A Long Week in El Salvador

An understated Central American gem with lots of potential.

Tell anyone you’re planning to go to El Salvador, and get ready for expressions of concern. Is it safe? How about the ruthless gang war? Are you sure you want to visit a country whose president has labeled himself “the world’s coolest dictator”?

I tend to research where I want to go, and although my goal is to visit all the countries of the world (there are 195 according to the United Nations), some like North Korea or South Sudan aren’t in my immediate travel plans for obvious reasons. I hope I can check them out one day, but there are many other countries much more welcoming to tourists at this point.

Surprisingly for many, El Salvador is now one of them. The small country doesn’t have a great record when it comes to the stability of its political institutions or the safety of its citizens, but the controversial policies of its current president, Nayib Bukele have dramatically changed the landscape in just a few years.

As Gustavo Flores-Macias writes in Foreign Affairs magazine: “Despite ranking among the most dangerous countries on the planet a mere decade ago, the Central American state today boasts a homicide rate of only 2.4 per 100,000 people—the lowest of any country in the Western Hemisphere other than Canada.” El Salvador’s change of fortune has been so stunning that I felt it was a good time to fly there. It turned out I wasn’t the only one thinking that.

I like to plan my trips pretty thoroughly, and after a few days of studying all I could see and do in El Salvador, I decided a 9-day itinerary would work well. I had no interest in spending time at the beach, where most of the tourists visiting the country end up, but my long week in the country of volcanoes would enable me to see the capital, San Salvador, as well as Suchitoto, a beautiful, small colonial town and the Santa Ana region, where I would base myself for five nights.

The first big surprise coming in to El Salvador was how big and modern the airport was. Upon further research, I learned it is actually the third busiest airport in Central America, after Panama City, Panama, and San Jose, Costa Rica. It is estimated that more than two million Salvadorians live abroad, mostly in the United States so that’s a lot of potential traffic. In fact, El Salvador’s international airport is a hub for Latin-American carrier Avianca, which serves more than twenty scheduled destinations from there.

The country is changing but is that change durable?

The airport is meant to serve the whole country as its only international gateway, and as a result, is located closer to the beach resorts of the Pacific coast than to the capital city. It took my Uber driver about one hour to reach la Zona Rosa in San Salvador, where I would stay for a couple of nights.

I had picked the Sheraton Presidente as my hotel in the capital – I had hotel miles to spend, and it seemed like it was strategically located, in a safe and upscale neighborhood. Indeed, the area reminded me a bit of the tony neighborhoods in Asuncion, Uruguay’s capital, or even Mexico City’s Polanco with less density: lush surroundings, fancy eateries and a relaxed sense of peace one doesn’t expect in a typical South American city.

The Sheraton itself was a fine hotel. It’s fair to say it was basking in its former glory – the rooms need a refresh, and the pool area, although beautiful, feels like it was taken straight out of Seventies’ California, but it was a solid option. As the hotel of choice for many foreign dignitaries, its lobby was adorned with photos of Bill Clinton and the like.

Next to the hotel were a few museums and a brand-new, gleaming mall, with a SmartFit gym on the ground floor (SmartFit is a Latin-American chain of affordable gyms where anyone can get a day pass for around 6 US dollars, and it makes it a favorite for many travelers). I hadn’t even researched this, but I was super happy to realize SmartFit was present in El Salvador, and that one of their gyms was so conveniently located for me.

China invested money in projects in El Salvador to increase its influence in the region.

On my first full day in the country, Friday, I decided to check out the downtown area. It took me about 20 minutes in an Uber to get there. San Salvador’s historic center looks like what you’d expect: a mix of beautiful, historical buildings in various state of disrepair organized in a grid, broken by a few grand squares housing the most important edifices, from the cathedral to the National Theater. Lots of people walking around minding their own business.

What was more surprising was the amount of work being down to beautify the area. I could see men at work just about everywhere, repaving roads, repainting buildings – I would see this again later on the Ruta de las Flores.

The biggest shock, however, was happening upon the new National Library of El Salvador building. Located right next to the National Palace, it is an imposing glass and steel testament to architectural modernism. The library was inaugurated in November 2023, just a few months before my visit.

At first, it felt awkward on this central square among colonial buildings, like it didn’t belong there. After a few minutes, I began to realize the building was beautiful and helped showcase the New Salvador next to the old and how they could live together relatively harmoniously.

It was also a reminder of the growing strength of China in Central America. The building, which cost more than $50 million, was entirely financed by the Chinese government, officially to show its support to El Salvador. It is widely understood that China invested money in this and other projects in El Salvador to increase its influence in the region, and convince the few remaining Central American countries officially recognizing Taiwan as a country that they would be better off switching allegiance. “These gifts were made for purely political reasons, to weaken Taiwan” said researcher Marisela Connelly in a recent article from French newspaper “Le Monde”.

For all the symbolism radiating from this state-of-the art investment, the reality is a little less grand. International feedback hasn’t been kind – the library doesn’t actually comply with UNESCO’s criteria that define what a library should be. Comparatively very little space is given to books, and a whole floor features video games, which are free to play. Older books that used to be kept in the previous library haven’t been placed back in.

That library came to embody the struggles that would define my long week of exploration in the country. The country is changing but is that change durable and based on strong foundations? Or is it, like this library, beautiful on the outside but nothing like what it should be on the inside?

After a couple of days in San Salvador, I headed to a bus terminal and rode a local bus for about two hours towards the cute colonial town of Suchitoto. It wasn’t the most pleasant ride – think 98° F and no A/C, incessant stops in the middle of nowhere to pick up or drop off passengers, traffic, exhaust fumes, etc. However it cost me less than $1 and it was an amazing way to live like the locals, who rely on this type of transportation to go back and forth.

The bus dropped me off right by the buzzing Suchitoto market. I had been warned Suchi, as the locals call it, would be swarming with tourists, but on this early Friday afternoon, the town felt strangely quiet. I realized a few hours later that most people would rather stay inside during the hottest hours of the day and the only living creatures out on the street were myself and a few unsuspecting stray dogs.

The strong light was beautiful. The mountains surrounding Suchitoto were a guerilla stronghold during the civil war but the city’s buildings were amazingly spared of the destruction. The town is well maintained. Its paved streets and colorful buildings give it an undeniable cachet.

I spent my first afternoon walking along the town center – which is relatively compact and easy to discover in about an hour. I was really looking to try some pupusas, a thick pancake-like flatbread filled with various delicacies that is El Salvador’s national dish, but I came to realize fairly quickly this wasn’t a lunch dish – all the pupuserias would only open around 5pm.

Hungry, I went back out around that time, which was as close to magic hour as it was going to get, and the town’s streets were even more beautiful basking in that glowing light. I took way too many photos and found my way to a place I hadn’t seen mentioned on any guide but that showed up serendipitously on Google Maps: the mirador de Suchitoto.

On this Friday afternoon, Suchitoto felt strangely quiet.

From there, I was able to enjoy an incredible panoramic view over lake Suchitlan, an artificial lake created in the 1970s to improve the country’s reliance on hydroelectricity.

People were now out and about, chatting, sitting at cafes or having an early dinner. Most of them were Salvadorans. I don’t think I saw more than a few foreign tourists during my stay there, and it was refreshing to feel fully immersed in such a beautiful town.

I finally managed to eat my first pupusas – what an experience. I half-expected a slight variation of a Colombian arepa, but the texture felt different, a little airier and lighter. The biggest difference however, was the filling (an arepa gets toppings). Whether it was a pupusa revuelta (filled with bean puree, meat and cheese) or any of the fifteen different versions on the menu, it was delicious. I think I tried all of them in three days. The shop owners chuckled when they saw me arrive on my last day, as if I had become a regular. I would only eat pupusas for dinner until the end of my trip.

It was a little hard to leave Suchi. Far from the hustle and bustle, the pollution and the noise of San Salvador, I felt I had found the perfect place to stay and explore the north of the country (there is plenty to do around town), and I wish I didn’t have to leave so soon.

The last and longest leg of my trip would bring me to Santa Ana, the second biggest city of the country, at the center of the historically prosperous coffee region. It’s only a 45-mile trip on the most direct route, but it took me more than four hours to get there, courtesy of the dense but very slow local bus network. There weren’t a lot of options to get there. Ubers didn’t pick up in Suchitoto, and I didn’t feel like driving myself at that point (although this changed later). Three buses later, and having sampled every slice of Salvadoran landscape, from the lush, remote countryside between Suchi and Aguilares, the busy, commercial thoroughfares towards Apopa, and the grand, volcano-dotted plateau near Santa Ana, it felt good to finally step off the last bus and walk a few blocks to my hotel.

My first impression of Santa Ana wasn’t the best one. While it is a beautiful colonial city like Suchitoto, it’s much bigger, which meant more noise, traffic and pollution. More importantly, the city hasn’t yet received its makeover and feels a little less taken care of. It was easy, however, to see its potential.

My perception changed when I arrived on Parque Libertad, the town’s main square. I was suddenly transported in a different dimension. Around the square were a few incredibly well-preserved buildings that looked almost like they were dragged from a movie set: the Santa Ana cathedral, the national theater and the city hall. The first was impossibly white and rebuilt in the early XXth century in the neo-gothic style. The second was painted a very light shade of blue-green that felt beautifully incongruous among the rest of the town’s buildings, and wouldn’t be out of place in a Wes Anderson-inspired version of Paris or Rome.

After a second, I realized this is how the whole city could look with a fresh coat of paint, and I regretted judging it a little too fast. I began to see beyond the crumbling facades and faded paint and started to really get into the vibe of each street I would walk in.

The main reason for my visit to Santa Ana was the Ilamatepec, the country’s most famous volcano. About an hour away, in the Cerro Verde National Park, it is a famous hike in the region and I had decided to go see it for myself. The rewards were a beautiful view over the very steep Izalco volcano, the gorgeous lake Coatepeque and of course, the incredibly-hued lake in the Ilamatepec crater.

The hike was done with a guide. Ours waited for the local bus to drop about thirty tourists so we could go all together. The hike itself wasn’t extremely strenuous, but we were on a tight schedule so people going back with the local bus could take the 1pm service and not wait until the next one, at 4pm. I never felt rushed, but I consider myself a fast hiker. At the top, the view was as advertised and absolutely worth the trek. We were greeted by a few stray dogs who must have come to realize exhausted tourists at the top of a volcano are much more likely to share their food with them – the guides knew them by name, so they must be regulars.

On my second to last day in the Santa Ana region, I opted to rent a car and drive the Ruta de las Flores, a scenic road meadering from village to village about an hour south of Santa Ana. I had heard horror stories about renting a car with a global company in the country, so I picked up a car rental from a local hostel. It must have been the hostel’s owner own car. We signed no contract, I gave no security deposit, but $25 in cash later, I had a car for the whole day. I spent most of the day worrying whether the car would make it (it was that old), but it did, and it was perfectly fine for the trip.

Santa Ana’s National Theater wouldn’t be out of place in a Wes Anderson-inspired version of Paris.

My first stop was Ataco, a quaint and cute village with a beautiful cathedral. I parked on a side street and went about to explore the town, climbing first to the Mirador de la Cruz (which was a bit hard to find but worth it) and then spending a little time wandering among the streets. The cathedral was being repainted and the plaza next to it renovated.

It was a constant in the villages I visited that day: every one of them was in the process of being dolled up, and nowhere was it more impressive than in Apaneca, my second stop. The town’s central park had recently been renovated with brand new benches, and with a focus on making it a great place to stop and relax. It looked like a picture-perfect snapshot of what a typical Salvadoran village could look like, with small restaurants lining the square on one side, the beautiful, rebuilt Iglesia San Andrés Apóstol on the other and locals resting and chatting on the brand new benches built around a massive tree. It was one of the most concrete examples of the country’s new investments to improve its tourism infrastructure.

The road leading to my third stop, Juayua, was probably the most scenic, with volcanoes visible in the distance. I stopped a few times to take photos before heading back to Santa Ana.

The Ruta de las Flores made me appreciate the change that the country has known for a few years. President Bukele’s instauration of a temporary state of emergency enabled the administration to have free reign to put most gang members behind bars, leading to almost immediate drop in the country’s murder rate. Citizens have overwhelmingly supported the change, and Bukele was reelected handily in early 2024. The state of emergency has been extended more than twenty times so far, but it can only be a temporary solution. International agencies have underlined the erosion of democratic norms, from the loss of due process for incarcerated citizens to the contortions the country’s Supreme Court had to go through to allow Bukele to seek a second presidential term. In other words, this new safety paradigm may only be temporary.

A great summary of Bukele’s impact on its country can be found in this article from The Economist. My hope is that it is used as a springboard for development and that when regular law and order is reinstated, the Salvadoran institutions and citizens will be strong enough to help restore a full and healthy democracy.

On my last day, I woke up early to take a bus straight to San Salvador. Unlike my previous buses, this one was a servicio de lujo (luxury service) and that meant comfy seats, A/C and a non-stop ride all the way to the capital. It was glorious! I picked an Uber from the bus terminal and got back to the airport to fly back. This long week flew by!

I was happy to have come to El Salvador this year. I could feel the optimism and energy of its people and sense the potential this small but beautiful country has going for it. I hope I can go back to spend more time and discover even more of it.

Images from top to bottom: the view over the Izalco volcano from the top of the Ilamatepec volcano near Santa Ana, El Salvador’s National Palace in San Salvador, a street corner in San Salvador’s historic center, the facade of the National Theater in San Salvador, inside the Church of the Rosary in San Salvador, a colorful street around dusk in Suchitoto, lake Suchitlan from the Suchitoto mirador, the Suchitoto cathedral, the Izalco volcano from the trail going up the Ilamatepec volcano, the facade of Santa Ana’s National Theater.

All images are mine.