Unique Places in El Salvador

Wandering around northern Chalatenango, there’s always a chance that you’ll get lost. One day my friend Liam and I decided that we would set out from my home base in La Laguna, climb up to La Montañona, and then climb back down the other side of the mountain to reach the town of Las Vueltas. That was the plan, anyways. No problem making it up to La Montañona – we’d both been there a number of times before. In La Montañona, we tracked down my friend Orbe and asked her for directions to hike down to Las Vueltas – a trip neither Liam nor I had made before. I still don’t know whether the directions were faulty or whether we simply did not follow them correctly, but it eventually became apparent that we had lost our way. After a few hours spent zigzagging around rocky cliffs and through all sorts of underbrush, we finally spotted some signs of human life off in the distance. After passing through the clearing pictured here, we found a small house that doubled as a little store. After purchasing some much-needed snacks from the man who answered the door, we asked the big question – “Where are we?” Of course, we hoped that the answer would be Las Vueltas. No such luck. We were in El Sicahuite.

“We were trying to walk from La Montañona to Las Vueltas and got lost along the way. Are we close to Las Vueltas?”
“Yes.”
“How long would it take to walk to Las Vueltas?”
“Two hours.”

Close is a relative term, isn’t it. As Liam and I tried to figure out what to do, the man in the store – a man neither one of us had ever before set eyes upon – told us that if we wanted, we could spend the night in his house and continue our journey to Las Vueltas in the morning. Such is the generosity and hospitality that you can find throughout Latin America – “mi casa es su casa” is more than just an empty saying! We declined his offer after learning that we were not too far from the road that connects Las Vueltas to the city of Chalatenango. Once along the side of the road, we were able to hitch a ride into Chalatenango, where we found someone else who drove us to Comalapa, where I spent the night with Liam and his wife before returning to La Laguna the next morning.

Never did make it to Las Vueltas, but the whole point of the expedition was the journey, not the destination. Except for the blisters on my feet, I’d call it successful wandering.

The community of Petapa, located in the municipality of El Carrizal, used to be one of those many places in Chalatenango where you would literally find yourself at the end of the road. Nowadays, however, the road continues on into Honduras, thanks to the bridge pictured here. All the same, if you make it to Petapa, you’ll feel like you’ve made it to the end of the (very bumpy) road. Just a few yards from the spot where I took this picture, the Rio La Garza flows into the Rio Sumpúl (which forms the border between El Salvador and Honduras). Upstream along the Rio La Garza there are a number of nice little swimming holes which help make the area a popular day-trip destination for local residents.

Apaneca is a town located on the Ruta De Las Flores and is also El Salvador highest town. Probably what is the most worthy site here is the 400 year old church but it was destroyed in the January 2001 earthquake. When I was there it was still being rebuilt. There is also a decent central park here that you can linger in for a bit. There is a couple of more things to do in the area but I was only here for a couple of hours. I would have liked to been here for a little longer.

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I don't know if you can consider this as off the beaten path but I didn't see any foreign tourists here and only a few locals. This garden has an interesting start to it. It originally was a lagoon in a volcanic crater. But in 1873, an earthquake hit the area and drained the lagoon leaving behind some very fertile land. Now its a garden that has some 3,500 speices of plants in 32 different zones. It's not the greatest botanical garden that I have been two but it's a great place to stroll around for a few hours. There are some bamboo walkways that go over some ponds and plenty of pathways. There is a area where you can grab some food, I just ate ice cream. In 2006, it cost only a dollar to get in. It's located in the southwest corner of San Salvador.

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Casablanca is one of the lesser Maya sites in El Salvador. It's located in Chalchuapa City right along the highway. Most of the pyramids have been partially excavated by the Japanese archeologists. At least one is completely still covered (I climbed it to get a photograph). None of the pyramids are grand but it provides a decent place for a walk. There is a decent little museum here where they also do indigo dyeing. I wouldn't make this a trip on it's own but worthwhile to combine it with the nearby ruins of Tazumal. It only costs a couple of bucks to get in.

One of the many pleasures of setting down roots in a foreign land, as opposed to just passing through, is that your new neighbors and friends invite you to go with them to all sorts of off-the-beaten-path destinations that they believe merit a visit. Helping to teach English in the high school in La Laguna, I became friends with a young lady named Guadalupe, who hailed from the village of Cuevitas. One day she told me that she was planning on visiting an older sister who lives in a village called Valle de Jesús, and asked if I’d like to tag along. So, of course, I went.

The end of a journey to a place like Valle de Jesús really does feel like the end of something. Getting there from my already relatively remote locale in La Laguna required a 2.5 hour walk to El Manzano, an extremely bumpy bus ride from there to San Fernando, and then another hour’s walk (in the dark). Valle de Jesús is not only the end of the road (literally – the only way out of the village is to turn around and head back to San Fernando), it’s also the end of the country (since the village is located on the edge of the Sumpul River, which forms the border between El Salvador and Honduras). While it might not be the most convenient place to live – since, for example, a trip to the departmental capital of Chalatenango would be a 15-hour journey – it sure was a nice place to visit for a couple of days.

San Fernando, the last town with bus service along the route to Valle de Jesús, is only marginally less remote, and its home to at least one hotel. I’ve never been, but I imagine it would be a great place for anyone who’d like to escape civilization for a few days.

The dirt tracks and trails that meander through the mountainous regions of northern Chalatenango lead to a number of beautiful, sweeping views and small, friendly villages. The village shown, Cuevitas, is a cantón of the municipality of Dulce Nombre de María, but it is most easily reached from the town of La Laguna (it's about a 90-minute walk, uphill most of the way). Another hour away on foot, beyond the village of El Ocotal, is a small forest preserve called El Manzano.

El Salvador itself probably qualifies as being off the beaten path, and Chalatenango even more so. And a place like Cuevitas? It's truly, as Salvadorans say, in the “quinta mierda” (the fifth sh**).

WARNING
While the rural areas of Chalatenango are safer than most places in El Salvador, it would be a good idea to talk to some locals (or even the local police) before heading into the countryside, because armed bandits aren't unheard of. In fact, a friend of mine was shot in the leg while being robbed on the road that leads from La Laguna to Cuevitas in November 2004.

In the Department of Chalatenango, alongside the road that leads from Dulce Nombre de María to the end-of-the-road border town of San Fernando, there’s a small ecological reserve known as El Manzano. Among the attractions at El Manzano there are a handful of hiking trails, including one that climbs “Candle Stick Mountain” which affords some truly majestic views from the top, a number of swimming holes (beware, however, that the water is surprisingly chilly), an athletic field, a small FMLN museum (consisting mainly of photos of guerrilleros who were killed during the war and some old propaganda posters), an even smaller arts and crafts store, a snack shop (whose products include bags of the coffee that is grown within the park), a cafeteria, and a few basic cabins (such as the one pictured on my El Manzano Hotels & Accomodations Tip) for rent. If you’re looking for a peaceful, rustic place to relax for a few days, El Manzano is a good option.