Coffee, ruins and sleeping giants
El salvador, mostly known for its coffee, is still off the map as a travel destination.
HECTOR Aguirre can’t imagine his life without coffee. Now 28, he’s been drinking it since he was two years old. “Here we give babies bottles with coffee, not with milk,” he says.
And it’s now how Aguirre earns his money at El Carmen Estate in the highlands of El Salvador on the edge of his hometown, Ataco. He’s showing visitors to the hotel and coffee resort the warehouses, machines and assembly lines where the beans are processed. Women sit, fully concentrated on separating the good beans from the bad ones under neon lights. Aguirre then reveals the result: top-quality coffee.
You may have drank coffee from El Salvador before, but as a travel destination, this small country in Central America offers an extraordinary variety of off-the-beatenpath attractions.
Ataco, one of the most beautiful villages in the country, appears both dressed up and down-toearth. The colourful, contemporary murals are worth seeing, as is the central square with its hibiscus bushes and the church Inmaculada Concepcion. Tourism is on the rise here, as it is everywhere in El Salvador, but at a manageable level.
Handicraft shops, small galleries and the weaving workshop Casa de los Telares welcome the new guests.
In the capital, San Salvador, things are naturally turbulent. Vendors with trays of cigarettes and chewing gum fight for their daily livelihood in traffic. Shoemakers operate out of tiny parlours. The vendor stalls extend as far as the National Palace and the square in front of the cathedral. Saint Oscar Romero is buried in their crypt, the nearby church of El Rosario attracts visitors with its modern stained-glass windows.
Much of El Salvador has been shaped by volcanic eruptions. The ash created by the volcano Loma Caldera around 600 AD preserved the Maya village Joya de Ceren until its serendipitous rediscovery in 1976.
The inhabitants were able to escape, and people today are blessed with the best-preserved example of a pre-Hispanic village in Mesoamerica.
Also interesting for those seeking the Maya is Tazumal, which was inhabited for more than a millennium.
During its excavation in the 1940s, American archaeologist Stanley Boggs decided to use concrete to restore and conserve parts of the ruins – a well-intentioned but irreversible move.
And of course, there are the volcanoes. Above the capital of San Salvador is a sleeping giant of the same name. Ascending the Santa Ana, the highest volcano of the country at 2381m, is a bigger feat.
The guided hike from the visitors centre in Cerro Verde Park takes two hours.
The harmless ascent leads through woods and bushes, over rocks, roots and boulders.
The view from the crater rim is spectacular. The colours of the steep walls range from pitch black to sulphur yellow, and the lake glows emerald green.
Gases hiss from crevices as vapours waft above the water before the wind chases them into the clouds. After the ascent, you’ll look forward to resting back in the valley with a cup of strong highland coffee.