Casa Mazeta Review

Casa Mazeta, in Juayua, El Salvador is a chillaxed hostel with 3 private rooms ($25 USD/night) and 6 dorm beds ($9USD pp). Each room sports its own unique, fun flair. There is a beautifully kept garden (great work, Carlos!) with plenty of seating, hammocks and even a turtle! There is also a large communal kitchen and indoor sitting area with instruments and lots of movies for a relaxing evening in. Cooking classes are offered ($1pp + food costs) and, of course, the (practically) Famous 7 Waterfalls Tour ($12-$20pp, depending on the number of people). Owner Suzanna is charming, friendly and a wealth of local knowledge. The sheer amount of information in English is one of the main thing that sets this wonderful hostel apart. Its rare that you get to experience a small town in such detail without speaking the language, but the helpful hints and binder of information makes this possible at Casa Mazeta.

We stayed in a room called La Pina. There was a giant pineapple painted on the wall, so there was no confusion as to which room was ours. The room came with a private courtyard and 2 hammock swings as well as a small wood slab table. The shower and toilet were in the courtyard and set up in a kitshy style that matced the rest of the hostel. The bathroom privacy wall was made of empty wine and rum bottles (you can see J sitting in the toilet area in the pictures below). The open air shower next to the toilet had a few fun details throughout.

Casa Mazeta has 2 super friendly dogs, Chiquta and Billy. Both, along with probably a couple other dogs like to accompnay you on the Waterfalls hike. Its probably because they know that there's a picnic lunch at the end and they hope you'll drop something! Either way, they're fun and always greet you with happily wagging tails when you return to the hostel. Lucky, the adorable, palm-sized kitten is the newest addition to Casa Mazeta. Who doesn't love a cuddly kitten? Here they all are in the photo to the left, saying goodbye!

Casa Mazeta has a homey feel. You can curl up on a pile of pillows and watch a movie, hang in a hammock, or sit at a wrought iron table in the middle of the garden. When we came back from a day out, it really did feel like we were coming home, even if it was a temporary home. The happy dogs, the welcoming space...Maybe a part of it was also the decoration. The number of details add up to one very atmospheric space. Caza Mazeta has souvenirs and knickknacks scattered about that you can imagine picking up while you were travelling.The space is colourful and bright with impressive wall murals. Beer, coffee and filtered water are all on the honour system, so you can go to the fridge and grab a beer- just like at home! Unfortunately, it was only actually our home for 4 nights, but with so many reasons to go back, I'm sure we'll make Casa Mazeta our temporary home again sometime soon! We would definityl recommend making Casa Mazeta your home too when you're in Juayua.

Juayua, El Salvador: Food for Thought

Juayua, El Salvador is on La Ruta de las Flores. Its known for it's food festival that is held every, single weekend. Seeing as our priorities and Juayua's are pretty much insync, food being constantly at the forefront of both our minds, we knew before we even settled in that we were going to love Juayua. Throw in an amazing hostel, a 6 week old kitten, and some hiking and we were ready to make a commitment. Well, the kitten didn't do much for Jonathan- and despite the fact that I was the one chasing Lucky(the kitten) around trying to give him all my love, Lucky constantly chose to cuddle up with him every night. Anyways, I'm pretty sure I was Lucky's second favourite out of the two of us, at least.

Unfortunately, bad timing made it so we weren't even in Juayua over a weekend food extravaganza. And yet, still food was one of the main highlights of the four nights we spent there. Pupusas being the star of our personal food tour. Esmeralda's Pupuseria made a plate sized pupusa called "Pupusa Loco" which had pretty much every ingredient that  goes into pupusas. Well, it had beans, cheese, squash, la rocca, spinach, pork AND chicken.

Juayua is a charming, walkable town with bright all murals and super friendly people. In fact, I don't

think we've ever encountered such a welcoming town. Walking past people on the street we were always greeted with a smile and a hello. Without fail. Sometimes even the tip of a hat! People seemed genuinely happy to have tourists in their town. We met a El Salvador native who fled to the USA during the war at a pupusaria one night who shed some light on the situation for us. 1 The people were just super friendly in general, but 2. El Salvador gets a really bad rap, particularly in the US media and it scares most foreigners off. While everyone we met (who spoke English) are quick to say, that yes, of course if you were wandering around the outskirts of San Salvador (the Capital) looking for trouble, you'd be pretty quick to find it, but otherwise El Salvador is no more dangerous than it's Central American neighbours. The townspeople are happy that maybe, just maybe, the image of their beloved country is beginning to improve and tourists are starting to come back and visit. Salvadoreans are a proud people and would, it seems, love to share their country's beauty (and amazing food) with the world, if we'll only let them. I know we'll be back!

