Coatepeque Lake
One of the famous destinations close to Santa Ana is the Coatepeque Lake. This is another volcano crater lake which is HUGE – 26 square km of lake surrounded by steep volcano sides. It last erupted around 60,000 years ago, so it’s pretty tranquil these days. Rich people have fancy mansions all along the shore, which makes it difficult to access the actual water – although there is a hostel on the lake shore as well. As we were already staying in Santa Ana, we decided we would just take a short day trip out there to look at the lake.
The bus out to the lake was pretty slow and it took around 90 minutes to get there. We didn’t really have a plan, so we just got off the bus when we saw the lake far down below out of the window. The lake looked pretty stunning with its high volcanic rim all around it, and we strolled along the road for a better look. This road had a series of cafes and restaurants with lake views, and this seemed like the best way to get a great view of the lake – so we picked one and lined up the beers! 🙂 Yes, it was before lunchtime – but as we were on holiday in El Salvador – we figured we could treat ourselves 🙂
We very much enjoyed our beers overlooking the lake, and as we were finishing them came to the conclusion that there was not much else to do as it was a long way down to the waterfront, and there was no access to the shore anyway. So, what now? Ordinarily the price of lunch at a place like this would put us off – but we were part drunk and justified it on the basis that we ‘were hungry, had to eat something, everywhere is expensive by the lake, and we were on holiday in El Salvador’. 🙂
So, we ordered fish lunches and continued looking at the lake…
Lunch really was awesome – we didn’t regret for a minute spending the extra cash 🙂 When lunch was over we decided to have another beer! 🙂 Yes, by now money was no object as ‘We’ve travelled for almost two hours to get here, we may as well stay a while, and besides, we are on holiday in El Salvador’. 🙂
After another hour or so of drinking beer and looking at the lake we were satisfied. It was time to get the bus back. It had been a really enjoyable afternoon of eating, drinking, and lake viewing! 🙂
