El Salvador – small country with incredibly friendly people

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America with 21,000 square kilometers, making it even smaller than tiny Belize. But the people surprise us with their great warmth and attentiveness. We already notice this at our small border crossing, where for the first time on our trip border officials try to make this always stressful undertaking as pleasant as possible. We were shown the right places and even had an official at our side steering us through the entire process.

The Ruta de Flores is known for its small & nice mountain towns (of which we only really liked Ataco though) and above all – nomen est omen – for its blooming nature. In fact, it is not only lush green, but well-groomed and trimmed flowers and plants delight the eye at every corner with their incredible variety of colors: purple, yellow, red – in all shades, sizes and shapes. Since the area is not only densely populated, but also mountainous, finding an overnight space is not easy… We can’t continue searching in our planned direction either because we come across a local festival, which leads to a complete closure of the streets leading through town. So we just park next to the road with a nice view. Luckily, the street turns out to be surprisingly quiet at night, so that we can listen „undisturbed“ to the impressively loud bass sounds of the city festival below.

We drive via the pretty and tidy town of Santa Ana to the Santa Ana volcano, where we find a great parking space on a meadow below… with a great view of the volcano. The next morning, we climb the volcano… 400 meters in altitude in just over an hour is no comparison to our very strenuous climb of the Acatenango volcano some time ago. At the top, we have a great view of the Pacific and the surrounding volcanoes, as well as into a steaming caldera filled with turquoise-green water that smells of sulfur. Very impressive and after the descent we spontaneously decide to stay here for another night. Because it is so beautiful and the climate here at almost 1,800 meters is extremely pleasant… especially with refreshingly cool nights.

The humid heat is back at Playa San Blas, where we are visiting the Pacific again since a long time in central Mexico. The waves have not become smaller, but the vegetation has become significantly more tropical. We find a great pitch at a small restaurant/hotel, which impresses with direct access to the beach, chilled out hammocks on the upper deck, excellent fish and a beautiful sunset. It’s easy to hang out for a day before heading back inland to the pretty town of Suchitoto. Everything here is “muy tranquilo” and so we can relax and look at the pretty colonial buildings.

Unfortunately, garbage is also a problem in El Salvador, and this is particularly evident at the otherwise beautiful and eternally long Playa Esteron in the very south of the country. A long walk on the beach and a spectacular sunset (most beaches have the perfect west orientation) end our short stay in this small but very friendly country.