Off the beaten track

From time to time, posts appear on travel blogs praising the beauties of El Salvador and its people, as the travel writer goes "off the beaten track." This week I ran across a beautifully photographed example in a blog by authors named David and Vladi. In a post titled El Salvador, a dangerous country?, they write:
Vladi and I spent a wonderful week in some little villages located in the highlands, far away from big cities and their safety problems. Come with us to get to know El Salvador better...

After a long day of bus(es), we arrived at night in Juayua, a pretty town surrounded by volcanoes and coffee plantations. We found thanks to a local guy a great hotel with private bathroom & TV for 15$, breakfast included. In El Salvador, prices are more expansive than in Nicaragua or Guatemala, and believe me, that was quite a good deal! So we stayed there 6 nights, using the chicken buses to visit the nearby villages rather than changing every 2 days our accomodation.

With its bright colored facades and its lovely people, Juayua is a friendly "off the beaten path" village in a "off the beaten path" country! We spent some nice days at the rythm of the church bells, and enjoyed the local weekend food celebration a lot...
See all their photos and descriptions of going off the beaten track in El Salvador here.

Comments

Gatofilo said…
The famous "Ruta de la Flores?" And yes, it's nice, away from the beaten path and the cool crisp air filling you with life.

Roberto Poma's dream of creating a tourism industry would be a huge boon for the country and the people. Costa Rica needs a little competition.

The key: Educate the populace.
Unknown said…
If it were up to Poma, there would be no "away from the beaten path", all access to beaches would be privatized, tourism would be exclusively the material of 5 star resorts, entirely destroying the natural wonders El Salvador may possess by infesting them with hotels and malls. After all, Multiplaza is excempt of taxes, because according to Poma it is a tourist hub.


So, hopefully, Roberto Poma will never see his "dream" of turning El Salvador into his twisted version of a touristic hub, because then that would be the end of trailblazing tourism projects like ecotourism, visiting and supporting small local villages, etc.


Worse, is that Poma has been one of the most "influential" families of El Salvador, but that he could not forsee that an overpopulated society, where living conditions are expensive and opportunities scant, would devolve into wars, and now into a crime pandemic, thus becoming perhaps one of the greatest obstacles (along with private/public corruption) for El Salvador to alure foreign investment.


Even more dampering to any claims of Poma as a visionare is the fact that it took decades for the likes of him, to notice the tourism potential of El Salvador, of course something that happened only after coffee proved to be increasingly more less rentable.
Gatofilo said…
To the above. You are simply the essence of what is ignorant chusma. Reading your garbage, I'm amazed you can even conjecture a couple of sentences.

Instead of spitting out your vile venom, why don't you study a little Salvadoran recent history you moron. You clearly don't know the least thing about what your talking about.

What a Jackass!
Gatofilo said…
If a country like El Salvador had more intelligent and progressive intepreurs and like Roberto Poma and less socially resentfuls like Lasmark has shown himself to be, El Salvador would undoubtedly be a showcase of dynamic prosperty to the world.

Envious and social resentful losers in Salvadoran society murdered a light on a hill top, a shining beacon of hope for all Salvadorans.

Roberto Poma was a friend, and he was the most decent human being I have ever known. He was killed in cold blood by envious elements of the lowest of the low because they envied him as a man, a human being, and because he was everything they were not. Envy!

Roberto Poma was indeed a true son of El Salvador. He will be forever loved and remembered.