This is past week I teamed up with CIBC to put their CIBC Aventura Card to the test. I was lucky enough to discover the CIBC Aventura Card during the new client promotion, so, when I signed up for the card, I was eligible to receive up to 20,000 welcome points. I encouraged my partner to do the same, so together we had enough points to put towards a trip.
Once we received our cards, we called up our CIBC Aventura Travel Assistant and informed them about what we wanted from our vacation and what budget we were looking to stay within. With the Travel Assistant’s advice, we decided that El Salvador was the destination for us as the roundtrip flight from Vancouver (YVR) to El Salvador (SAL) is $486 CAD a person, $971 CAD for two people. So, we put our points towards the flights and paid the remaining balance on our CIBC Aventura Card. The welcome bonus points helped us save on our total flight costs. Once we booked our flights, the Travel Assistant then helped us find the best deal on a rental car. The final step of booking our trip was finding accommodations. They worked with us and helped us find so many great options that I couldn’t before find on my own. The one we decided to book was a hotel/hostel right on the ocean, right on budget.
Day One:
When it was finally time for our trip we headed to YVR, hopped on our flight and arrived in El Salvador at 8 pm. When we landed we picked up our rental car and drove 40 km to our hotel. The hotel we booked, Hostal Los Almendros, is in El Sunzal which is right in front of a wave by the same name. The first morning it looked amazing from the deck, glassy and organized, so we went out for an early surf. The surfing was so good that we stayed in the water for about three hours. When we came back to the hotel, we were starving and ordered a typical breakfast (eggs, avocados, beans, local cheese, and plantains) and some coffee to start the day.
After some delicious food, it was time to chill in one or the many hammocks hung around the resort. I brought with me a book called Women Who Run with the Wolves
After we got our fix of relaxation (and sun), we headed into town to Day Cafe & Salad Bar for a nice cold smoothie bowl. Here we mingled with other travellers and a met a few fuzzy friends.
Day Two:
While on a surf trip, your schedule is determined by the tide and the wind. Each wave needs a different tide and almost all waves don’t work when there is onshore wind. So in places that are hot, aka El Salvador, you typically see an onshore wind midday. That means on a surf trip you wake up early to surf and catch up on sleep later. That being said, on this day we woke up at the crack of dawn and hopped in the car to head to a wave called Punta Roca. We parked our car right at the point (2$ USD to park) and paddled out. This wave is an amazing right-hand point break that produces some world-class waves. And best of all, when you get out of the water the locals are selling fresh coconuts for a dollar! Travellers Tip: Due to the proximity of this wave to a bigger city, do not bring anything in the car. The average wage is $10 a day in El Salvador so if thieves see something valuable you are putting yourself at risk for theft.
On our way home, we drove into the town of El Tunco for breakfast at a local cafe called El Litoral. For two of us to have full typical breakfasts and a coffee it came to $6.50 USD.
After breakfast, we returned to our hotel and spent some time out of the sun in the hammocks. As I rocked in the hammock, I eavesdropped as one of the other guests was getting a Spanish lesson from a local. In the evening, we walked down the street to Pupuseria Carolina, a local food stand at the end of the road. The Pupuseria only sells “Queso Con Frijoles” (beans and cheese) or “Mixta” (beans, cheese, and chicken) pupusas. So, when you sit down at a Pupuseria they ask you, “¿cuántos?” which simply means, “how many?”. We ordered three each which is more than enough for a full dinner and washed it down with two drinks which came to $4.25 USD. The food was so good, we ended up going to this Pupuseria every night for pupusas and we weren’t the only ones. This place was busy with locals every night enjoying pupusas so we knew we had to be in the right spot.
Day Three:
Another day, another early morning surf session! We went back to the wave Punta Roca for its machine-like waves and lack of people. It was so magical being out in the surf with only a few other people. We watched the sunrise, big and red from the water and surfed until we were starving and had too much sun on our skin. Getting in and out of the water at Punta Roca is probably the worst/best part of the wave. Like the name, Punta Roca which translates to Rock Tip is a rock bottom point break. It has these large black boulders that you have to balance on to try to get in and out. This barrier to entry is the reason it isn’t as busy as El Sunzal (the wave in front of our hotel), and sometimes barriers to entry mean empty, amazing waves to yourself if you are willing to walk across slippery rocks to jump into the ocean. After getting out of Punta Roca we celebrated only a few scrapes and scratches with another typical breakfast and some hang time by the pool.
Later in the day, we decided to go for some pina coladas to celebrate our vacation so we stopped at this cute female-owned bar called YAYA’s. They had a live DJ playing so we sat and enjoyed the music with some super refreshing cocktails in hand.
Day Four:
Our final day started with a morning surf at El Zonte. This wave is perfect making it hard to get out of the water, but we knew we wanted to have one last meal before heading to the airport to catch our flight home. After surfing we went back to our hotel, packed up and walked into town for one last meal. It was hard to leave El Salvador and next time we are definitely coming back for longer.
We were so in love with the local food and culture in El Salvador. The locals are very welcoming and the food is so unique and tasty. During our stay, we never spent more than $10 on a meal which made it really easy to stay within our budget. The price of food and the availability of free activities such as surfing, beach walking, hammock laying, swimming, reading, dancing and self-guided yoga resulted in a very fun and affordable trip.