Las Rutas de El Salvador
July/August , 2010 Vol. 14, No. 10
Text by Mary L. Peachin with photos by Mary L. Peachin and David Lovitt
“Turismo Somos Todos Y Es Tarea de Todos, El Salvador tourism is for everyone and a challenge for all.”
El Salvador, known as the “Country of Eternal Smiles”, is Central America’s smallest, most densely populated republic. Today’s happy faces no longer portray the brutal and terrifying 12-year civil war. Following the long and bloody revolution, which ended in 1992, peace has brought tourism to El Salvador. The country has become a destination where locals now warmly welcome visitors. Travel between El Salvador’s states, known as departments, is considered a short distance or as locals say, “Only forty minutes away.”
While many tourists carry surfboards or fishing rods, the introduction of culturally interesting day trips or “rutas”, which feature handicrafts, volcanoes, Maya archaeology, a colonial city, and a guerrilla outpost museum, are attracting a new genre of tourism.
During a week’s visit, photographer David Lovitt and I managed to enjoy a number of “rutas”, spend a day sport fishing in Cóbanos and observe Sunzal surfers.
In the more southern seaport of Acajutla, Los Cóbanos Coral Reef is one of El Salvador’s five protected national parks in the country. Between dry season months of November to May, the ocean transitions from murky to crystal blue. These water conditions attract light tackle anglers who come for big game sport fishing. During other months, yellowfin, grouper, snapper, dorado, and Spanish mackerel are targeted. El Salvador boasts of four species of marlin: black, blue, white and striped as well as sailfish. Between November and February, the highly prized roosterfish swims beach side among rolling breakers.
Driving on a modern concrete highway, our first “ruta” featured the Maya civilization. Guide Carlos Velasco aptly said, “we are a small country with great roads, the best in Central America.”.
In 595 AD, Joya de Cerén, now recognized as a UN World Heritage Site, was buried by Laguna Caldera’s volcanic eruption. In 1976, the Mayan village was discovered by accident. The wealth of remains without skeletons indicated that village residents fled in a hurry.
The orange colored fruit of the cashew was in bloom. Torogoz or iridescent blue turquoise motmots, El Salvador’s national bird, flit among the ruins, while hanging woven nests of yellow-breasted Chiltota birds hung over the trail. Boasting one of the best preserved temascal or steam bath, Joya de Cerén is considered the “Pompeii of America.” Nearby, a Mayan pyramid in El Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín is another part of the volcanic complex spanning the country.
La Cocotera eco lodge and resort, located near El Salvador’s northern Guatemala border, is wedged between the Pacific Ocean and the estuary and village of Barra de Santiago. Located in the deciduous Pacific Slope dry forest of El Imposible National Park, the resort’s natural landscape has more than a hundred towering coconut palms plus mango and almond trees.
El Salvador’s thirty volcanoes include six which remain active. Volcano National Park includes Izalco, Santa Ana and Cerro Verde. The country’s last major eruption was Santa Ana in 2005. Izalco Volcano, one of the world’s youngest volcanoes erupted in 1770 and remained active until 1957.
Between 72,000 and 57,000 years ago, a series of catastrophic eruptions formed Lago de Coatepeque or “Place of the Serpents”, along the eastern slope of Santa Ana volcano. The crater-shaped caldera is one of El Salvador’s largest lakes, and hosts an important Mayan site on a small island called Teopan. Sparkling blue, the lake, almost four hundred foot deep and four miles wide, is surrounded by steep green slopes.
Ruta de las Flores covers thirty-six mountainous miles between Sonsonate and Ahuachapán as it passes between the villages of Nahuízalco, Salcoatitán, Juayúa. Apaneca, and Concepción de Ataco.
The indigenous community of Nahuízalco has an economy based on crafts made of natural fibers (osier, yute, and wood). Before electricity, during evening hours, the daily outdoor market was lit by candlelight. Honey, coffee, and sesame is processed in Salcoatitán. Juayúa, Apaneca and Concepción de Ataco, noted for their “golden grain” or coffee, claim to grow the world’s finest coffee.
Suchitoto, or “bird flower” in the Nahuat language, is located on the colonial ruta. A municipality in the Cuscatlán department, its plaza and church was built by the Spaniards in the 1853. Suchitoto is one of the few areas in El Salvador where wide cobblestone roads still exist. Today, the village is a tourist attraction offering a number of handicraft stores.
El Salvador’s size and excellent roads is a country where women still carry baskets or firewood on their heads. Its size allows visitors to base in capital San Salvador and make daily side trips tranversing the country. Other choices include staying in eco lodges like La Cocotera in the north or heading southeast to La Libertad for surfing and fishing. If you plan to experience all of the rutas, you’ll need more than a week and that does not include visiting the sights of San Salvador.
If you go:
Guide Carlos Velasco, www.proyectojesus.org
Captain Luis Vilanova, www.fishelsalvador.com
El Salvador Tourism, www.elsalvador.travel
La Cocotera Resort, www.lacocoteraresort.com