Minimum time, maximum adventure. If this is your style, check out Day One.

 

 

Day Two

Santa Ana → Lake Coatepeque → Cerro Verde → San Salvador

 

 

Rise and shine. It tooka minute to figure out the stairs to the terrace are hidden within the kitchen. I was alone watching the morning sun creep over the distant volcano. VJ was making coffee and heating up leftover pupusas. Garlic-jalapeno is so yum. Seriously, pupusas for breakfast, lunch, dinner.

 

 

We do the quickest walking tour of Santa Ana ever. Once a wealthy center of coffee trade, the town’s theater is a beautiful mint green, the cathedral a brick-ish and white with pointed spires, and the canary yellow munipical palace was one of the my favorite buildings I saw here. Five bananas were purchased for one dollar, a papaya and two mangoes for one more. My dad became obsessed with sapote, a bright orange, sweet, creamy fruit with gritty brown skin. We topped off our haul with pipas (fresh coconuts).

 

 

 

 

I navigate us to Lake Coatepeque, a caldera leftover from a volcano that erupted over 50,000 years ago. No wonder it’s super blue by now and lined with big houses, not to mention I felt like I was almost in North Carolina.

 

 

We pulled over at twice, once above with a full view, and one by the water where we enjoyed the dock and I could touch the water. Dad was still fascinated with plantains so we some of the fried, starchy treats.

VJ had me to film the scenery for him, read road signs, and navigate Google Maps, all at once. The final stretch before the gated Cerro Verde National Park was gorgeously Salvadoran—you’d have to see it to understand. Just inside the park entrance the view of barren Izalco Peak can be enjoyed. And the playground with wooden llamas.

 

 

About 30 tourists showed and at 11am the guides began the trek up El Salvador’s tallest volcano, Santa Ana Volcano. Have a jacket or windbreaker handy, and bring around 10 singles for various fees, per VJ. The entry was 3USD, the guide and “land lord” each took 1USD, and each hiker “donated” 2USD to the guard house.

We were able to pick our own hiking paces. Ferny and shaded at first, the situation soon turned quite sunny. It was also entirely dusty, without exceptions. Kathy told me about her experiences at Kraft and Exxon, and how she was designing keurig-style cups and oil reservoirs for the respective companies. Both she and Lorena got jobs with Exxon and are rooming together next year in Houston, after five years of Chemical Engineering life. Kathy is also inspiring in that she was at a bouldering competitions hours before we left university campus, and immediately has an exam when we return.

Bright yellow plants stimulated the senses, and dried lava from the 2005 eruption crunched beneath our feet.

 

 

 
By the time I reached the summit, I had forgotten what was inside the crater. Lake Ilamatepec. Sulphurous. Stunning. Breath taken away. Bubbling emeralds, aquas, and turquoises. It was the coolest volcano I’d ever seen, and the best view I’d gotten from all the summits I’d done in the past year. My sweat was quickly whipped away by forceful winds. We gorged on a sapote for lunch.

 

 

Back at the parking lot, we find a hard core German couple. They sent a huge van all the way from Europe to Baltimore and have road tripped from THERE to HERE. Holy poop.

The evening was honestly pretty not fun. We waited out traffic in the San Salvador area. By the time we reached downtown the sun had began to set and there was zero parking. It was about 5:40pm and all the lots were closing in 20 minutes, which means the guards and their guns are literally going home. We were bickering over how safe we were and how much time we had. Mala Salvatrucha is said to be in charge of the shops and are known to create child prostitution rings. I think my dad still doesn’t realize the potential risk of being out after dark. In the end we decided to forgo visiting the architecturally unique Iglesia El Rosario, got below average dinner in a gated plaza off the side of the highway, and reached the airport with more than enough time to spare.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts on El Salvador

This was the rawest third-world experience I’ve had. The endless presence of guards was a new blow. I don’t see how Dad expects to see the world if he’s not as cautious as he should have been on this trip; I was often looking out for him. Again, everyone speaks Spanish. The food I had was heavier than other Latin American cuisines as I found I’m still a rice and beans kinda girl, though I’m sure two days just wasn’t enough time to know better. Don’t get me wrong, pupusas are amazing, but I couldn’t have it as a breakfast staple like the locals. The fruit was crazy good and the prices were very budget friendly. The landscape of El Salvador was both tragically deforested but also beautiful. The random appearance of volcanos were a pleasant surprise in the hot climate and desert-like scenery. I saw no signs of gang or drug violence but everything pretty much shuts down after dark, a major point to be aware of. Having the rental car made lots of options possible, but was too pricey, as well as constricting with parking hassels. Busses are my thing. The roads were generally well paved and I also owe VJ for his detailed research and teaching me about OK maps, GPS, and Trip Advisor. I would no doubt return for seconds, but where in the world wouldn’t I?