El Salvador
With all the hype surrounding the security of central american countries, we debated whether to visit El Salvador... for about a minute. One concrete lesson we have learned on this trip is that the best source for current info on any country is from travelers themselves. We first learned this lesson on our very first stop in 2009; we skipped Kenya on the advice of our State Department's website (and a flurry of poor press) and flew through Nairobi to begin our trip in Tanzania instead... and only to then discover there were loads of young European travelers pouring out of Kenya having had a great--and safe--visit. After that, we put a lot more effort toward seeking current travel information from travelers themselves.
The same held true for El Salvador. We were presented
with numerous reasons for not attempting a visit, not least of which was the country's history of armed assault on locals and foreigners alike. Not without grounds, a reputation of this sort should give one a moment of pause, and we did take it into consideration. But instead of scrapping it altogether, we instead decided to gather what information we could from fellow travelers while touring the surrounding countries, and to make the call on the ground. And we're glad we did, because El Salvador ended up being one of--if not THE--best stops in Central America.
El Salvador is small. You could drive across the entire country easily in a day. In recent years, the tourism board has been playing up the beaches, touting them as the new surf mecca of central america. But, in our opinion, the real draw of El Salvador lies in the coffee-rich mountain regions, with their numerous volcanoes, plantations, and exotic flower nurseries. And of course the people! Nicest in central america, if you ask me.
True, in years past the country struggled with a wide
variety of menacing problems: armed assault on locals and foreigners, an aging guerrilla class in need of gainful employment, and an escalating gang problem resulting from the deportation of offenders from Los Angeles neighborhoods. But the country has taken many steps in recent years toward separating these threats (if not eliminating them) from those who venture across its borders --not least of which is the installation of tourist police in key areas. We kept our heads about us, did a bit of planning, and regularly asked locals for updates on the security situation outside towns... and never once felt uncomfortable about exploring this beautiful country.
By the time we got to El Salvador, we only had a few
weeks left before needing to fly home, and we would be finishing up with a week in southern Guatemala. So, a bit pinched, we opted to skip the beaches altogether and focus on the "Ruta de Flores" in the country's western mountains. We kicked this all off with three days in Santa Ana (having breezed through the capital, and wishing we had spent more time exploring there), the country's busy little second city. We lucked out and found accommodation just outside the city center,
at Casa Frolaz, a converted colonial-style home. For $2o a night we enjoyed a spacious room with a private bath and (yes) hot water, and full access to this large house... an enormous kitchen, a lush yard complete with an avocado tree bearing fruit the size of footballs, and a large common room with comfortable couches and lots of DVDs. It was a treat to cook our own food, and we atesalad, pasta, and soup (Tatyana's favorites) every night, washed down with Chilean wine and frosty beers from the local market (which was like a brand new Safeway, and had everything we could hope to find).
Each day we wandered around the town, exploring the
markets, lounging in the central squares and munching on tons of street food. One of the things I love about central american towns (like many European towns) is that they center around public squares, where people gather throughout the day to chat with neighbors and watch the world go by. We spent a lot of time here on park benches, people-watching. The tortas (sandwiches) on the square were a nice break from El Salvador's typical fare -"pupusas", which are like four-inch tortillas stuffed with beans and cheese, and often times other goodies as well. Locals eat pupusas a LOT... often for three meals a day... they are everywhere. For us, the lack of variety was a challenge, so we lapped up alternative fare wherever we found it.
On the third day we hopped on a bus for the range of volcanoes south of the city, and opted for Volcan Izalco, an active but relatively safe volcano about a 90 minute hike from the main road. We joined a group of other tourists (many of them locals) and were assigned a tour guide, which cost $1 each. As this area has struggled with armed assaults in the past, it is now heavily patrolled by the tourist police, and we were escorted by no less than three officers, each heavily armed. It was an easy hike, and we were rewarded with a minefield of scalding steam holes at the top. Fun.
