Don't Skip El Salvador

 

El Salvador's unofficially adopted tourist slogan is: "Don't skip El Salvador". Which makes sense when you look on the map and see that you can go from Guatemala through Honduras to Costa Rica and miss this, the smallest (and once known as the roughest) of the Central American countries, entirely. 

But that would be a missed opportunity. 

About the size of Massachusetts (and yes, that took me multiple attempts to spell that right), El Salvador is a remarkably modern country (mainly owing to all the money coming from relatives in America). It's also the first to declare bitcoin legal tender. You can buy your groceries with it, though few people do and cash still rules - especially now with the world markets in a bit of a dizzying spiral. Beaches here are unparalleled (only bettered by the Baja). The people are friendly and the bathrooms are clean. Plus I don't think I've eaten a better steak anywhere ever. 

To top it all off? For tourists, it's reportedly never been safer. 

Quick rundown: After homicides reached a peak of 62 in a single day in March 2022 and the President invoked a 30-day suspension of constitutional rights, thousands of gang members (and maybe not all of them gang members?) have been jailed. No surprise - the government has renewed that state of exemption every month since, with the state of exemption remaining in place as I write. 

The new trending El Salvadorian hashtag? #saferthanMexico. (Not so compelling as it once was, is it? Not after the recent craziness in Veracruz). 

Anyway, politics aside, here's a rundown of some of the fun we had in the recently-renovated-not-to-be-missed-smallest country in Central America.

1. Buena Vista Coffee Plantation on the Ruta de las Flores

As we mentioned, we stopped first at the idyllic beach near the border. For more on that, check out the last post. But once the sandflies and ants had had their fill of me, we moved inland for cooler climes and anti-inflammation cream.

We took the tourist route through the midlands called the Rutas de las Flores. Exceptionally beautiful winding roads of small towns and tourist stops. Our first home base was on the concrete drying patio of a coffee plantation called Buena Vista, where there was a restaurant, glamping site, and coffee tour.

The coffee tour was really interesting, though my takeaways may be patchy since we relied on my confident, but limited, Spanish to get the gist of how it all works. What I did gather was that this was the site where they produced 1-lb coffee that goes for $100 US at the airport. Hence the armed guards, rifles slung over their shoulders, we saw patrolling day and night.

Also, we were shown how to tell if a coffee is ready for roasting by a mute, old campesino man who only talked using hand signals. Honestly, I think I understood more of what he said than the guide, his hand expressions were so precise.

Workers leaving the fresh-picked coffee berries to dry in the son. The liquid that looks like blood? That's called the honey.

Our guide showing us the roaster - only used for export

Workers moving the beans around while drying

Our camping spot on the terrace

Beans drying and being sorted

2. The Juayua Food Festival

A short walk down an un-sidewalked highway was the town of Juayua, which was having its usual weekend food festival. Tents full of vendors selling El Salvidor's rightly-famous barbacoa and parrillada (mixed grill) with their famous rice and bean dish called casamiento, meaning marriage. 

Pina Coladas in these weirdly-shaped pineapples that were long and tuberous.

Tables under the food festival tent

Mixed grill - all under $10 US

One of the vendor stalls

Dessert stall!

3. Seven Waterfalls

The next morning, we gathered with about a dozen other tourists in the square of Juayua across from the famous St. Lucia Church, which features a rare Colonial Christo Negro, or Black Jesus statue behind its alter. 

After a few minutes, we were taken to a truck, instructed to hold on, and were driven over rough cobblestone roads to see the seven waterfalls. (It used to be seven waterfalls followed by rappelling into thermal pool, but a tourist died last year after jumping from a waterfall in another location so.... it's a waterfall tour only now.)

The best part was climbing up one of the waterfalls using ropes and then "three-points-of-contact" to reach the top. Sian would have loved it!

Loading onto the truck

Climbing up the falls

At the top of Fall 3 ... or 4?

One of the falls

Contemplating my path up on the rope

Making the ascent!

