El Salvador - An Ataco on the Walls of the City

October 28

Hello everyone!

Welcome to Ataco, one of the more northerly stops on Ruta de las Flores. A city awash with colours on its walls.

A mural found in the centre of Ataco

Birds fleeing with one of the main churches in the background

The red circle is Ataco. The blue circle is the waterfall you'll see later.

Apparently the reasoning for this was to make the town more attractive in order to win a national competition called Towns Full of Life (Pueblos Vivos). Ataco’s tactic was to attack their town’s walls, transforming them into vivid murals.

The full name of the town apparently comes from the
Nahuatl language and means 'place of elevated water springs'

These may be famous people, I have no idea

The result has been a relative influx of visitors and a ‘must-see’ vibe for the town on Ruta de las Flores. The murals themselves are as varied as they are colourful. My favourite is the mother and baby painting below, complete with a cheeky-looking dog.

I liked the contrast of healthy fruit on the murals...with
the sign suggesting you cover them in chocolate!

Can you spot the real dog in the picture?

There is more to Ataco than a splash of paint, of course. This is very much coffee country: El Salvador’s main export. You can take tours of coffee estates, which we’ve been told are interesting. We didn’t think our two dogs would be particularly interested, however, so will leave it for another time.

Faces were not like this when we briefly stopped at a coffee estate

The area is part of the Apaneca mountain range

It also has a busy market and two churches, one in the centre of town and the other at the end of one of the cute cobbled streets. 

Ataco has a small population of less than 20,000

The church name translates as the Immaculate
Conception of Maria Sanctuary

There is more to do in Ataco, such as head up to spectacular viewpoints, but we were already quite tired by this point. This is because we had already made a couple of stops on the way.

Dogs: knackered

I've been pleasantly surprised by how
pet friendly El Salvador has been so far

We had a late breakfast at a place called Entre Nubes, which is on the RN8 just past Apaneca. We had actually gone next door to a restaurant called Jardin de Celeste the previous lunchtime but much preferred this place. It has a natural feel to it and a couple of walking trails behind its cafe. We’ll probably learn to tune out the pan flute covers of classic pop songs, though.

The main seating area, which I imagine is busy on weekends

The trails lead to a platform with a forest view

We had then gone slightly off the main road to find a waterfall. There are apparently seven lovely cascades in the Ruta de las Flores region. I had wanted to visit one near a pretty town called Juayua (no idea how to pronounce it) called Chorros de la Calera, but apparently it is no longer viewable by members of the public. As an aside, the town itself was visited briefly the following morning but we were too early to appreciate its weekend food festival.

Chorros de la Calera is now apparently on private property

A woman selling cut-up fruit in Juayua

Copious massive pineapples

We instead found Cascadas de Don Juan. A 10 minute drive from the main road, and a further 10 minute walk, takes you to a secluded paradise.

You pay $3 for access to the waterfall

Looking back from the falls is also a lovely sight

The twin falls are about 35 metres tall. I have read that they occur quite close to their source, only 500 metres away from the San Juan river, so retain quite a lot of force. I also read that the water is warm. This is not true. Refreshing, to put it mildly.

The area seemed well conserved and looked after

That's my head under the fall in the right of the picture

One of our dogs, Maxi, enjoys water. The other, Mini, does not. This made it quite funny when Mini tried to scrabble up a steep rock, couldn’t quite make it, and then fully submerged herself with her descent. Cold and embarrassed. 

Mini: not a fan of the wet stuff

This was arguably my favourite spot during our short road trip. The tranquillity - only one other couple were there when we arrived and they left soon after - and the natural beauty of the Don Juan waterfall was a pleasant surprise. We’ll be back on Ruta de las Flores many times in the future, and I’m sure this will be high on our list. As well as checking out even more murals, of course.

I was tempted to buy this shirt - maybe next year!

A family making many, many pupusas

Love you all,

Matt

El Salvador - A-maze-ing Apaneca

October 27

Hello everyone!

After ten interesting and energy-sapping weeks of term, our school has a two week break. Time to explore!

Ziplining in the hills near Apaneca

One of many painted murals in Apaneca

There are many options around the region. The Caribbean coastlines, the different food options in different parts of Mexico, seeing sloths in Costa Rica…

An example tour of Central America - it misses out a lot!

