El Salvador Perspectives

Lake Ilopango For a small country, El Salvador has a lot to offer visitors.   El Salvador's tourism ministry has been working to package this up and attract visitors from throughout the world.  According to government officials, tourism has grown 27.3% from 2009-2014 with 1.9 million international visitors in 2014.   Tourism revenue in 2014 was $1.1 billion, or 3.9% of GDP. The country has a slick new tourism website at http://elsalvador.travel .   The slogan "El Salvador -- the 45 Minute Country" is a little odd   (really -- that's the slogan), but I get the point.   Because the country is so small, everything from mountain ranges to coconut palm-lined beaches is within driving distance.  (Although many of those drives are going to be longer than 45 minutes). Some of those international visitors to El Salvador blog about their great experiences in the country.  For example, Sam and Amanda from Canada recently wrote Drop What You're Doi...

Sometimes it's good to hear someone else sing the praises of El Salvador.  Case is married to a staffer at the US Embassy in El Salvador and writes the blog " Trailing Husband " about his experiences on his wfe's posting to the country.  They are finishing her assignment in El Salvador, and Case wrote a retrospective post titled  Highlights of El Salvador . Here's what Case writes about rain: To be totally honest, I had almost forgotten to mention how amazing the rain is here, and then, literally 5 minutes after I disconnected my UPS from my computer, a huge rain/lightning storm starts, and the power drops out for a minute. By and large, I have not found the rain annoying. To the contrary, I love the powerful rainstorms that we get. Seriously. It's just amazing how much rain can drop from the sky in a short amount of time. Also, since we live on the side of the San Salvador volcano, we get some amazing lightning storms that have a terrific echo from the vo...

Here is another good travel blog entry by a visitor to the country. Freelance writer Tracey Barnett tells the story of a visit to Lake Coatepeque in her post Lightning Flashes in El Salvador : I surveyed this sparkling expanse of blue amid the volcanoes. Just a week ago I’d never even heard of Lago Coatepeque, or Los Volcanes National Park, home to three volcanoes. I relished the swaying of the palms in the electric breeze, waiting for the storm to arrive. Lightning flashed over Santa Ana Volcano on the far side of the lake—the same volcano I would climb the next day. After weeks of backpacker hostels I had decided to splurge and stay at the Torre Molina, what passed for a luxury resort in these parts, and shelled out the $30. Dining options were limited, so I stayed for dinner. I ordered grilled tilapia and was savoring the meal along with the sunset out on the balcony overlooking the lake, when Elmer, a friendly hotel staffer, interrupted my reverie. “Ya viene el agua,” he said. “No...

I like good travel blogs written by nomad travelers describing their adventures in El Salvador and elsewhere. A few good ones crossed my computer screen this week. Carla and Mike are Road Trippin in El Salvador and write about journeys on the Ruta de las Flores in the western part of the country. Two of the places they visited were Apaneca and Ataco: Apaneca is a town that looks like it belongs in another century: cobblestone streets, one main church, workshops for furniture makers – very relaxed vibe. The cool mountain climate – a shock compared to Intipuca – adds to the pleasant atmosphere. Our final mountain village was Ataco, which also has cobblestone streets but what makes this town stand out is the color! Many of the homes and shops are painted in fruit colored hues: lemon, lime, melon, orange, strawberry, grape… And if they aren’t painted then they are decorated with fantastic murals depicting traditional life, community heroes, and social issues in vibrant colors. ...

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....

It's summer, so people are traveling to El Salvador and blogging about their experiences. Aaron and Lyndi, the Texas nomads, pretty much sum up what they and others have found: The fact of the matter is this: this country is beautiful, with some of the most friendly and helpful people I've met not on this journey but in my life, and with mountains, waterfalls, food festivals, great art and music scene, and killer surfing- it boasts just as much as the other C.A. countries. And if that doesn't draw you in, I need only say one word: Pupusas . Read their blog entries about Santa Ana and El Zonte . Other travelling bloggers include Alyssa Schwartz who is currently blogging from a service trip to El Salvador, and Nin Andrews who blogs as she visits her Peace Corps Volunteer daughter. Meanwhile Vanessa Nguyen arrived in San Salvador yesterday and writes about her travels in her blog Jungle Guerrilla Roadie .

I en joy reading blog entries about trips people make through El Salvador. The blog at lukegibbs.com describes a trip through El Salvador with some very striking photographs. View the entries here and here .