to see what the rocks hold. Rockclimbing.com has most of the route rated as pretty hard. I hope that I can get at least one of the other guys to come out and climb with me. When the the dry season hits, it should be possible to climb here almost every day. Rockclimbing.com list 62 different routes.

I almost forgot. The coolest part of this trip was the flock of parrots. When we were standing at the top you could here some birds below us. Due to the fog we couldn't see where they were just here them as they flew around the peak below us. Then suddenly they flew strait up the side of the hill right towards us. There were about 20 parrots. They made a quick circle around us, close enough to see them through the fog before disappearing again.

Here is the video I took from the top.

Zip Line or Canopy tours

My first weekend here in San Salvador, we set up a last minute zip line trip. We headed to the nearby El Boqueron Canopy Tour, located on the San Salvador volcano.

I brought my camera, but was afraid to bring it on the zip line because I was not sure what to expect. As it turned out, I most likely would have been fine. The zip lines were pretty tame. It was still a good time.

This was my first time on a commercial zip line. My only other experiances involved rope in my backyard or in the yard of the Jarnots.

The last 4 of the 9 lines were worth the money. They travel high over a valley, maybe 200 feet.

I will likely go back while I am here, likely when some other new people arrive. It is a good easy trip to put together, because it is so close.

These are the only pictures I have.

The Truck that drive you to the top

A map showing the nine zip lines