Fun things to do in El Salvador

Santa Ana is the second largest city of the country and lies not far away from the Guatemalan border. The wonderfull theatre in the centre of the city was originally completed in 1910 and is now one of the finest theatres of Central Amerika. The neogothical cathedral on the other end of the plaza might be an other point of interest in the city.

The 'Parque nacional Cerro Verde' was untill a few years ago a dangerous place to go, but recently things improved amazingly. The tourist police and park guards are certainly responsible for that.

The park itself is very nice and the guides will lead you around for a increadibly cheap price. There are also possibilitys to climb one of the other volcanos in the neighboorhood with the guides.

There are direct busses from Santa Ana to the Volcano. In the way to the park you'll have wonderfull views over the lago de Coatepeque and the Volcan Izalco.

To enter the park you'll have to pay 0,60$

Visit the Joya de Ceren ruins, a 1500 year old village buried by 14 layers of ash from a volcano erution much like Pompeii or Herculaneum in Italy. Don't expect great pyramids but an incredible view into the life of the Mayas at the time of the explosion of the Volcano Caldera. The site has a museum and well organized tours that explain the goelogy and the history of the place.

4 more images

Parque Nacional El Imposible is situated in western El Salvador. It became a national park in 1989 and covers an area of almost 3800 hectares, at an elevation of 300 - 1450 metres above sea level. The park is covered with tropical mountain forest and here you find the greatest biodiversity in El Salvador. For example there are 984 species of vascular plants, 286 species of birds, 103 native species of mammals and over 500 species of butterflies. There are several beautiful hiking trail and beside the flora and fauna you can visit view points, waterfalls and petroglyphs.

I did not visit El Imposible through the main entrance and visitor centre, but on a hike from Tacuba.

During the Cerro Campana-trek that I did from Tacuba we visited El Puente Imposible. The bridge El Puente Imposible was built at a dangerous passage over a gorge in 1968. Before that the journey had been dangerous for the coffee growers on the way to sell their crop. Several mules and men had fallen to their death when they had tried to cross the tree trunk bridges. Well, as the sign at the bridge says “Mayo 1968 - dejó de der imposible“, it is no longer impossible to cross the gorge. It is from this impossible passage that the National Park El Imposible has got its name.

4 more images

Tacuba is a small town with a population of 5000 inhabitants. It is situated 14 km west of Ahuachapán and near the Guatemalan border. The surroundings are beautiful with mountains and many coffee plantations. Tacuba is situated on the northern edge of Parque Nacional El Imposible at an elevation of 700 metres above sea level. From Tacuba you can arrange great hikes in to the national park or the vicinity.
In the Pipil language Tacuba means “place of the ball game”.

I spent two and a half days in Tacuba and during that time I made two hiking tours with Imposible tours at Hostal de Mamá y Papá. Both hikes were absolutely great! Besides the good hiking opportunities Tacuba is a nice little town to stroll around in.

4 more images

Santa Ana is the second largest city in El Salvador with more than 250 000 inhabitants in the urban area. The city is situated at an elevation of 650 metres above sea level and has a warm climate with an average temperature of 25°C. As the rest of El Salvador there is a wet season and a dry season.

Santa Ana was inhabited long before the Spaniards arrived and was then known as Sihuatehuacán, which means “The city of sorceresses” in Nahuat. In 1569 the name was changed to Santa Ana and that year a chapel in honour of Our Lady of Santa Ana was built. Santa Ana became a town in 1812 and a city in 1824. After a revolt in 1894 against the president and dictator Carlos Ezeta Santa Ana was called the Heroic City because the revolt begun there. In the late 19th century the coffee industry grew prosperous and some of the historic buildings around Parque Libertad were built at that period.

Santa Ana can be a good place to base yourself in when exploring the western part of El Salvador. I visited Parque Nacional Los Vulcanes (Cerro Verde) from here and had hoped to visit the ruins in Tazumal as well, but changed my plans in the end. In the city itself it is nice to spend some time exploring Parque Libertad and the historical buildings around. You can also find some good restaurants and cafés in the city and big shopping malls in the outskirts.

1 more image

The Turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota supercilious), in El Salvador called the Torogoz, is the national bird of the country. I saw it during both my hikes in Tacuba. Unfortunately you can’t see in my picture how colourful it is, but you can see the characteristic tail feather. The Torogoz is about 34 centimetres long and weigh about 65 grams. It can be found in Central America, from south-eastern Mexico to Costa Rica. It lives in quite open habitats where it can be seen sitting on a branch, wire or fence looking for insects or small reptiles. The nests are long tunnels often made in an earth bank (see photo 2).

4 more images

Parque Nacional Los Vulcanes has only had that name since 2003. Before it was called Parque Nacional Cerro Verde and that is the name which is still in use by many people. The national park covers an area of 6300 acres and in it there are three volcanoes: Izalco, Cerro Verde and Santa Ana.

Vulcan Cerro Verde hasn’t had an eruption for 25 000 years and it is in its crater that the visitor centre is situated. Here you will find the guides to climb Izalco or Santa Ana. As you can only climb the volcanoes with a guide and police escort, leaving every day at 11, you can only visit one of them in one day. Which volcano it will be depends on where the majority wants to go. We were two tourists who wanted to climb Santa Ana as we had heard it was the nicer one (our guide later said the same) and two El Salvadorians who had come for Izalco, but they luckily agreed to visit Vulcan Santa Ana.

Admission to the park was 1 dollar (June 2009) and then there was 1 dollar more for the guide. To climb Izalco doesn’t cost any more, but for Santa Ana there were an additional 6 dollars.

Izalco is a 1910 metre high cone shaped volcano without vegetation. It is the youngest volcano in El Salvador. From 1770 to 1966 it had constant eruptions with smoke, boulders and flames. The light could be seen far out at sea so it was often called The Lighthouse of the Pacific. As the slopes are 45degrees it is a hard walk up to the top. I’m glad we didn’t chose Izalco as the volcano was covered in dark clouds as we walked up Santa Ana, and we could hear the thunder.

Vulcan Santa Ana had its last eruption in 2005 and for some time the national park was closed. Santa Ana is the highest of the volcanoes in the park with 2365 metres and from the top there are great views if the weather is clear. Even if it was not clear when I visited it was a nice walk (it is longer than to the top of Izalco and took about four hours to the top and back). At the top you will be on the edge of the crater and a few hundred metres down you will see the green waters of the crater. It is spectacular!