Exploring El Salvador

Overall the country of El Salvador is small. You can drive the country in 5 hours but the exploration going up and down the coast searching for waves is a month in itself. A few days ago we (2 french guys, one Alaskan with a old volkswagon van) headed West. In my mind, its north, but on the map you can only go West or East. There is no North or South. Its a trip. Regardless, we headed west looking for some uncrowded waves, and on top of that, head inland to hike up some volcanoes and check out the scenery outside of just the ocean. So it began...crazy ass drivers, kids, dogs, monster transformer looking trucks speeding faster than small geo cars going straight toward you on the zig zag f-ed up roads. Oh yea, and this is in the daytime, nighttime is a whole other story in itself. As were driving were also on the prowl for unspoken beaches with no access and small villages that populate 50 people. Even when we found a cool looking beach overhanging the top of the cliff, we couldn't get to it. You would have to swim for a mile just to get to it. Which could be fun but we kept on moving. Break after break we would look on the map and realized they were all world class breaks (well we did know this but wasn't sure where they were)...check, found, but not necessarily utilized...well get back to that later. We passed all the spots, knowingly, but the main mission was to head inland to hike a mother f-ing volcano! right? Inland we headed, still dodging random people crossing the freeway and cows walking on the sidewalk like a human. We drive through random villages, open farm faces and slowly but Surely approach a massive mountain landscape with shoots up multiple volcanoes and soon to be exploding ones in the future. Though, the closer we approached, the crappier the roads got. Potholes left and right we were dodging, turning a normal 2 lane road into 1 just so we could make it a smoother ride. Finally we arrive to, what it appeared to be a opening to a local, Oregon garden park. Some spanish dude pops out of his booth, wearing his park ranger outfit and start talking to us, asking us questions in spanish, we say "si" and give hime a buck, were in! Well, we thought so. To the left of us was a gigantic volcano that we already drove up but another one was to our right. We were trying to hike this other one...We start to drive up to another gate. A bunch of kids soliciting guides up the volcano. We say no, like stubborn tourist who think there broke. "we can figure this shit out on our own, were all growns up and I'm a man". Lets do it! We park and onward we went. Oh wait, Theres 4 trails and no trail map, just a big spanish sign that tells you what you shouldn't do: drink, get lost, cry for help, certain age, etc. So we started with the first trail we found and we walked. Problem is, this trail circled around and connected with the other trails, which then connected to the other trails, which led us back to the parking lot! These savvy Salvadorians and making money! We kept being stubborn and searched all over for a hidden trail. Finally we found some gate, locked up and a obvious trail to flavor country. We say, screw this, lets hop this and become volcano bound! Half of the group jumps, the others bring up horror movies and how were about to start one. Majority votes and we turn back like a bunch of pussies. Though smart, b/c when we got to the parking lot a huge group came out of that exact trail. What really happened is that they close the trail off at a certain time, and we got there too late (safety reasons b/c of the wind and danger)...I guess. We leave in disappointment and more so pissed off b/c we drove for 3 hours on some crazy roads. Luckily the map showed a cool lake at the bottom so we headed there. About 2 hours later we arrived at this amazing lake! The lake was surrounded by volcanos and mountains 360 degrees around us. This was all worth it. We found some shack to post up at and get food. Only thing on the menu: Parascada (deep fried lake fish) Sold! Overall, the long trip was worth it. All we did was explore all day, without any local tours or better yet anyone who knew the area. This adds a huge bonus for figuring out point A to B. We won.