Juayua Food Festival

We wake up at 5am to catch a bus on the side of the highway that only runs twice a day to Juayua, where we plan to take part in the weekly food festival. Every weekend of the year there is a food festival in the small town on the Ruta de Flores of El Salvador. When the bus finally arrived at around six am, we were suddenly wide awake! There was EDM (Electronic dance music) playing at high volume, the bass shaking the entire bus. What a shock! The bus was getting more and more filling up and turning into a big morning party. It was awesome! I love how every day is a celebration and I believe many people can learn from this way of life. After two hours of this intense bus ride we were getting dropped off to only to switch to another 45 minute bus to the town. We found our hostel and got settled in, again with a beer and papusas as it’s the thing do in El Salvador. Knowing the food festival was taking place, we went on a journey to figure out what this meant in El Salvador. We were not disappointed! Beginning with a hollowed out pineapple, where they take the fruit and put it in a blender with sugar and rum and topped it off with lime, chili and salt, and of course two straws. We then walked around wide eyed and bushy tailed because no body loves grilled meat more than Mark and I, and with stall after stall of grilled meat and seafood, the two of us were frothing at the mouths!

After making the rounds of all the food stands we came to the conclusion, we wanted the biggest plate there was and we were going to share it. So we found it and ordered it. A skewer of massive prawns, steak and chicken, on top of a bed of rice pilaf, potato salad, refried beans and a side of tortillas and pickles. After finishing it off and were so full, but we were missing something… A beverage. We found a woman standing over a steaming cauldron filled with what she called ponche: basically warm milk, with vanilla, cinnamon and rum. Soon after that, we went back to the hostel and laid down for the evening.

The next day we headed out once again for the food festival, looking to try a couple different things. We ended up picking a sausage plate, after reading about how they make their own sausage in the area. It contained Chorizo and Longanzia two very full flavoured sausages mixed together to make a mouth tantalizing dream tube! It came with rice and veggies along with the typical refried beans and tortillas. We also got thew soup, because when I see soup on a menu I have to order it. It was a black bean based soup, with pork skin and a cob of corn floating in it. Sounds weird, tasted delicious. After we ate all of that we went through yet another food coma.

The Monday was the last day of the festival and were informed that not only was it the weekly food festival, but falling on the first two weeks of the year is the Festival del Cristo Negro. Coinciding with the food festival, it includes a parade of the local beauty queens and an amazing fireworks show. The parade was great, Mark snapped a picture of me with a queen, and the fireworks show was super crazy! It started off with four men, holding up cardboard boxes that were painted like bulls and strapped with fireworks. They ran at the crowd while lit up, and the fireworks shot out at us. It was crazy. Luckily, nobody got hurt, and the show went on. There was an intense fireworks display, with once again little to no safety precautions to be followed. It was a great end to an amazing weekend! With our bellies once again full of Ponche and grilled meat we went back to the hostel and had a long, deep sleep.