Welcome to my 123rd Visit and 118th Run UN Country and Antonia’s 29th Visit UN Country out of a total of 193. This is the 5th country of our trip out of a total of 9. This post covers our total visit to El Salvador.
El Salvador (Pop 6,364,943) is also Spanish speaking and dominated by The Mestizos. It is the smallest country in Central America at only 31% the size of Tasmania. The Lenca peoples first occupied El Salvador area around 600AD. The Spanish colonised this area in from 1609 until its independence from Spain in 1821. In 1841, El Salvador became a sovereign state, then formed a short-lived union with Honduras and Nicaragua called the Greater Republic of Central America, which lasted from 1895 to 1898. From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, El Salvador endured chronic political and economic instability characterized by coups, revolts, and a succession of authoritarian rulers. Persistent socioeconomic inequality and civil unrest culminated in the Salvadoran Civil War from 1979 to 1992, fought between the military-led government backed by the United States, and a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups. The conflict ended with the Chapultepec Peace Accords. This negotiated settlement established a multiparty constitutional republic, which remains in place to this day. During the civil war, large numbers of Salvadorans emigrated to the United States. By 2008, they were one of the largest immigrant groups in the US. El Salvador's economy has historically been dominated by agriculture, beginning with cacao by the Spanish, then the indigo plant in the 19th century and finally coffee, started by a rich German family, which by the early 20th century accounted for 90% of export earnings. The colón, the currency of El Salvador since 1892, was replaced by the United States dollar in 2001.
Here are some interesting facts about El Salvador:
1. The smallest country in Central America and the only one without a Caribbean Coastline.
2. The most densely populated country in the Americas.
3. Land of volcanoes – 100 of them – one is on the national flag !!!
4. In the top 20 coffee producers in the world.
5. Has the highest quality natural indigo.
The drive from Copan HONDURAS to Suchitoto EL SALVADOR was long. Left 0830 and arrived 1930 (11hrs elapsed) because we had to drive in a curve through Guatemala and cross two pairs of borders. This is because the direct road in El Salvador is too curvy, steep and is in terrible condition. Best to get there. Driving in three countries in the one day was a novelty for me and we would do it again in five days time. I think the record for me was four countries in one day in Africa. We had plenty of stops along the way and enjoyed the changing landscape. El Salvador is very rugged with limited high mountains but has many volcanos (all dormant). The reason for so many volcanos in this part of Central America is because it is part of the so-called “Pacific Rim of Fire”. El Salvador is not as green as Guatemala or Honduras owing to a drier DRY SEASON. All the border crossings were easy, quick and very friendly. Ozzies had to pay $12USD to get into El Salvador. Since we arrived 730pm I decided to skip the group walk to dinner and focus on posting our volcano climb. Lucky I did. Antonia did not eat until 930pm and rocked up at 1130pm after a few drinkies.