After Santa Ana, we hopped a forty-minute bus (the
shortest travel day we have ever had) for the small town of Juayua, home to an extremely popular weekend food fair. We spent that Sunday eating a lot of food... everything we ordered was $5, but it was enormous. We opted for a bucket of ceviche and loaded plate of barbecue. Very good. There was live entertainment in the square, and we whiled away the afternoon sipping on cold beer and watching a really drunk local guy interfere with all the performers. A puking rally (in which he barfed all over his shirt) was the highlight of our afternoon.
The following day we joined a group for another $1 excursion, this time to a set of waterfalls in the mountains outside town, about 30 minutes away. These were really cool, as the locals had expanded natural tunnels to funnel the water along the mountain for hydroelectric purposes. We spent the afternoon
shooting the currents in the pitch black tunnels, guided only by the shimmering blue-green light of the water ahead of us. We had not done anything like this before, and it was well worth the trip. The local guide was a really nice guy, and kept us from knocking ourselves out on the rocks hanging from the ceiling -the tunnels weren't very big and only allowed about 2 feet of space above the waterline. It was a fun day. We stuck around only one more night, as we discovered that without the food fair, local cuisine consisted of... yeah... more pupusas, and those were beginning to get a bit old.
The next day's bus ride was even shorter... We zipped along the mountain roads, blowing past billowing tufts of brightly colored flowers, pouring over walls, lodged in trees, everywhere. One of the most beautifully scenic drives we've been on. We stopped in the small town of Apaneca, which had been a big deal about ten years ago, but now was pretty sleepy. After checking on the local security situation, we took an hours walk past coffee plantations and into the mountains outside of town to a high crater lake, where we took a cool dip and grabbed a bite of food -pupusas. We spent the rest of the day hanging out in hammocks and reading.
We spent the following night in the town of Concepcion de Ataco, a really cool little up-and-comer, with a great art scene, lots of good coffee (a rarity, as most of the local stuff is shipped out of the country) and the best food of our trip. Right off the bat we found a packed little eatery run by this ancient
woman with a pleasant smile, who hooked us up with loaded plates of local fare and a really amazing fish soup... all to the tune of a couple bucks. We spent the afternoon exploring the town, wandering from church to church, and admiring the endless views of coffee plantations. On a tip, we made plans with a small restaurant to serve us dinner that evening, and toured the local shops for the rest of the day. The art was really unique... Tatyana bought a necklace made of banana seeds, I bought a small bag of cigars. We had coffee and fresh olive bread on the plaza that afternoon, which was the coolest plaza we had seen yet, complete with a three-tier fountain and lush lawns.Dinner that evening was a real treat. Barbecue, with tons
of sides and really good tortillas. We got stuffed for six bucks, and waddled out the door and back to our hostel. The hostel we stayed at was run by some really great folks, and guarded by a mother-son team of dogs that were just irresistible. The younger dog had been badly injured by a car, and had a funky gimp leg that seemed to be situated backwards. He was the king of the one-pawed hug and was constantly wrapping his good leg around our legs for a semi-squeeze every time we stopped to play. Tatyana was smitten. We
spent the evening reading out in the hammocks, and enjoying another round of hot showers -a real treat. The next morning we accepted an invitation from a local coffee plantation owner to come into the mountains to see her property... What views she had, perched atop a ridge with a view across the mountains to Guatemala. She was in the process of converting her old family home into a guest house, and she treated us to fresh-squeezed lemonade from her trees as she told us about her plans.
We stopped for lunch again at the little eatery in town that we enjoyed so much the day before. The old lady was
so excited to see us again. More loaded plates of food, and an interesting soup--pig lung, I think--that I really enjoyed but Tatyana wasn't too thrilled about. We hopped a bus that afternoon for the town of Ahuachapan, last stop on the route. It took about two seconds to realize we were not in Kansas any more, and that our string of beautiful mountain hamlets was behind us. Ahuachapan was a hole, to speak nicely... The only reasonable accommodation we could find was at a pay-by-the-hour hotel, complete with freshly-used condoms in the wastebasket, ants in the bed, and a giant cockroach holding court in the shower. The crusty old lady who ran the place was really surprised when we made it clear that we were married and wanted the room for the entire night. At least it had a TV with cable, though. We beat feet early the next morning for the border, which was a breeze, and on to the last stop of our trip, southern Guatemala.
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