Friday, March 8, 2024: Friday morning, I wrapped up my packing and preparations at home and even had plenty of time to walk 3 miles around Lake Thoreau and the edge of Lake Audubon in Reston. I dropped by AAA to pick up a carry-on bag that fits over the pull-up handle of my suitcase.
Mike dropped me off at Washington Dulles International Airport at 10:30 p.m. for my Saturday morning 1:28 a.m. flight ✈️ on Volaris to San Salvador.
I’d never seen the airport so deserted! I braced myself for an overnight flight during which I’d probably get little to no sleep.
Steps: 15,644; 6.64 miles. Weather Washington: Hi 62°, Lo 43°.
Arrival in San Salvador
Saturday, March 9: I arrived in San Salvador at its new fancy airport at 5:45 a.m. after not sleeping more than two hours all night. The woman in immigration asked me lots of questions in a super friendly & casual way about what I was doing in El Salvador and I told her in my elementary Spanish about visiting my friend Mario who I worked with in Oman over 10 years ago. After the long and chatty immigration interview, the first thing I did was to go in search of a taxi.
I thought there would be a taxi queue at the airport, but instead people were standing around in a random array trying to sell taxi rides. A young Black American guy and I were talking to two taxi drivers and I had one of them call Mario about where I was to be dropped off. I asked Mario if this was safe because people always advise you not to take taxi rides from random taxi drivers at the airport. Mario said it was fine, so when the Black guy, who also seemed a bit unsure about the safety, asked if it was safe, I told him my friend who lives in El Salvador insisted it was. I was quoted $40 (El Salvador uses U.S. dollars); Mario had told me to expect to pay $35, but he said the price might have gone up.
I ended up taking an hour-long taxi drive with friendly Samuel to meet Mario at his sister Sylvia’s house in San Salvador. I chatted with Samuel in my belabored Spanish. Mike called to ask about my flight and I told him it was fine; I’d slept a bit but not much.
Samuel called Mario for exact directions, but it was a residence so he kept driving around in circles until we found Mario on the street. We met at the entrance to Sylvia’s enclosed small neighborhood called Reparto La Sultana. I ran in to use her restroom and met her briefly. She seemed very nice but Mario told me how she drives him crazy, always giving him advice as if he’s a small child. She’s always involved with this group of really old church ladies, Mario told me. Very soon, we took off in Mario’s car.
San Salvador is the capital and largest city of El Salvador, with an estimated population in 2023 of 6.5 million.
San Salvador Volcano
Mario drove us up San Salvador Volcano to have breakfast at a cool and breezy restaurant, Ikatú, with a view of the city. Sadly it was rather hazy so the view wasn’t clear. It didn’t matter though because Mario and I had a lot of catching up to do from the last 10+ years, since I left Oman in June of 2013. We enjoyed the cool mountain breezes while drinking lots of coffee and eating mushroom omelettes, fresh fruit, plantains, and sweet breads. Mostly we fell into easy conversations about our families, our colleagues at the University of Nizwa, and politics. We reminisced about all the crazy experiences we had in Oman.
He talked about how stressful the last year had been taking care of his ex-wife, now best friend, who had cancer. She spent the entire year fighting the cancer with chemo, surgery and other treatments. At that moment she was fine and she had just visited him in El Salvador over Christmas; she came from Newfoundland, where she lives. They talk every night. The doctors told her to expect the cancer to return, so unease lurks at the edges of their lives.
We talked about how much we hate Trump. Mario is in awe of El Salvador’s current president, Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, who is not really of one political party; he’s worked hard to clean up crime and corruption. Mario says everyone in El Salvador loves him. He told me Bukele gave a speech to CPAC, which he thought was fabulous. Later, I listened to the speech; the speech made my blood boil, considering the audience – a bunch of right wingers in the U.S. Yes, he’s cleaned up crime in El Salvador by throwing gang members into high-security prisons for life; but he’s ignored human rights organizations who fear his overreach. Everyday citizens are happy though because they no longer have to live in fear of being terrorized by gangs.
After breakfast we drove the rest of the way up the volcano where we climbed endless steps and stood at the mirador, looking out over the huge caldera. Unlike other calderas I’ve seen, it didn’t have water in it. Most of the walkways and buildings were recently built and Mario was as surprised by them as much as I was. Apparently the current leaders of El Salvador have done much to provide stability and attract investment, and are putting El Salvador on the tourist circuit for Central America.
San Salvador Volcano, also known as Quezaltepeque, or El Boquerón, is a stratovolcano northwest of the city of San Salvador. The crater has been nearly filled with a relatively newer edifice, the Boquerón Volcano (formed between 700-1,000 years ago, filling a former caldera). The name in the Nahuatl language translates to “the quetzal’s hill.”
Due to San Salvador’s proximity to the volcano, any geological activity of the volcano, whether eruptive or not, has the potential to result in catastrophic destruction and death to the city.
