July 8: Suchitoto, Antigua

On July 8, Freddy came with us and we drove to Suchitoto. On our way, we passed through a town called San Martin, Ciudad de Paz.  It was certainly not the only town where I noticed this, but the buildings had bright colors and such pretty metal work.  

Suchitoto is a small town, but a fun one to visit.

 

 In Nahuatle, informally known as the Aztec language, Suchitoto means “place of birds and flowers”, a proper name for this beautiful town.   Suchitoto is known because it has colonial style buildings and cobblestone streets.  It's a cute little town, and we did a bit of shopping there.  Michelle really wanted a blanket from El Salvador, and she found one she loved in Suchitoto. It is 64 km from San Salvador but it takes 1 1/2- 2 hours to get there...they don't have true freeways and there is a lot of traffic.  Driving in El Salvador was an adventure.  

In Suchitoto, the girls ate pizza and I had caprese tostadas (which were really french bread with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese and they were delicious!)   There was a really cool map of El Salvador on the wall.

In Suchitoto, we saw a boy parking a car.  I guessed he was about 10, but it turns out he was 12.  Apparently, in many parts of El Salvador it is legal for 12 year olds to drive!

 

Located right by Suchitoto is Lago Suchitlán which is a manmade lake.  And there is a waterfall near Suchitoto called Cascada de Los Tercios.  It is a short hike to get there, but part of the hike is over big rocks so Ella and Gabby went to a lookout spot and then stopped and waited for us.  

Alfredo bought me two hats in El Salvador and I wore them almost every day.  I didn't want to get bad sunburns so the combination of sunscreen and a hat really helped.

 

It was hot but so pretty.  Suchitoto is surrounded by mountains and so the heat gets trapped there.  I was drenched in sweat by the end of our short hike.  Alfredo bought the girls the Salvadorian equivalent of snow cones (I didn't want one...they are too sweet for my taste.)

After our time in Suchitoto we headed to Antigua.  We had dinner with Noemi and her family in Antigua.  The views were beautiful.  And we ate delicious pupusas.  Alfredo ordered one pupusa with queso and jalapeno.  It sounded good, but I wasn't sure if it would be too spicy.  But it was delicious.  I ate a pupusa with elote (corn), and it was delicious.  I was pretty self conscious all evening though because I really did sweat so bad on our hike and then sitting in the back of the van where very little air reaches, I was so sweaty and stinky by the time we made it to Antigua.  I really wished I had brought a change of clothes or we could have stopped by the house to shower.