El Tunco at sunset

40 Good reasons to love El Tunco, El Salvador

El Tunco, El Salvador was the most surprising part of this Central American trip so far. I hadn’t expected much until I showed up. This itty-bitty beach town has BIG LIFE, seriously. Every day just got more and more bizarre. So many times I woke up thinking, “Did last night really happen?”

I’ll do a more thorough guide later. But here are a few good reasons to love El Tunco.

1. Papusas at Fafi’s Place for $0.50 each. (Handmade tortilla stuffed with various goods, like cheese and beans, slathered in salsa and a coleslaw type topping)

PUPUSAS!

2. $1 Pilseners

3. $2 Pilsener Grandes

4. Watching the sunset at Monkey LaLa

5. The giant “pig rock” on El Tunco Beach

6. The surfing scene

7. $10 surfboard rentals

8. Free drinks at the girls’ night parties

9. The “travel agency” across from Papaya Lodge that turns into a nightclub

El Tunco "Pig Rock"

10. Yvonne, the guy who works at the nightclub bar travel agency thingy

11. Yvonne’s homemade ginger rum

12. Friendly Salvadorians who befriend you at random parties and teach you cuss words in Spanish

13. The papusas at Mama Guayana

14. The insane clown horn honking every single morning – enough for me to curse the bloody bastard driving me to insanity with the incessant noise – only to discover the horn honker is a sassy Salvadorian grandmother selling a massive plate of banana bread. I bought some

15. Bikini babes

16. Easy and cheap shuttle services to Guatemala

17. Cold coconuts for $1

18. Everybody tolerating your atrocious Spanish

19. Chocolate covered frozen bananas

20. The absolutely random Golden beer promotional beach party with water gun mayhem, new friends, and $1 beers (free before 5 PM)

Beach party in El Tunco

21. The El Salvadorian who told me my hair was the colour of cornfields

22. The sweltering heat

23. Hiking waterfalls and cliff jumping from Tamanique

24. Cheap shops selling everything your heart desires

25. Being able to walk freely around town with your alcohol and nobody giving a damn

26. Super laidback chill awesomeface vibes

27. Finding private hotel rooms for $15 a night

28. Intense thunder and lightning storms at sea

29. $3 breakfasts all over the place

30. Icy cold smoothies

31. Recognizing people around town after day one

IMG_0840-min

32. Recognizing dogs around town after one day

33. Boogie boarding

34. The hidden caves along the beach

35. Every type of food you can possibly imagine (Take a Wok!)

36. Pool party crashing every other hotel in town

37. Salt packets attached to bottles of Corona BECAUSE GENIUS

Fun in El Tunco

38. Never having to wear clothes ever

39. Cheap $5 laundry service

40. CHEAP TACOS

I LOVE EL TUNCO. Have you been?

  • April 27 2015
    Melissa

    Wow. El Tunco, El Salvador sounds great. Sign me up. Lol.
    http://askmelissaanything.blogspot.com/

  • May 07 2015
    Sara

    Oh, Candice your blog just speaks to me. You are the least pretentious, non-necessarily wordy, snobby blogger I know – you say it how it is and it makes it the destination all the more enticing and I just reaaallly want to be your friend! So determined to travel central and South American when I’m older, and am even feeling inspired to start my own blog but at that ‘OMG WHERE DO I START?’ stage. For now I’m just gonna imagine being where you are….

    • May 10 2015

      Hahaha I love that comment, thanks so much! I’m glad you think so. :) If you’re looking for a place to start, I highly recommend Travel Blog Success! The banner is on the right side of my blog. They really know their stuff.

      • May 19 2015
        Sara MacKinnon

        thanks so much, i’ll have a look!

  • March 11 2017

    This is amazing! Thank you so much for taking the time to write about our little surf town. We are very happy to read this kind of articles about our beautiful country. We hope to see you in the near soon!

    • March 14 2017
      Candice

      You’re welcome, I love it there! :)

      • March 14 2017
        Candice

        Hahaha, noted!

  • August 27 2017
    Mark Marlatte

    Wow, I felt the same way. Hope you get back. I loved it so much I bought a house up the street in Sunzal.

    Mark, San Francisco, Ca-Bay Area.

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