The 7 Waterfalls Hike- Juayua

Casa Mazeta in Juayua, El Salvador is a great place to make your home base on the Ruta de les Flores for many reasons. Their Seven Waterfalls Hike is just one of them. Led by a friendly guide or two  (we had Elmer and Jose, who were awesome) and accompanied by at least 2 dogs you hike through coffee plants and along steep slopes offering gorgeous vistas. The waterfalls come into the picture during the last quarter of the hike. As does the days biggest adventure: repelling down a waterfall on a rope! It sounds terrifying, but with the one-on-one help of Elmer, showing where all the foot holes are and staying with you your entire descent- its definitely more exhilarating than scary. Plus, watching the guides, and the dogs descend the waterfall without ropes, makes you wonder why you were so scared to begin with. Once you're safely at the bottom, of course... Here the tourists are donning helmets and shaking in their soaking wet boots, and Elmer and Jose scamper up and down the slippery rocks getting all the ropes set up for us wearing crocs. After conquering the waterfall its on to more seriously impressive waterfalls. But now we're just hiking past them..and sometimes through them. I gave up trying to keep my shoes dry almost immediately. Slogging up rivers, through puddles and into waterfalls made for some soaking wet, sloshy shoes. At the final waterfall we had a picnic lunch and took a very refreshing (read: chilly) dip. There was a rock retaining wall making the waterfall a natural infinity pool- with a spectacular view! After 6 hours of hiking, we definitely deserved it!

Pupusa Making 101

Pupusas are most certainly El Salvador's national food. AND, they're delicious.  Pupusas, for those who don't know are pockets of either corn or rice dough stuffed with any variety of ingredients and pan fried. We ate them everyday that we were in the country. We loved them so much we decided to learn how to make them. Our amazing hostel, Casa Mazeta, offered cooking classes for $1 per person plus the cost of ingredients, so we signed ourselves up!

Step 1: Gather ingredients: Corn flour and oil for the dough, cabbage and carrot for the salad, tomato and onion for the salsa, cheese, beans, squash and whatever other fillings you desire. 

Secret ingredient: LaRocco! Its an herby vegetable that we've never seen anywhere else, but boy does it pair perfectly with pupusas!

 Step 2: The chopping. If you're horribly impatient like me, employ a kitchen hand (like your husband) to do tedious work like chopping up the vegetables super small (J: The truth is that she got fired from chopping).

 Step 3: Put small tomatoes, onions, salt and oregano into some hot water to boil and soften. Later all it will need is a few minutes in the blender and you'll have your dipping sauce (which I like to add hot sauce to). 

 It's always nice to have a local expert on hand! Thanks Racquel!

 Step 4: The classic pupusa side salad: Shred cabbage and carrot, give it a pinch of salt and squeeze a lime over it 

 Step 5: The dough. This is definitely the part that Racquel made look easy, when in actual fact, I know will be hard when we're trying to make these at home. Corn flour, mixed with water, and near the end a little bit of oil. Knead until its the perfect magical consistency which I will probably never be able to duplicate.

 Ingredients all lined up and ready: The big circle bowl is the dough. Left to right we have cheese, shredded squash, spinach, la rocco and refried beans! Veggie Delight!

Step 6: Work the dough into a flat circle that doesn't get skinny at the edges

Tip: Keep your hands oiled up when working with the dough. And be sure to let the oil heat up on the griddle before using it! 

 Step 7: Make the dough into a little bowl and start adding your favourite ingredients, like LaRocco...

 And beans and cheese......

 

Step 8: Fold the ends up around your bowl making it into a delicious little package.

 Step 9: Re-flatten out your dough so the ingredients get all smushed up and combined inside. Try not to have too much stuffing leaking out. You can add a little more dough to the rough spots, if needed.

 Ready to cook!? I'm hungry!!!

 Step 10: Drop your pupusas onto the hot oiled griddle. They may need to be flattened out a little bit with your fingertips once they're on the grill. Don't be shy- but don't get burnt! Flip them when they are nice and crispy!

 Tip: Keep pupusas wrapped up in tin foil until they're all done and you're ready to eat!

Finally its Time! 

Step 11: Eat your pupusas! YAY! YUM!

Snack Time in Juayua

Its snack time in Juayua, El Salvador! Lucky us! We stop in what has become our favourite bakery,
and get: a frozen coffee topped with whip cream and caramel sauce ($2), a huge glass of ice cold lemonade ($1) a slice of an El Salvadorian version of pavlova (60cents), and a pineapple pastry (20 cents). So.... $3.80 cents later we (J: "We"... that cookie thing in front of me was placed there only for the duration of the photo) are blissfully chowing down on delightful treats at little wood tables artistically painted with tropical animals. All while enjoying the view of the town park across the street. 'Soooo good!' I say, when we've licked our plates clean. 'Let's do it again!'

