Tidings of Joy: Touring El Salvador

After the sinking of Rum Truffle the mood at the marina was somber to say the least. Most of us were in disbelief while some felt a lot of anger and distrust for those put in charge of helping boaters cross the bar. Needless to say this was a good time to get away. Fortunately/Unfortunately we had tickets to San Diego to visit family for 10 days and this provided just the space we needed in order to get our heads right and process what had just happened.

We returned from San Diego on March 11th and did a quick turnaround getting unpacked, meeting with friends and catching up at the pool and then repacking for our tour of El Salvador the very next day. Phew!

At 8am on my birthday we met Dionisio at the marina office and began our four day tour of El Salvador. The tour started with an hour and a half drive to the capital city of San Salvador where we took a walking tour and visited Iglesia el Rosario, Plaza Libertad, Plaza Barrios, San Salvador Cathedral and the library. From San Salvador the tour continued to Suchitoto which is the most well preserved colonial town in the country. En route we stopped at this super cute place for lunch that over looked a green lush canyon and had great food and was very accommodating to my vegan diet. Once in Sushitoto we walked around visiting the central plaza and santa lucia church and then hopped on a private boat to tour around Suchitlan Lake and did some bird watching. It was getting close to sunset so lots of birds were out and feeding. It was great to be back on the water again. We stopped at one of the islands on the lake and had a beer for sunset. It as wonderful. After a full day Dio (Dionisio told us to call him this if pronouncing his name was too hard) dropped us off at our hotel in town and walked to a restaurant down the block for birthday dinner. It was in a pretty garden, had vegan options and they even gave me a birthday dessert. A very memorable birthday.

Entering San Salvador

Dio Leading Us Around

Iglesia el Rosario

Plaza Libertad

Salvador Cathedral

The Library With Dio

Inside the Library

San Lucia Church

Lunch

Cute Heart at Lunch

Suchitoto Central Plaza

Suchitoto

Suchitlan Lake

Tour Boat

Boat Ride with Dio

Fisherman on Lake

Lots of Birds

Sunset on the Lake

Birthday Dinner

After a good nights sleep at 8:30a.m. Dio was back to pick us up for day two of our tour. Today we visited an ancient mayan archaeological site at Cihuatan ruins where we learned about the last remaining pipiles tribe in El Salvador including their ceremonies and lifestyles. From here we visited Joya de Ceren the only UNESCO site in the country. This little mayan farm village is also known as little America pompei. We then toured around Coatepeque Lake and ate lunch. Finally after lunch en route to Ataco we made a stop at tazumal- the largest pyramid discovered in El Salvador. Another full day in the bag we got dropped off at our hotel. At some point we ventured into town to find dinner and we happened to bump into another boat from the panama posse- Fin. We were all in disbelief of the timing of our random meet up and had a beer with them and talked about the city.

En Route to Cihuatan

Chiuatan Ruins

En Route to Joya de Ceren

Joya de Ceren

Coatepeque Lake

Tazumal

Random Meet Up With Fin

Day three of the tour was the day I was most looking forward to - coffee tour. Anyone who knows me knows I love love love coffee! Our first activity would be to visit El Carmen farm to learn about coffee production. Unlike the small coffee house we had been to in Mexico, El Carmen was a huge coffee processing plant. While they didn't grow their own coffee what they did was help local farmers process big batches of theirs. We learned about how trucks show up full of beans and how they get dumped into a trough to be washed and weighed and processed picking out the bad beans before spreading the beans on the cement to dry out. It was a fascinating process and at the end we got to sample some of their product. I was in heaven. From El Carmen we continued our tour on Ruta de las flores and visited a local street market in Salcoatitan and then onto Apaneca. Dio took us to another beautiful scenic garden restaurant after our morning tour. And before ending the day he and Jeff took a walking tour around Ataco. Unfortunately I had a bad belly ache and needed to stay at the hotel.

El Carmen Coffee Farm

Coffee Bean Troughs

Bags of Coffee Beans

Bean Processing Machines

Inside the Troughs

Beans Drying in Rows

Bags of Processed Beans Ready to Ship

Woman Handpicking Imperfect Beans

The Final Products

Making Samples for the Tour

Local Market

130 Year Old Tree in Salcoatitan

Cathedral in Apaneca

Town Square

Lunch with Dio

Cathedral Ataco

Restoration of Ataco

I woke up feeling much better so we were off for our final day of touring El Salvador. Today we hiked Santa Ana volcano, also know as Ilamatepec. It was one of the most amazing volcanos we have ever seen. It's still active and we were able to hike up to the crater where we had stunning views of the inside as the smell of sulphur bubbled up all around us. Due to all the gases there is time limit for how long you should visit so as not to get sick. After tons of photos we made our way down. We ended the tour at a town which I can't remember the name of right now but they are known for their papusas - the national dish of El Salvador. Dio took us to a street that had tons of papusarias lined up one after the next. We chose a place that had air conditioning, which is very rare and thankfully they too had excellent papusas. I had bean papusas and Jeff had a variety of beans, seafood and cheese. We sloped on some homemade cabbage slaw on top and were so happy to enjoy in the local dish we love so much. Finally it was time to say goodbye to Dio. He was wonderful and showed us parts of El Salvador we would have never discovered on our own. A great trip indeed.