The following morning (Thu 8FEB) started late at 10am so the sleep-in was perfect to say goodbye to the aches and pains of the volcano climb. At 10am Antonia and a few of us walked to a special shop and workshop called Arte Anil that is famous in all of El Salvador as the producer of the highest quality indigo coloured clothing. It was started in the early 1900s by the great grandfather of Jennifer, the young lady who taught this small group of 5 – I would did participate so I could film and photograph the others. Jennifer explained how this technique was handed down and it was made particularly popular globally by her mother Irma Guadron. Jennifer explained what indigo is and how it is formed. Natural Indigo is an organic compound (organic dye) with a distinctive blue colour extracted from the leaves of the Indigofera Plant. This plant is native to El Salvador and grows prolifically with exceptionally high quality and yield. This plant is also native to Japan and India but nowhere near the quality. The precursor to indigo is indican, a colourless, water-soluble derivative of the amino acid tryptophan, and Indigofera leaves contain as much as 0.2–0.8% of this compound. Pressing cut leaves into a vat and soaking hydrolyses the indican, releasing glucose and indoxyl. The indoxyl dimerizes in the mixture, and after 12–15 hours of fermentation yields the yellow, water-soluble leucoindigo. Subsequent exposure to air forms the blue, water-insoluble indigo dye. The indigo powder produced in El Salvador (especially in Suchitoto where it all started) is the highest quality in the world at 65% purity. The next is Japan at only 21%. No wonder most of the products made here are exported to Japan and the USA. The German company BAYER was the first to produce an artificial chemical indigo in the 1950’s and this seriously affected the economy of El Salvador since it was the top export until then. The small group could not wait to get started. They were handed a length of light white cotton about 150cm long and 50cm wide. Each person selected what patterns they would create using rubber bands, which block the absorption of the indigo infused water and create a white space depending on how tight the rubber band is attached. Amazing. What dazzles the mind is the endless combinations of patterns that are possible. Rubber bands create “blotches” or shapes with fuzzy borders so if you want a more accurate shape with sharp well-defined edges then you have to sow on additional cloth and remove it after the dipping dye process. The white clothes would become scarfs. Once the rubber bands are attached the cloth is soaked in clear water and hand-rinsed to enable the indigo to better penetrate the cloth. Indigo will only penetrate natural fibres such as wool or cotton. It will not penetrate nylon or polyester. You then put on gloves and an apron and place your cloth in a big bin full of dark blue water thanks to the dissolved indigo powder. It stinks because indigo is a bacteria. You hold it down for a minute, hand-squeeze-rinse it and repeat all this 3 times to get a darker colour. Finally everyone removed the rubber bands and unwrapped their scarfs to reveal 5 different patterns all of which had some kind of symmetry to them. Well done five. Antonia was wrapped. The indigo scarfs were then soaked in water with banana skins to fix the colour and then hung up to dry in the sun for 4hrs.
Following this workshop, Antonia went off to lunch with the group and I toured the town to film it and find wine. Done. I returned to the hotel to answer a few emails and prep for the 2pm leader tour of the town. This was very interesting. The whole group participated and Ben took us to several spots including the colourful cemetery. He explained how El Salvador lost 100,000 souls in the Civil War in the early 1980s and how the current President campaigns to deny it all. He also explained the various programs in this and other towns to help the poor, domestic violence and promote education for girls.
Got back in time for our sunset cruise on Lake Suchitlan (also know as The Cerron Grande Reservoir). Only a 5min drive to the port and nine of us hopped onto a small boat and off we went into the glowing afternoon sun. Perfect conditions but hot and humid. This lake was damned in 1976 from the 422km long Lempa River, which runs into the Pacific. The lake is 135 square kilometres and easily visible from space. It is big with an average depth 30m. The good news is that the damn generates 135MW, which is not big but good for El Salvador. This boat is heaven for bird watchers – there are thousands here and they are all in trees and on the ground at the lake edges so we get very close. The main birds are Egrets, Red Kingfishers and even small Vultures. The landscape around the lake looks very much like Zambia or Botswana in Africa. The best part of the boat trip is that we could bring our own drinks to enjoy during the ride. Sunset itself was terrific as you will see below.
We had a very fun night. Got back from the boat ride in time for a quick shower and we all walking to a bar restaurant owned by Pepe, our guide from the boat ride. We all made the famous treat PAPUSA by hand, only found in El Salvador. It consists of a corn or rice based dough, which you flatten in your palm and create a shell. Inside you place cheese with garlic, grated squash, grated pig rind and pureed black eye beans. You then close up the shell and press again to end up with a flying saucer shaped paddy which you then BBQ on a hot plate just like a hamburger. Tastes delicious and is filling. I made two big ones – one corn (the most common) and the other rice. The rice one was crispier but not as tasty as the corn one. We all woofed them down washed down by heaps of the local Regia Pilsener Beer. A great night indeed.
Enjoy the images of Suchitoto and read on after that…
The following day (Fri 9FEB) was beach day. Yes, we would journey 6hrs to the Pacific Ocean to spend two nights just swimming and eating seafood. We got underway at 9am and this minivan was especially comfy. The usual banos (toilet) stops at gas stations. Lunch stop was in San Miguel, which is a significant city in this part of the country and with over a million inhabitants. We stopped at a huge California style mall with a huge supermarket, department stores and food court. It was at this mall that our leader/guide Ben helped me courier my drone to Costa Rica !!! Yes you read right !!! I kept this one as a surprise. Ben told me back in Antigua Guatemala when we met that drones are strictly forbidden in Nicaragua. They X-Ray all your luggage at the border and if they find a drone they will confiscate it and not give it back. If you do not declare it and they find it you could be detained. I contacted Riza to check this via her frequent traveller network. The news back was bad. All true. Safest option is to courier the drone from that last major city in the country before Nicaragua and then pick it up in the first major city in the country after Nicaragua. This meant sending it in San Miguel EL SALVADOR and picking it up in San Jose COSTA RICA. Ben recommended the courier company called TRANSEXPRESS (www.transexpress.com.sv), which is the biggest local company in Central America and has used this company successfully in the past. It cost $72USD to send and I would have to pay duty (estimated at $25USD) in Costa Rica. Better than loosing $800AUD worth of drone !!! Ben did a great job filling in all the paperwork. I waved goodbye to my little drone that was literally going to be flown over Nicaragua and went off to stock on supplies for the beach since there are no shops where we are staying.
We arrived at our seaside retreat located near the seaside village of El Cuco at 1530. Fantastic place. Individual cabins nestled under loads of vegetation dominated by palms. Just as well. It was burning hot and humid – felt and looked just like Cairns Queensland. We dumped everything in our aircon room, changed into our cozzies and I raced off to swim my 2km. No go. This is a surf coast with a big swell. The waves came in thick and fast with plenty of whitewash. Good for body surfing but not distance swimming. I would need to go out 500m where the water is deep and subject to rips. Did not want to end up in Mexico. The water was very warm (estimate 28C) but full of wash and churned sand. The beach sand itself is brown and extends into our retreat as dusty sand. The retreat was well equipped with a small snack store, seaside bar and restaurant. Intrepid gets the special treatment of $1.25USD beers from 4pm until late. Dinner was early at 7pm and most feasted on $20-30USD whole lobsters done in garlic or cheese and plain or stuffed with shrimps. I opted for a whole grilled fish, which was soft, filling and simply delicious. Poor Antonia got served her lobster last but when it came she loved it. Worth the wait. Antonia partied on but I hit the sack to prep for my 10km beach run the following day, which was devoted to relaxing here.
My run was one of the best. The entire beach we were on was 5km end-to-end. Perfect. It was cool at 7am with a light breeze and low tide giving me a big wide firm beach with the Pacific Ocean on one side and tropical palms on the other. On my return, I tried to distance swim again but with no result. Too rough and the currents were strong. Settled for some body surfing instead. It was about 10am now and getting hot and Antonia wanted something to do other than sit by the pool or bar. I suggested that we walk to El Cuco via the beach since I had seen it on my run. It took us a good hour to get there with plenty of kids playing soccer on makeshift fields marked out in the sand. El Cuco is not great and dominated by restaurants and souvenir shops on the sand. There were lots of local families out enjoying a very messy frothy surf. The walk back was interesting. We encountered a dead stingray where a local chopped off the venomous tail so that people would not step on it. We were told that locals catch the rays, cut off their fins for soup and dump the rest. Carcasses end up on the beach. Sad but legal here. We also saw hundreds of local seagulls gathered together on the waters edge – smaller than ours. Our feet were quite sore on return and I was bushed. Went for a quick swim and enjoyed a catnap in the room.
Sunset that day, like yesterday, was sensational. This is one of few beaches I have seen around the world where the sun rises and sets in the ocean on the same beach. The atmosphere is so super clear that you can see the actual tops o the distant ocean waves licking the disc of the glowing red sun as it sinks into the water !!! I filmed my first timelapse clip on my Galaxy S23 Ultra over 60min at 60x to produce a very impressive 60sec sunset sequence – you will need to wait for the film to see it.
In the meantime, enjoy the Pacific Ocean as seen
from faraway El Salvador...
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