Last week we rented a car and toured most of El Salvador by road. It's a small country, about the size of Vancouver Island, so everything is relatively close. After a minor hassle organizing
for the rental car to be delivered to the marina (Budget's website says FREE delivery, the agent wanted $50) and a delay of 6 hours we left at 1600 on an adventure exploring another country that neither of us had previously visited. As soon as we left the coastal plains and climbed up one of the nearby volcanoes the temperature cooled to a very comfortable level.
Our tour took us through the western 2/3 of the country and went like this:
From Barillas Marina we drove east and then north to the picturesque mountain town
of Allegria, a town which won the "best city" award in 2009. The next day our destination was the colonial town of Suchitoto, driving via a gravel road and passing through the tiny town of Cinquera (a civil war site). We spent two nights in Suchitoto and on the second day traveled to the ruins of Cihuatan and 
then onwards to La Palma, a town close to the Honduran border with lots of touristy crafty stores in which to spend your dollars (Yes, the currency of El Salvador is US$). After leaving Suchitoto we visited 4 other Mayan ruins, spending the next night in the Torremolinos hotel, a rustic place on the shores of Lago de Coatepeque locate in the caldera of a dormant volcano. Driving on the 
"route of the flowers" we stopped at Juayua to eat at the weekend gastronomic festival and then it was onwards to San Salvador for our last night on the road. The next day we were up early to visit a nearby mall and do some boat re-provisioning at a modern grocery store with a few products that we have not seen since leaving Canada. El Salvador is full of surprises.
Driving was only a little more challenging than in Mexico. There were the same
aggressive driving techniques, passing on blind corners or on hilltops and no signaling but there were differences; far less signs indicating where to turn for a town, a lot slower traffic of small displacement motorcycles, horse carts and even people carts and generally narrower roads. After deciding on a destination, Linda needed to essentially navigate full time using the quite good quality and accurate road maps (three different sources to confirm position). Geoff had to concentrate on 
the traffic and potholes plus people and every sort of 4 legged animal jumping onto the road. Distances were short with
intersections happening at 10 kilometer intervals rather than 100 km so we would arrive at our destinations easily during daylight hours to find a hotel and tour the local plaza.
A couple of times we got caught up in hugely dense traffic at a town market. The main road essentially
dumped into an area covered in tin roofed shacks teeming with people walking all over the place, sometimes at a distance of less than 50 cm from the car. The only way out was to follow a
bus since they don't stop for pedestrians and would leave a narrow wake for us to drive through. The closeness of the markets was impressive and claustrophobic. Another common occurrence in El Salvador were the frequent police road checks.
Mostly these were just orange cone markers arranged in a slalom so you had to slow down for the cops to get a look at you but at other times the police stopped all cars and checked out their documentation. Either way we never had any hassles from the officials.
We covered 750 km in five days - not an impressive distance but like we mentioned,
it's a small country. We got to see lots of out of the way places, some Mayan ruins and even some relics from the civil war that ended in 1992. It was a good trip, but as usual we're glad to be back on the boat and ready to move on again.
Sounds great! So, would you recommend it as a destination for a week or two?
Posted by: Willie Kushner | March 25, 2010 at 02:22 PM