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Due south of Zacatecoluca lies El Salvador's premier beach playground, the Costa del Sol , a fifteen-kilometre strip of palm-fringed beaches running between the ocean and the Jaltepeque Estuary. The clean expanses of sand here are good for swimming, and the place seethes at the weekends as the crowds pour in. From the highway, an access road runs the 20km south to the beginning of the beach strip and east along its length to La Puntilla at the end. Another road branches off 8km before the coast to the fishing town of La Herradura , from where boats can be rented to explore the estuary's mangrove swamps and small islands, some of them inhabited. Buses run down the Costa del Sol from Zacatecoluca, taking around an hour and a half to reach La Puntilla; there are also direct buses from the Terminal del Sur in San Salvador. Behind the first beach along the strip, Playa San Marcelino , the rather plush Costa del Sol Club has swimming pools, sports facilities and a restaurant - try negotiating at the gate to be allowed in for the day. Some 3km east is Playa Costa del Sol , where a turicentro (daily 7am-6pm; US$0.90) rents cabanas and has a couple of small restaurants. There's also some upmarket accommodation here in the form of the Izalco Cabana Club (tel 223 6764; US$40-60) and the Tesoro Beach Hotel (tel 334 0600; US$100 and over) at the far end of the beach. A few kilometres further on, at kilometre 66, is Playa Los Blancos and the Mini Hotel y Restaurante Mila (US$10-25), the area's most reasonably priced hotel, with small but comfortable rooms and a swimming pool. At the far eastern tip of the Costa del Sol, La Puntilla has a number of comedores and cheap lodgings - you'll be approached by owners as soon as you step off the bus. Lancha owners run trips from here across to the Isla de Tasajera, around the mangrove swamps of the Estero de Jaltepeque and up the Rio Lempa.
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