From Los Chinemas to Apaneca

Started late in the morning after cooking some breakfast. The major town near the border on our route, Ahuachapan, was only 7km from our camp spot. There we found wifi and tried to change some money at the bank but the bank said they only dealt with US dollars. Bastards. We spent the whole day from then on riding uphill. The uphill was not uneventful though. One of the sights along the way was wood collectors, like we've previously seen carrying 50-100 lbs of wood in a huge bundle on their heads, instead loading the bundles onto carts with big draw hand breaks and a lead-style steering system rolling down the hill in the shoulder. Around 3 pm, after 12km or so of uphill, we hit Ataco. Ataco is on the 'ruta de los flores' and is supposed to feature a nice zipline system. However, we had trouble finding any info about it or about a reasonably priced hotel. We climbed a very steep, though short, hill in town to check out one hotel and it turned out to rent rooms for 30 bucks a night.  I tried offering the lady 5 bucks to let us camp in the unfinished restaurant area, but she just kept trying to call her boss and seemed to refuse to or be incapable of making a decision, so we left while she taunted us that other hotels in town charged 50-60 bucks a night. Fine - so we left town but the sun was close to setting.

Between Ataco and Apaneca, checked out the Flor Y Luna which initially offered us a really nice room with a huge bed for 35, quickly dropping to 20 a night when we refused. Still not pursuaded we continued on. Made it uphill to Apaneca just as it was dark. Found another hostal but it was still 25 dollars. When i started complaining about hotel pricing in El Salvador, the owner dropped the price to 20 bucks. And the room had non-functioning hot water, and the owner was up partying until one. I asked him if we could oay less to camp and he said it would cost more because we would be out under the nice weather. What a dick.

Went out for papusas, a common fast food in El Salvador, and enjoyed the cheese stuffed corn tortillas, as well as cheese and bean, and a spinach like vegetable and cheese. There was a lot of noise in town and gunfire, which turned out to be a rally around the recent election which split the vote to less than 1 percent and which the ruling party is refusing to recognize as legitimate. Went to sleep in wool blankets that set off both of our allergies so that we awoke to stuffed noses and congestion. Still, at 1450m and the second highest town in El Salvador, it's chilly and we were glad for the blankets.

Apaneca is known for its art, as shown on the comedor we ate at in thr morning

The comedor was themed on ratatouille