Reward!

At the seventh and final waterfall

4. Lago Coatapeque

The next day we drove further along the route to Lago Coatapeque, where we stayed in the parking lot of a resort next to a nine-foot empty swimming pool. It was a bit Moonrise Kingdom., to be honest. 

The road was beautiful, lined with trees flowering in pinks, yellows, reds and purples. But the weird thing is that you can't see the lake. The shores are all operated by private enterprises so to access the water you need to pay a day fee at a minimum. So while beautiful, our drive was really just ogling the tumbling wisteria, high walls, fancy iron gates and "no guns allowed" signs at the various hotel entrances.

But once we got into our Moonrise Kingdom, and paid our way to the lake, the water was clear and soft - refreshingly cool. The lake is formed in a caldera, and though no one quite knows why, every once in awhile the lake turns over and changes colour from blue to turquoise. The last time it turned was in 2019, and so was in its "turquoise" phase when we were there. Beyond its chameleon quality, the lake also does get some nasty algae blooms, so if you ever do get there, check with the environmental ministry to see if you actually can swim! Luckily, the last outbreak was in 2025, so we were safe and can report no rashes:)

Also saw our first Mot-mot!

Small concrete palapas on the lake, view from the van

Parking lot camping at its finest.

Our empty swimming pool

5. Santa Ana Volcano 

So we'd picked the place we did on Lago Coetepeque for one reason - it was a short distance to the Santa Ana volcano - only a kilometre or so away. 

Or so we thought. 

Unfortunately, while we were a kilometre as the crow flies, the road does not follow the crow. Or logic. Instead, we had to circle the whole damn caldera to get to the actual hiking trail head, and so arrived a little late for the public tour. 

Luckily, we were not the only ones too late for the 8 am departure. Just down the road, tour guides were gathering groups of 14 or more to start heading up in packs towards the emerald lake. So we skoffed back a couple of papusas and got in line heading up for 45 degrees straight for around 2 hours. 

At the top, we were rewarded with a view of the Emerald Lake, as well as Largo Coetepeque, which I could have sworn changed colour (but this cannot be verified). Best part? The lime popsicle sold at the top!

Santa Ana's toxic (but stunning) caldera

At the top!

Climbing for a better view

Roadside food stalls

Ordering papusas. Yes, those are eggplants as decoration

Lime and Green Mango popsicles at the top

6. Crazy Waves in Punta 

After the Ruta, it was back to the beach. First stop: El Tunco, a famous surfing beach. We stayed in a parking lot of a hostel where the temperature was never lower than 30 degrees and 90% humidity. But luckily, we did get power, cold showers and could run an air conditioner. 

For several days, we swam and watched the surfers. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the waves were too high for us to learn to surf. To quote the very, very laid back gentleman in dreadlocks who was seemingly in charge (though I don't think anyone actually was), "no way man, not today."

Our last day, the waves finally dropped, and we did get in a lesson (and a few bruised ribs and one eye infection) on our last day at the nearby El Sunzul "beginner" beach.

El Tunco

On the beach!

The yellow trees just started flowering

Canelo, the local surf dog - every person knew him and he was everywhere

Beach again

Sky over the ocean

Surfers gathering for sunset

Graffiti on the way to the beach

Ivan in his happy place

These suckers get to be 8 to 10 feet tall here

From El Tunca, we headed towards the Honduran border, stopping at Playa de Las Flores (where I left you a few posts ago). As you saw, a stunning location with coconut and mango trees and hordes of chickens as well as tourists. We did get a second (and for Ivan, a third) surfing lesson here from Hector and can now say that we can sometimes stand on the board!

Heading out with Hector for my lesson

Ivan's up and riding it in!

Dawn surf

Ground lessons

And that was the end of El Salvador - small in size but big in tourist attraction. Our next stop: Nicaragua, where I am writing this post right now.

But first, we had to get through Honduras. Now that was an adventure... More on that next time.

Happy Easter everyone!