El Picacho, the prominent peak, is the highest elevation (1960 meters altitude). The other, Boquerón, is 1893m high and has a second cone within its crater – 45 meters high and perfectly symmetrical, formed in 1917. Around 800 years ago the present day crater was formed in a violent explosion. The crater, which gives it the present name (Boquerón means “big mouth” in Spanish) is 1.5km in diameter and 500 meters deep. Within the crater around the upper walls, crops (mostly flowers) are cultivated by locals who live in the volcano.
The most recent eruption in 1917 caused a flank eruption on the volcano along the NW fissure. During the eruption, the crater lake inside the Boquerón evaporated, and a cinder cone appeared, christened “Boqueroncito.”
On the way down the volcano, Mario stopped to buy some fresh avocados 🥑 and mangoes.
San Salvador’s Centro Histórico
We drove down from the volcano to San Salvador’s Centro Histórico. Around the huge square, we saw the National Theater of San Salvador, the Cathedral Metropolitana, Iglesia El Rosario, and the colorful letters spelling “San Salvador.”
The Teatro Nacional de El Salvador was inaugurated in 1917 and renovated in French classical style in the mid 20th century. It sits on the Plaza Libertad, which surrounds the building and is adorned with fountains, statues, and gardens.
Dominating the square is the gleaming and spectacular new Chinese-financed library. According to Le Monde, in November of 2023, Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele inaugurated a new national library, the Binaes, which, like the maximum-security prison CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo), was called “the largest and most modern in Central America,” open around the clock and every day of the year. Bukele pointed out that these hours of operation were possible “thanks to the security that now reigns in the country” following the incarceration of nearly 75,000 pandilleros (gang members).
The maximum security prison, CECOT, was built in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador from July 2022 to January 2023 amidst a large-scale gang crackdown. With a capacity for 40,000 inmates, it is the largest prison in Latin America. CECOT – as well as the gang crackdown as a whole – has been the subject of international media attention, receiving praise for the Salvadoran government as well as criticism of alleged human rights violations.
Iglesia El Rosario was sadly closed. It was designed by Ruben Martinez and completed in 1971. It is thought to be one of the finest church in Central America. Its nondescript concrete exterior conceals an arched roof; a rainbow of natural light bathes the altar, metal and rock. The father of Central American independence, Padre Delgado, is buried here.
Catedral Metroplitana faces the revamped Plaza Barrios, the most significant landmark in the city and the resting place of Archbishop Oscar A. Romero. In the early days of the Civil War, Monseñor Romero criticized the government from the pulpit until he was assassinated in 1980 while giving a mass at a nearby hospital. Monseñor Romero’s tomb can be viewed in the crypt below the cathedral.
We never went inside because it was hot and lunchtime.
We ate lunch at the Cuban restaurant Cha•Cha•Cha (El Sabor de la Habana). I enjoyed a cool shrimp 🍤 ceviche with a Pilsener, the local brew of El Salvador. We were serenaded with “20 Anos (Bolero Version)” by Nova Latin Artists and “Guantanamera” by Club Havana Artists. After lunch and a beer, we were too tired to visit the cathedral but we found some lively musicians and people dancing in the square. I said we could come back another day, but alas, we never had time for that.
Finally, we dropped into Mercado Central near San Salvador’s central plaza, which mostly sells clothing and household goods, and met Mario’s half-sister.
Lake Ilopango
On the 1 1/2 hour drive from San Salvador to Mario’s home in the hills northeast of the city, we stopped at the beautiful restaurant Ne-Kal for a coffee and shared dessert, Torreja en Almíbar de Limón. From there we had a sweeping view over Lake Ilopango, a crater lake which fills an 8 by 11 km volcanic caldera in central El Salvador. The caldera contains the second largest lake in the country and is immediately east of the capital city, San Salvador. Any surplus water drains via the Jiboa River to the Pacific Ocean. Sadly it was a bit hazy for the view, but Mario said it is a beautiful sight on a clear day.
Tejutepeque
Finally after a long and full day, we arrived in Mario’s hometown of Tejutepeque. We didn’t have time for a walkabout that night, but we hoped to do one on Sunday. We settled into Mario’s house, where I admired his ebullient container gardens and peeked in at the doves and their chicks who had taken roost in some hanging baskets. I relaxed in one of his two hammocks, imbibed in red wine (as we often did in Oman), and nibbled on delicious appetizers of queso cheese cubes, olives and sweet fresh grape tomatoes from his garden. Too bad for Mario that I ate most of them! Mostly we enjoyed a continuation of the long and interesting conversations that we started over 10 years ago in Oman. 🇴🇲
Steps: 8,548; Miles 3.62. Weather Hi 95°, Lo 68°. Sunny.
Sunday, March 10: On Sunday morning, we relaxed and had coffee and tamales, and then took a stroll around downtown Tejutepeque, Mario’s hometown. The town was founded in 1847. However it wasn’t granted the title of “town” until 1879. In 1996, it achieved city status after years of development and progress.
Mario knows everyone in town as his mother lived here and he grew up here. Some people wanted him to become mayor because he has good ideas for developing the town. He doesn’t feel he can take on that job because he has his family obligations in Canada. He has ideas to pay artists to paint murals through the town and to join with other towns on a tourist circuit. Others support him but the old mayor didn’t want to entertain any ideas that weren’t his own ideas.
We stopped to talk to several of Mario’s businessmen friends in town. One owns a flourishing restaurant, Rancho La Rueda. They talked of plans for the town. Mario is full of good ideas.
He loves his simple life in Tejutepeque. He relaxes, writes some poetry, takes trips to the beach, which he loves, and has close relationships with his neighbors. He loves nurturing his garden and replenishing it with new plants.
I enjoyed this clean and colorful and tidy little town with its friendly people, and Mario was the perfect host.
Cinquera
We stopped in the town of Cinquera, which suffered much in the Civil War (15 October 1979 to 16 January 1992 — 12 years, 3 months and 1 day). Bombings abounded here, destroying everything, and killing a lot of people. Not a single home was left. Cinquera was well populated at that time, but people had to flee to the mountains and abandon everything they had; it was as if people had never lived there.
Three bombs did not explode, and those are displayed at the corner of the local church. The bombs, dropped by the Armed Forces on several cantons of the municipality, weigh 700 and 1,000 pounds.
Current residents, who returned after the war to the town, try to encourage new generations to avoid a war like the one that ended with the signing of the Peace Agreements in 1992.
Cinquera’s town park displays the tail of a helicopter on a concrete column; it is in turn surrounded by a fence. In the irons of the grating, eaten by mold and time, some AK4, M 16, AR15 and Carabina M1 rifles are welded. Now they look old and useless, but during the armed conflict they were used in combat.
The small helicopter was shot down by guerrillas in one of the cantons of the municipality. The rifles were among those left after the signing of the Peace Accords.
The UN reports that the war killed more than 75,000 people between 1979 and 1992, along with approximately 8,000 disappeared persons. Human rights violations, particularly the kidnapping, torture, and murder of suspected FMLN sympathizers by state security forces and paramilitary death squads – were pervasive, according to Wikipedia.
According to Lonely Planet Central America: “The former FMLN stronghold of Cinquera has transformed itself into a successful example of grassroots tourism. The friendly community has initiated a series of projects that have helped it rebound from the horrors of the Civil War. Ex-guerillas share firsthand accounts of the conflict at a War Museum. A little forest park is good for a short hike and waterfall swim and there’s a sustainable iguana farm.”
Suchitoto
We didn’t stop long in Cinquera because our main destination was Suchitoto in northern El Salvador. It’s considered the cultural capital of the country. Back in the day when indigo ruled the marketplace and the beautiful Spanish church was packed daily, the town was the pride of the province. The charming town has cobblestone streets, colonial houses, an iconic church, rich cultural traditions, and panoramic views of Lake Suchitlan. Suchitoto is also a bird migration route with over 200 species.
It’s believed that Yaqui and Pipil people settled in the area some 1,000 years ago. El Salvador’s capital was established near here in the early 16th century. More recently, some of the earliest fighting of the Civil War began in Suchitoto, accompanied by major destruction and emigration. The town has rebounded and is now considered a national tourism spot.
We visited the beautiful Santa Lucia Church ⛪️ built in 1853. This iconic church stands in front of the city’s municipal park. It has an antique wooden interior which has been completely restored over the years. The inside of the church has hand-carved panels, six iconic columns, and antique sculptures.
We wandered through the craft market after Mario bought a new plant to add to his garden. Then we went to lunch at Casa 1800, a lively outdoor restaurant with fabulous views over Lake Suchitlan. I had a hen soup, which was mostly broth, potatoes and carrots (not much hen was to be found). And of course we had cold beers on the very hot day.
After lunch, we drove down to the port of San Juan on Suchitlan Lake; it is an artificial lake that resulted from the construction of the nearby reservoir in 1973. Mario wanted to see about a boat ride to Bird Island but apparently some ill-conceived program had scattered the bird population. We decided to return to Tejutepeque instead.
Tejutepeque
When we returned to Tejutepeque, we went for a walk outside of town and through a coffee plantation to an impressive overlook over a deep river valley.
In December of 2021, when Mario and a friend were walking in the valley along the river, they came upon a young man face down in the river. His body was riddled with bullets and he had been dead for 8 days. They called the police and it took some time for the police to arrive and to find the body and to sort out that the man had been a gang member and had been killed by his own gang.
In the evening, Mario cooked up a delectable shrimp with garlic sauce over rice and we drank white wine and chatted with Mario’s nephew, Ever, who had dropped by for a visit. Ever was supposed to go the wake for a friend’s mother who’d passed away, but he lingered for a long time listening to Mario’s and my stories of Oman.
Steps: 13,907; Miles 5.9. Weather: Hi 95°; Lo 68°. Sunny.
~ wander.essence ~ 
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