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Locally Hosted Independent Tour Suggested Departure Day: Any day

ITINERARY (Subject to change without notice):

Day 01 - USA – San Salvador:
Upon arrival in El Salvador, you will be met and taken to your hotel, Princess Hilton, in the Zona Rosa of the capital, about an hours drive from the airport. Later on in the afternoon, your local host will take you on a brief city tour. El Salvador may be the smallest country in Central America, but its capital has the second largest population in the region!  In front of Plaza Barrios, you find the National Palace, the National Cathedral, one block north is the National Theater. After the tour, you will be taken to a charming typical restaurant for dinner where you can savor the national dish, “Pupusas,” hand made corn tortilla stuffed with cheese, fried pork, refried beans, chicken or combinations thereof.  (D)

Day 02 – San Salvador:  
After breakfast, drive to Cerro Verde National Park (about an hour from the capital), where you will hike on one of the park’s trails to the crater of Izalco Volcano…the fun is coming down, sliding down on ashes through the jungle! Then you will drive to Lake Coatepeque (Hill of the Serpent), one of the country’s largest and deepest at some 400 ft. Here there will be an opportunity to either swim or kayak on the lake. Lunch will be at quaint restaurant in the area. (B/L)

Day 03 – San Salvador:
Today drive towards the western part of the country where the largest river in the country, the Lempa, will provide an exhilarating adrenaline rush of white water rafting. Begin rather “tamely” with class I-II  rapids, gradually  entering the more challenging III-IV sections of the Lempa River Box lunch will be provided. As you zip along the rapids, you will also notice a wide diversity of flora and fauna. (B/L)

Day 04 – San Salvador - Suchitoto:  
Before leaving the capital, visit “La Puerta del Diablo (Devil’s Door) just about a kilometer from Balboa Park (about 30-minutes from the city), two gigantic rock formations that resemble a giant open gate to the landscape ahead; here have an adrenaline rush on a zip-line. With your host, you head into the interior of this charming country, driving northwards to Lake Suchitlan. Arrive at Suchitoto, check into Hotel Los Almendros and proceed to our first excursion of the area at Cinquera with its nearby subtropical forest. Cinquera was a small village that was a guerrilla stronghold during the civil war, to the point that the villagers abandoned it and so did the agricultural plantations. Today the town is maintained as a historical site and along with the farms, has been declared a natural reserve. On the way (or on the return), stop at Los Tercios, a stunning 30-meter waterfall with the alignment of rocks that make it resemble a building (water generally flows during the rainy season, May-December). To get a good look, you may have to climb down a few rocks. Drive  back to Suchitoto in time for lunch at one of the town’s picturesque restaurants.  (B/L)               

Day 05 – Suchitoto:
The visit to nearby mountain area of Guazapa (some call it “volcano”) will mostly be by horseback through its tropical dry forest. Here we see panoramic vistas, natural springs, waterfalls, endemic flora and fauna. This area was also a place the guerrillas of the 1980s took refuge in its caves and trenches. Lunch provided during the day’s excursion at one of the area’s farms. (B/L)

Day06 – Suchitoto – Pacific Coast, Playa El Tunco: 
Today, leave the mountains and drive to a staging area not far from Quezaltepeque Volcano (in Nahuatl “Place of the Quetzales”). Here you pick up the bikes, biking uphill, then across across El Espino coffee farm (in the middle of the mountain), once part of a 2000 acre coffee plantation that was expropriated by the Salvadorean Agrarian Reform Agency in 1980 and turned into a cooperative. Since then parts of it have been returned to the Duenas family. Here the coffee thrives in the shade of some 50 species of trees and shrubs, which in turn shelter about 70 species of birds and countless butterflies. Bike another some 4KM to a lookout point for panoramic vistas and begin the bike downwards to the coast town of Le Libertad where you give up the bike (after having pedaled some 16KM in total) and are driven to your hotel on Playa El Tunco, Hotel Tekuanil Kal. Lunch included en route.   (B/L)

Day 07 & Day 08 – Pacific Coas, Playa El Tunco:
During these two days on the Pacific you will be provided with surf boards to challenge the waves and world-class breaks of the Pacific.  (B)

Day10 – Pacific Coast, Playa El Tunco - San Salvador Airport – USA:
Your local host will call for you at your hotel and transfer you to the airport (about an hour drive) for your return flight home. (B)

RATES and DETAILS: