El Salvador
El Salvador is often under rated and overlooked, as many travelers choose the more popular countries of Costa Rica and Panama for their Central America destination. Our first day in El Salvador, we arrived just after dark. We were a little uneasy having to drive to our first stop, El Tunco, which was about 45 minutes away, but we took it slow and adjusted to the driving in El Salvador.
El Tunco is a small little surf town with a few shops and restaurants along its main street. If you love pupusas, then you’ll be in heaven. Not only are they delicious, but the are really cheap. Usually under a $1 USD depending on the ingredients. There is also a really good Asian fusion restaurant called Bao House. You’ll see a lot of murals and ocean themed street art as you walk the main streets. Cadejo Brewing Company is only a few minutes driving from El Tunco, if you’re looking for a good brew and American style food, including pizza, chicken wings, shrimp, burgers, etc. They also have salt water pools that you can swim in once you spend $10 USD. During the evening, make sure you stop by one of the many restaurants along the beach walkway, as they are perfect spots to have a drink and/or dinner and watch the sunset.
After two days in El Tunco, we made our way up to Santa Ana. We stayed at Hostal Casa Verde, which was amazing and we had the entire place to ourselves. It is in downtown Santa Ana and is about 10 minutes walking to Santa Ana Cathedral. We left early the next morning to drive to Parque Nacional Los Volcanes, which is the National Park where the Santa Ana volcano is located. We arrived at the park a little before 9am and parked in El Tibet’s parking lot for $5 USD, I think. We joined a tour group right there in the parking lot and we all walked up into the park together. Admission into the park was $6 USD for non-residents. The hike to the summit was about an hour or so and a mild difficultly level due to the rocky path and fairly steep incline in a few places. At the summit you can look down into the crater lagoon which is turquoise in color, as well as look over Lake Coatepeque. You also have a view of Izalco volcano and Cerro Verde volcano. After hiking the Santa Ana volcano, we got back on the road to see a few more placed before heading towards Lake Coatepeque, where we were staying for the night. If you are interested in seeing some of the Mayan ruins, you should stop by Parque Arqueologico Tazumal. It is not a very big site and it will take you about 20-30 mins at most to walk around the site. From here we heading over to the hot springs at Santa Teresa Hotel and Thermae Spa. The entrance fee is $10 USD per person. You upgrade and have access to their mud baths as well. We only spent about 30 minutes here, as there was only 3 pools open. A heads up, the bottoms are dirt and you will kick up organic matter turning the water dirty. Some portions of the pools are extremely hot due to the source of the thermal springs.
