In daylight hours,the capital’s Centro Historico feels energetic and well,normal. Old men sit around televisions watching football played afar and young folk hang out at mobile phone shops scored by thumping music.
The police presence is over-compensating-ly visible. The tourism police stop me for a chat,seemingly out of curiosity and/or boredom,then wish me abuen dia. People on the street look at me without looking at me because they still don’t see too many tourists,thanks to the city’s unshakably dire reputation.
Iglesia El Rosario is unlike any church in Central America.Credit:Alamy
Yet volcano-fringed San Salvador offers a compelling handful of museums and galleries,an animated central market,and an evolving cafe scene (around Colonia Escalon). Some say the lively Zona Rosa bar scene lost its verve during the dark days but many more say that it’s in full-blown renaissance.
San Salvador’s churches harbour captivating chapters of modern history. Underneath the Cathedral of San Salvador lies the tomb of Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero,killed during mass because he criticised civil-war authorities.
Rubén Martínez Bulnes-designed Iglesia El Rosario is unlike any church in Central America. The brutalist concrete exterior,still pockmarked with civil-war bullet-holes,contrasts kaleidoscopically with its cavernous interior,illuminated by a trippy rainbow arch of stained-glass.
Playa El Tunco is courting America’s surfers.Credit:iStock
El Salvador’s biggest drawcard is the dark-sand beaches,point-breaks and hammocks of La Costa El Balsamo. Fast-developing Playa El Tunco is the ‘cool’ scene but further north – heading towards El Sunzal and El Zonte – beaches and villages become less crowded,meaning more waves and mangoes for you. The hippy-surf vibe is changing fast,however,as authorities have begun rebranding the area ‘Surf City’ to wow the US mass market.
Ruta de Flores (flower route) cuts a lovely road trip through El Salvador’s interior,pit-stopping at coffee towns in the shadows of the giants of Parque Nacional Los Volcanes. (Hikers note:Santa Ana volcano,2381 metres,best reached from the eponymous city to the north,is a wonderful day-hike).
While a great cup of coffee can be strangely hard to track down in the rest of El Salvador (despite its high-quality beans),Ruta de Flores towns like Ataco and Juayua hold much joy for caffeine-lovers. Another should-do town is Suchitoto,north-east of San Salvador,on the banks of man-made Lake Suchitlán. It’s a cobbled-street mini cultural capital,featuring pastel houses and a flourishing arts and handicrafts scene.
Generally,travelling around tiny El Salvador is relatively frictionless. Crossing over from Guatemala to the town of Cara Sucia (literally ‘dirty face’) is a piece of cake compared with most land borders in Central and South America.
If you don’t fancy using the ridiculously cheap but sometimes difficult-to-decipher chicken-bus network (a lot less rough than the reputation,and with fewer chickens),there is a plethora of good-value private car tours and transfers. Uber is a safe,reliable and cheap option,too – about $US20 ($A30) for the one-hour trip between San Salvador and the coast.
While Salvadoran cuisine is no Mexican fare,low-spice street food such as the ubiquitouspupusa – a grilled,filled rice flour/cornmeal flatbread – and the smoothie-likelicuado are tasty sustenance indeed.
Extreme crime fighting hasn’t been president Bukele’s only controversial move. He introduced Bitcoin as El Salvador’s second official currency in 2021 (underneath the US dollar),a move some argue will further damage a knife’s-edge economy which already heavily relies on remittances from two-million Salvadoran expats in the US.
So,is El Salvador safe? Since November,it rates an “Exercise a high degree of caution” on Smartraveller,with warnings over the ongoing state of emergency and risk of violent crime. But,for context,Indonesia,India and Thailand currently have the same warning.
I won’t insult your intelligence with a “I had no problems in two weeks,so it’s fine” line but I will share some on-ground observations. Like any country,it’s your responsibility to read the current political situation before booking a trip and listen to trusted locals when they say where to go and where not to – especially at night!
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Right now,it’s a surreally serene place to travel through,almost as if it’s in the eye of a storm that could blow either way. I felt a genuine outpouring of optimism from people desperate to shed their long-worn coats of pessimism. Many Salvadorans proudly told me that their country is a safer place under the new regime. One poll suggests 92 per cent of people have a “favourable opinion” of Bukele,even as Western observers keep flying red flags.
Ironically,El Salvador translates from Spanish as “the saviour”,but time will tell if this country – with all the highlights of celebrated neighbours like Guatemala and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula – has truly turned a corner.
If you hate crowds,don’t mind a bit of adventure,and love beaches,Mayan ruins,colonial cities and volcano hikes,then El Salvador should,at the very least,be on your travel radar.
THE DETAILS
Fly
United Airlines flies from Sydney to San Salvador via Houston or cross land borders with the CA-4 tourist card as above.
Visit
A tourist card costs $US12 on arrival,allowing 90 days in El Salvador and ‘CA-4’ countries:Guatemala,Honduras and Nicaragua.
More
For security updates seesmartraveller.gov.au
The writer travelled at his own expense.