El Tunco to Juayua

It occurs to me suddenly: This should be weird. We're standing on the side of a highway (word used loosely) attempting to flag a bus as it speeds past us. A specific bus. This is how it goes: A bus comes barreling around the corner and heads straight for us. We lean forward, squinting at the bus from the tiny shoulder to try and make out either a number or the name of a familiar city painted on the front window before it passes us by. And this is how the conversation goes: What does it say?! What does it say!?! Is that it??!! UMMM.. Just a little closer!!! Come on eyes! Ummm. Its almost here!! Should I flag it just in case? Uhhhhhhh... NO! Ok, no, that's not it. The bus wooshes by leaving us in a cloud of dirt and exhaust. Sigh of relief (despite the dirt and exhaust). We didn't miss it- yet. Ohhhh, there's another one coming, Moon, can you see it?! (Of course he can't he's wearing coke bottle glasses). What's it say!? What's it say!??? Should I flag it?! Baahhhh!! (My heart's pounding)  Umm.. I think maybe, yes, maybe..umm... a little closer.... yes, I think. YES! That's it! Get it! Get it! GET IT! And that's how its done folks. Calm and cool, just like that. 1. Spot the bus 2. Thrust your arm out frantically (or not) 3. The bus stops and you get on. That should be weird, right? Is is weird to you? Sometimes I forget how normal people catch buses.

It should probably also feel weird that when we do finally catch said bus and board it, we are met with the eyes of the entire bus. It's weird when everyone stares at you, right? It means you probably have toilet paper stuck to your shoe or spinach in your teeth. Or, you're blonde and travelling with a Jesus Christo (alleged) lookalike around Central America.... It's one of those things, I'm pretty sure.

The main difference between Nicaraguan buses and El Salvadorian buses, from what I can tell so far,

is the use of bird calling or whistling to get the bus to stop. This is something we haven't noticed anywhere else and its kind of a fun way to communicate. Usually there's a lot of yelling.

We were on our way from El Tunco to Juayua on El Salvador's Ruta de las Flores. Our bus drove west from El Tunco along La Costa del Balsamo. The coastal ride was gorgeous. When we could see the ocean the cliffs rose straight up on our right and fell steeply down to the water on our left. When we couldn't see the ocean we were encircled by lush jungle creating a green tunnel to drive through. There were a few terrifyingly narrow, unlit, black tunnels through the mountains, in which our driver decided that it would be a good place to pass a transport.. and then there was the fact that the driver seemed to like to go faster around hairpin turns than he did on safer straightaways...but then again, he was wearing an adorable sombrero and there were guardrails, at least most of the time.

As the bus turned inland the cliffs stretched out into rolling hills and palm trees dotted their way between tall green grassy crops. El Salvador- beautiful from every angle.

We arrived in our transit town, Sonsonante, which according to the Lonely Planet is a bustling, sweaty commercial town nicknamed Cinncinatti. As nice as that sounded, we wanted to move on quickly. Thankfully the bus to Juayua, our actual destination, was only two bus bays over. And there was a huge lineup of people. Almost instantly the bus pulled in and the mayhem started. People were going crazy like the bus didn't run every half hour. There was pushing and frantic elbowing. Someone pried open the back door of the bus and people started piling in both doors. We looked at each other. When in Rome... we jumped on through the back door and grabbed ourselves a seat.  When the bus pulled out of the station 30 seconds later, it wasn't even that full of people. Most of the seats were taken but there wasn't even anyone standing in the aisle. And there was still a small line of people standing in the bay. Weird. Oh well, off we went.

We drove at glacial speed through Sonsonate for some reason. Glacial is actually a funny adjective to use, because in actual fact, it was freaking hot. We had somehow, again, chosen the wrong side of the bus and our butts were roasting on the sticky vinyl. Driving so slowly through Sonsonate only cemented my original desire to move on asap. It was deserted. All the shops were closed and buildings looked like they were crumbling away, but not in a nice way like Leon or Granada. It was more in a sad, desperate way. In hindsight, the stores being closed might have had something to do with it being a holiday, but either way, I couldn't shake the 'Walking Dead' feeling.

When the bus driver finally found the gas pedal and we started moving at a normal speed out of town

and up along the Ruta de las Flores (the Route of the Flowers), two things happen both instantly and simultaneously. 1). We had driven up into the clouds and the sun was no longer threatening to bake us alive. We were in cool, fresh, high altitude air! and 2). We were surrounded by wild flowers! Although we were on the Ruta de las Flores, I didn't actually expect its name to be an accurate description for some reason. Yet, all around us on the narrow road, yellow, red and purple flowers cascaded out of the foliage, splashing colour as if arrows to guide us up the hill. Amazing!

We arrive in Juayua about 40 minutes later and the town was just hopping. People, music, shops and stalls are overflowing with flowers and happy people. Oh Yes! It's the Day of the Dead! The day everyone spends partying at the cemetery to honour their loved ones who have died. Judging by what was left of the celebration, I'm very sad we missed it. But judging by the friendly, smiling people and colourful looking town-  I think we're going to love Juayua.