El Tunco was our first stop in El Salvador after a rather long 12 hour journey from Nicaragua.

We decided to take the boat from Potosi directly into El Salvador, avoiding the overhead of travelling via Honduras first.

However, the land border exit and entry elements of this journey were painfully slow. Firstly, getting passports checked and stamped to exit took 90 minutes and required 3 copies of your passport for some unknown reason.

Passports with exit stamps in hand we headed to the shore to find our boat for the crossing. Next we waited for luggage searches.

The boats are small but fine for what ended up being a fairly smooth journey, taking less than two hours to get across the Gulf of Fonseca to La Union in El Salvador.

Boarding the boat meant dragging your luggage across the volcanic sand on the beach and walking into the sea to climb aboard. A pretty chaotic process but we managed it.

Below is the view from the landing point at the end of the pier at La Union. There is generally a Volcano within sight in Central America!

Our next challenge was the entry process into El Salvador which took another 90 minutes or so. Interestingly the immigration office had a sticker declaring their ability to accept Bitcoin for any border fees.

Finally, we cleared the entry process and headed off to our final destination, El Tunco, even if we got dropped off at the wrong hotel!

El Tunco is a very popular surf beach on the Pacific coast. We are not surfers but you can still head into the strong waves for some fun.

The surfers squeeze out every last drop of sunlight in the waves before heading to the cool bars and great restaurants.

It’s a volcanic beach with a walkway along it’s edge featuring lots of cool beach side bars with sunset views every night.

Surf boards for high as well as lessons although i guess its not beginners territory.

The sunsets are spectacular and well attended.

We need only spent three nights here but could have easily spent longer. The new government is investing heavily in this area, best get down here before it gets even more popular!

Next we head to the capital San Salvador for a couple of nights before heading further north along the coast.