For many of us, despite a richly fascinating history that dates back to well before 2000 BC, even mentioning the name’s of certain Central American Nation’s conjures up Oliver Stone film assisted images of a paramilitary chaos certain to metastasize into “our” next Vietnam. But thankfully, that particular war never made it anywhere past the mark of mostly imagined -- and so today, states like El Salvador are better known for their spectacular Olmec and Mayan ruins, magnificent cloud forests, breathtaking volcanic vistas and excellent beaches; not to mention the prime surfing waves the aforementioned offer.
The Republic of El Salvador is bounded by Honduras to the north and east, the Pacific Ocean to the south, and Guatemala to the west. Its terrain is dominated by cloud-misted hills, lava-rock craters and cultivated fields of cotton on the coasts, sugarcane in its lowlands and coffee in the highlands. Even though farmers have made use of so much of the land, the nation still plays home to a scintillating diversity of wildlife including quetzals, white-tailed deer, sea turtles and jaguars whose lush-green habitats combine with the presence of twenty-five, just-made-trekking, extinct volcanoes and those aforementioned Mayan and Olmec archeological sites to insure that visitors will definitely want to remember to bring along their cameras and a sturdy pair of hiking boots.
Unless you’re traveling from elsewhere in the region, you’ll be arriving in country via the Comalapa International Airport, located approximately twenty-seven south-west of the capital city San Salvador. Before heading out into the hinterland to bask in the ancient auras of the giant Olmec head sculptures of Chalchuapa or the Mayan step pyramid ruins at San Andres and Tazumal or to hit the awesome pipes of La Libertad and El Sunzal—you may want to take some time to explore San Salvador. Founded by the Spanish in 1546 in a valley at the foot of a large volcano that’s been responsible for destroying the city, via earthquake and eruption, a number of times, San Salvador’s primary landmark is the Catedral Metropolitana’s dome. If you decide to do the sightseeing thing, you’ll especially want to check out the city’s Jardin Botánico La Laguna, a garden built into the bottom of a volcanic crater atop what was once a swamp, and Museo Nacional de Antropologia, home of many of the country’s amazing archaeological treasures. Those interested in interesting souvenir hunting will want to check out the ceramics, handicrafts and hand-made textiles stalls of the Mercado Ex-Cuatrel market.
Once you escape the shanty town suburbs and traffic spawned smog of San Salvador you’ll want drastically change your pace by taking the four hour ride out to the Parque Nacional Montecristo-El Trifino and its breathtaking cloud forest. Located atop the acres where the borders of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras converge—sitting at around seventy-nine-hundred-feet, its laurel and oak trees combine with a hundred percent humidity rate to form a canopy blinding to sunlight. Beneath that a plethora of mosses, orchids and ferns form a shadowy wilderness that plays home to many of the regions endangered pumas, two-fingered anteaters, spider monkeys and agoutis.
Hiking enthusiasts will definitely want to make the thirty-nine mile trek out from San Salvador to the Cerro Verde national park to take in the amazing vistas offered up by the Lago de Coatepeque, a sapphire-blue crater lake wrapped around the eastern slope of the Volcán de Santa Ana then take the rough four-hour walk up a marked path to the top of the ever-fuming Volcán Izalco—the nominally still active highest volcano in the land, that owing to its spectacular sulfuric-flame eruptions was once known as “the lighthouse of the Pacific.”
Head out during El Salvador’s May to October rainy-season to avoid crowded beaches and for the best prices or during its November to April dry-season to find the weather at its most hospitable and to possibly catch one of the nation’s major saint-celebrating festival days.
It’s more than worth the trip.