None of them yet. One reason for staying in El Salvador for these two weeks is Hannah’s arrival on the first Monday of the break. We wanted to use this time to get her settled and sort out the house. Probably wouldn’t be fair on her - or the dogs - to immediately head off to a different country. 

Important sights, such as the local pub, need to be explored

Maxi and Mini quite like staring at the neighbours

This was balanced by my need to get out of the city. We decided to do a two-night trip to the west. Without really researching, I had booked a place in an inland town called Sonsonate.

It's a little over an hour to get to Sonsonate

There isn’t much in the town itself, aside from a complex road system. There was some nice food, such as the steak at La Pampa. Covid and sanitary living is still taken very seriously here, as evidenced by the fact that the food was delivered in cling film.

This was our meal on night two - six different, delicious pupusas

Steak at La Pampa, which came wrapped in cling film

It was also far hotter than I thought it would be, making us very thankful for the air conditioning in the AirBnB. Less thankful for the fact that the owner didn’t respond when we couldn’t find the code to open the front door. Turns out we did have the code but it was hidden in the depths of the app.

A stunning view from our AirBnB neighbourhood

Mood when we were 'locked out'

Sonsonate is towards the bottom of a trail known as Rutas de las Flores: the Flower Route. This consists of a collection of towns and beauty spots along RN8, a road heading up from the beach towards Guatemala. It’s name comes from the beautiful flowers which bloom in the dry season, between November and February.

These are the six main stops, from Ahuachapan
in the north to Nahuizalco in the south

Lovely hydrangeas were a common sight in towns

A multitude of colours

The route isn’t that long, meaning you can go to the different places in any order. We decided to spend much of our first day in the village of Apaneca, about an hour north of Sonsonate. The drive up, often lined with trees and weaving around to offer views of distant volcanoes, was a treasure in itself.

One of the twenty or so volcanoes in the country

The dogs love a drive - they enjoyed it less when we bought
furniture which forced them to lie on the floor!

Apaneca is a pretty village, with dashes of colour on the walls and floors adding to its calm charm. Being late morning on a Thursday, it was probably a lot quieter than it would be on weekends, when people come to escape the city bustle of San Salvador or Santa Ana.

Apaneca is almost 1,500 metres above sea level

This tree, dominating the main square, is enormous

Less calming, and at the same time amazing, was ziplining down a nearby mountain. This is a popular thing to do in Apaneca, and I can certainly see why. The bumpy drive up showcased many of the flowers, such as the beautiful red-pink ones in the picture below. 

The truck ride took about 15 minutes to go up

Not sure on the flower, it sounded like 'camarron'

From the top, you can zip down 13 wires. The first five are short, designed to get you used to the technique and the speed. 

One of the earlier zip lines

Technique: probably lacking

The sixth one suddenly shoots you over 400 metres across, taking you out of the trees and showing you incredible views of the surrounding landscape. Breathtaking. Also impossible to take a photo as you need two hands on at all times.

One of the zips is a 125 metre drop in 280 metres: rapido!

Can you see me in the picture?

The reason for using two hands is to control speed and direction, so you don’t start spinning around. This happened to me twice, with the second time being when I stupidly tried to pose for a photo.

Stunning views from some of the zip stations

I started doing a 360 soon after this

Apaneca is a bit of an adventure playground on this route. Another option - slightly more sedate - is a laberinto. If you’re thinking that sounds like labyrinth, you’d be spot on. A large hedge-filled maze on the edge of the city, with your mission being to get to the centre.

The labyrinth

The maze was created about 10 years ago

The maze was built by planting over 2,000 cypress trees

Being situated on a hill adds to the challenge, particularly for two hot, tired dogs. It was relatively easy to find the middle…but then we really struggled to get out. We ended up using an emergency exit in order to finish.

It's total area is 45 sq m

Lots of ups and downs!

You ring a bell in the centre. One person thought
that was unnecessary. I rang the bell anyway.

Apaneca is a lovely spot and was a great way to start our road trip. The Ruta de las Flores has started to bloom and has started to show us both a different side to El Salvador.

Love you all,

Matt