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 …
Suchitoto in El Salvador is a really beautiful and interesting little town with amazing colonial buildings and cobblestone streets. Although it is very quiet during the week, and several places of interest are only open on the weekends when a lot of El Salvadoreans make the trip up from San Salvador, I absolutely loved it! …
One of the most advertised things to do in Suchitoto is visit a local waterfall called Los Tercios, 2km from town. I wasn’t going to bother (there wouldn’t be any water) but decided to join André when he said he was going to do it. The tourist office organises a free, accompanied trip to Los Tercios …
One of the main forms of artesanía in the Suchitoto region is the production of Añil (indigo ink) dyed clothing and textiles. There are a few places where you can do an Añil workshop in Suchitoto, but Luis from Sapito Tours introduced me to Irma in the Women’s cooperative as we were walking around the town …
Woke up early to catch the 7am bus out to Sitio Guazapa for our horseriding tour on Cerro Guazapa with Guazapa Tours. A 163 bus (love how buses in El Salvador have route numbers) came along at 6:50am so we got on that one and headed out along the highway. Then, after a while, the bus …
In addition to Carmen (pupusas) and Cecilia (desserts), on our gastronomy tour of Suchitoto, Luis from Sapito Tours also introduced me to Marcela in the central park who specialises in Atóles, and told me where to find Nuria later in the day for another snack, pastelitos, that is common in El Salvador. Atóles An Atól is …
