El Salvador - San Salvador and Suchitoto

---

June 16th - From Guatemala to El Salvador

Anxious to find the road less travelled, Susan and I decided to escape Guatemala and head to El Salvador. There were just too many tourists in Guatemala. So, from San Marcos la Laguna, we began our journey. First by boat, then tiny tuk tuk, then crummy shuttle van that broke down on the steep climb out of Lake Atitlan, then a nice big bus from Guatemala City to San Salvador. We had a fairly uneventful border crossing. What was probably less than 180 miles took us over 16 hours! Susan found a great hotel in San Salvador, the ´Hotel Tazumal House´ in one of the nicer areas of town.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

June 17th - San Salvador

The next day, with directions from hotel staff, we took a local bus to the center of downtown, touring the Palacio Nacional and the new cathedral. Susan took care of the translating while I navigated us through the city. The Palacio was impressive with a very large courtyard inside and four main rooms used for entertaining and judicial meetings. As soon as we left the Palacio, we got caught in a downpour and ducked into the library where I found a 7th grade book of essays and proceeded to have Susan suffer though a Spanish lesson with me as I read and translated and she corrected my many mistakes. After the rain stopped, we strolled through the crowded, crazy downtown market. It is probably the largest urban market I´ve seen in my travels through central and south america. It went on for blocks and blocks. We lunched on street vendor pupusas where I ordered for myself a pupusa revuelta (mixed beans, cheese, pork) and of course ended up with something else. Then we hiked across town about 40 blocks to the Mercado Nacional de Artesanias. Next stop was the Metrocentral mall touted as the ´largest shopping mall in Central America´ . After all that walking, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at ´Mister Donut´ where again I ordered for myself sopa con carne (soup with meat) and ended up with sopa con frijoles (bean soup). Geez - I know my spanish is bad, but even with my awful pronunciation, I know frijoles doesn´t sound anything like carne. I don´t know why I can´t seem to get the food I want. The hike, in addition to providing some much needed exersize, allowed us to see alot of the city including some interesting parks. One had a man shouting (preaching?) to a crowd - Susan wouldn´t stop and translate for me what the guy was saying.

The most notible things about San Salvador is the lack of tourists (we saw on family of foreigners at the Palacio) and how modern the suburbs of San Salvador are. Going through the suburbs, you could be driving through any part of Suburbia, USA with its collections of fast food drive throughs and strip malls. Compared to other central American countries, it appears to be much more progressive (and expensive). However, Susan keeps reminding me of the crime. Apparently it has one of the highest crime rates in the world due to L.A. deporting Mara Salvatrucha gang members back to El Salvador. This was reinforced this morning when Susan read to me, from the local newspaper, they are averaging 13 murders in San Salvador each day!

We fell exhausted into bed watching movies on the cable TV (a treat since neither of us have cable TV at home) and stuffing ourselves with plantano chips with limon and chile. Yum!
.
.
.
.
.





.
.
.
.
.
.

June 18th - Suchitoto

At the recommendation of a taxista, we decided to check out Suchitoto. We were not disappointed. It is a short bus trip from San Salvador. According to my guide book, this town was the capital of El Salvador for about 15 years back in the 1500´s. In the 1990's, almost 90%!o(MISSING)f the population left due to civial war. Today, it is a weekend getaway for San Salvadorans. It´s a beautiful, charming little colonial town with cobbled streets located on large lake. We came for the day but wished we had packed our bags and stayed awhile. The town has some nice artisan shops and art stores. We ate a fabulous lunch at Posada de Suchitlan with stunning views of the lake. We took a quick 1/2 hour tour of the lake by boat. It was good we didn´t go any longer as it started to pour as soon as we landed. Instead, we watched the rain fall from the newly opened harbour area that had several restaurants and craft stores. There is alot to do in this area - waterfall hikes and horseback riding and longer lake tours. Unfortunately, the last bus back to San Salvaldor left at 6pm. So, we left this charming town not fully explored.

One of the most interesting and impressive things about this town is it´s dedication to women´s rights. Many houses had permanent signs painted next to their doors claiming to be a violence free place for women. Mine and Susan´s respect for this country soared after seeing this.

This town is one of my favorite places I´ve visited in all my central american travels. It seems to have everything going for it - charm, undiscovered (by foreigners at least), easy access, friendly people, culture, great food, nice climate, beautiful views. Just lovely. I could live here.

---

Photos

Leaving Lake Atitlan
The view from the road into and out of Panejachel

Palacio National Courtyard
The beautiful courtyard inside the Palacio National. The building is located to the west of the Plaza Barrios.

The New Cathedral
Located to the north of the Plaza Barrios, this cathedral completed construction in 1999. Artwork is by Fernando Llort, the country´s most famous artist.

Suchitoto committment to women´s rights
This giant billboard proclaims in
Suchitoto, they want a life free of violence against women!

Comments

[Elena Rivera]

Hostel in Ataco
Hi... Traveling in EL Salvador? You will love Ataco, a beautiful mountain town in Ahuachapan, borders with Guatemala. Please visit us at Cipi Hostel www.travellersspot.com http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=94873614845&id=44969708714&ref=nf Cheers and happy travel!