In much of Latin America, the water out of the tap is not drinkable. In fact, the latest edition of Revue (Guatemala’s English-language magazine), features a story on a company that is trying to assist poorer families to have access to clean drinking water and to reduce the number of people who end up in hospital with parasites….
Juayúa, one of the key towns along the Ruta de Flores, is famous for its weekend food festival that is held in and round the central park. For this reason, a whole bunch of us from the Casa Verde ended up descending on the town in order to eat our way through the culinary…
To be honest, apart from visiting the Cerro Verde National Park to climb Volcán Santa Ana or Volcán Izalco, or using it as a base to explore some of the Mayan ruins or the Ruta de Flores, there isn’t much to do or see in Santa Ana itself. So mostly hung out enjoying the Casa Verde and…
If you’ve spent any time at all in Guatemala or Honduras, you will have seen at least one (and probably several) Mayan ruins. Tikal in particular is incredible (at least that’s what my memory from 16 years ago tells me), but I have also visited Copán in Honduras, as well as several other lesser-known sites….
I was telling Carlos (the owner of the best hostel ever – Casa Verde) about my fascination with trying as many of the typical dishes of the country that I’m visiting, and rattled off the El Salvadorean food I’d eaten to date. I was missing some of the very common dishes so he invited me out for lunch so…
The main reason most travelers come to Santa Ana in El Salvador (apart from staying at the best hostel ever – Casa Verde) is to visit Cerro Verde National Park, the starting point for hikes up Volcán Santa Ana and Volcán Izalco. If you don’t have your own car and/or if you don’t want to pay for…
Whenever I talked to a fellow traveler who had come through Santa Ana in El Salvador, every single one of them said “You HAVE to stay at the Casa Verde in Santa Ana. It is incredible!” So while in La Palma, I booked 2 nights there – enough time to hike up Volcán Santa Ana at least,…
While in La Palma, Andre and I decided to head up to El Pital – the highest point in El Salvador, on the border with Honduras. We started out at 6:20am taking the 119 chicken bus to San Ignacio. From there we switched to the 509 bus that headed up the mountain. It’s an impressive…
One of the first things I did in La Palma was ask about the availability of workshops where you could learn/experience a little more about the artesanía and artwork the town is famous for. Turns out, there is only one – at Taller Paty – so I went and had a chat with Estela about what it entailed….
From Suchitoto I headed further west and north to reach La Palma, right up near the Hondurian border. This small town is renowned for its artesanía and murals that are all done in a very specific style brought to the town by Fernando Llort (a very famous artist in El Salvador) in the 1970s. This artistic style is…