Walk up Volcan Izalco and road to Suchitoto Thursday 8th October

It was a cold night high up in the mountains and I hadn't slept well but at least I was dry and had had some time to recover. I was nursing a bruise that I guess I had picked up whilst snorkelling in the strong tides off the coast at Los Cobanos and a large dark bruise was developing high up on my left thigh.

Those going hiking were up dearly and we gathered at 7am to await our escort a short distance from our campsite.

Eventually a lone policeman turned up and we were away. It was a great walk up through trees and out to open scenery to look bak on the camp and the other two volcanoes.

The views from the crater rim were great and after the disappointment of not being able to get to the top of the volcano at Antigua the scenery and colours were magical.

We could see and hear bubbles breaking the surface of the water some 400m below and steam billowing above the surface of the water..

Group photo with L to R our guard, Jim, Nolleag, Vera, Ginger, Laurence obscured by Ginger, Roger obscured by Yve, Alex, Lear and Seb with apologises where I have spelt the name incorrectly

After we descended the volcano we boarded Betsy and started a short drive to Suchitoto in El Salvadors northern area. En route we had stopped at a mirador and a black pick up had slowed to a halt and stopped in the road . Another car had come up behind and hadn't even braked and rammed the pickup in the back. As we were on the scene the driver had tried to blame us but after a lot of argument cum negotiation by Zoe with the police and other drivers we were allowed to drive on and reached Suchitoto and its lake, Suchitlan in the late afternoon.