El Salvador - Water, Water, Everywhere…

August 4, 10, 16

Hello everyone!

…even in the house.

Paddling in Lake Ilopango. Below is one of our bathrooms...

El Salvador sells itself as the Land of Volcanoes. One consequence of having over 20 volcanoes in a small space is that, over time, they have created some spectacular crater lakes.

Ilopango is the country's largest natural lake

Coatepeque sits beneath Santa Ana
volcano, the tallest in the country

I’ve pledged to myself that I will make more use of my inflatable kayak this year and spend more time at these lakes. Having returned a week before needing to get back to work, I took the opportunity to drive up northwest to one of my favourite spots in the country: Lake Coatepeque.

Coatepeque is the green circle and Ilopango is the orange oval.
One of the red dots is home. The other red bits are flood
warnings, which may give a hint about the last part of the blog...

Mini and Maxi enjoyed the lake when they came in 2024 - it actually
was closed the week after for a significant period due to pollution 

A lot of the lakeshore is privately owned. With that in mind, I had contacted the lake’s hostel with a view to parking there. I arrived just before 7am to find that many of the guests were parting on the dock, and had clearly been partying for a while. Not wanting to interrupt - or deal with questions about inflating a kayak from people who were worse for wear - I spoke to the owner at the restaurant next door, and said I would buy a coffee in exchange for use of their dock.

An internet picture of the hostel - the next building out
of shot on the right is from where I launched

I decided to start out against the slight ripple so that I would have an easier return. As you’d expect, the wind had picked up by the time I turned around…so that I was paddling back against larger ripples and into a headwind.

I paddled a little over 8 km on along the western side of the lake

A week later, I woke up ludicrously early - 3:15am - to meet up with a group of people to head to a crater lake to the east of San Salvador: Ilopango.

We set off at about 5:15am

I paddled around until about 7am - that little island was my marker in case I got lost

We were going for a sunrise paddle on El Salvador’s largest lake. I have seen sunrise here before on a school residential. This time I could relax in a kayak whilst watching the sky transform, rather than worry about 9-year-olds wanting to play football at 6am.

6am in February 2024: idyllic

5am in August 2025: dark

The colours were incredible. From cotton candy pink into a tranquil yellow haze as the sun started its ascent, it has an amazing metamorphosis.

They appear pink because of the scattering
of sunlight by the Earth's atmosphere

Looking east - we were paddling in the northwest section of the lake

The night before my Ilopango paddle, there had been a relatively strong storm in Santa Tecla. I had woken up to a little bit of water in the kitchen, which had probably come in under the back door. I had expected needing to clean it up on my return; I hadn’t expected my dogs to have ravaged part of the living room.

Books, art supplies and puzzle pieces
littered across the floor. Thanks, doggos.

Cardboard: tasty??

It is very much rainy season in the country at the moment. Even with that knowledge, there wasn’t much forewarning about what was to come on the following Friday night. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources had stated that rains and storms would be ‘scattered’ across the country.

This was the rainfall over the 24 hour period that
included Friday night for the country

Maxi laughing at the prospect of rain

I woke up Saturday morning, got out of bed…and stepped in a shallow puddle. Carefully tiptoeing around the house, I found quite a lot of water. In every room.

Mini surveying the puddles

When we’ve had flooding issues before, it’s normally been connected to a leak in the roof. Not this time. Neither me nor my landlord could work out where it had come from, and how it was in every room. 

Water in the kitchen - you can see how
much the rug absorbed from its colour

From a quick look online, I could see that I wasn’t nearly as badly affected as others. Santa Tecla and San Salvador had been buffeted by a storm that damaged at least 130 homes. The rains also caused 216 fallen trees and 136 landslides.

Downtown Santa Tecla, about a 15 minute walk from my house

Central and eastern San Salvador also had huge rains

As the clean-up - more like a dry-out - takes place over the next few days, one consolation can be the knowledge that those lovely crater lakes have been swelled by the rain, giving me the chance to keep on kayaking in them as the year goes on.

The dogs are enjoying their new garden toys

Paddling a Monday morning away

The Land of Volcanoes

Love you all,

Matt

El Salvador - An Industrial Paradise

August 8

Hello everyone!

El Salvador’s capital has a lot going for it - new investment, lot of food choices - but it does have its drawbacks as a city. One of these is that it isn’t the prettiest to explore. Though that can change if you look hard enough…

Turtles in La Laguna Botanic Garden

I think this is a dracaena plant

San Salvador and Santa Tecla - they come as a double act, really - do have some green spaces. Bicentenario and the Ecoparque offer an escape from the noise, traffic and pollution (once you’re in them - most people drive to get to these parks).

Running in Bicentenario in 2022, having arrived
in the country for the first time 7 hours earlier

View from the Ecoparque in 2025

One place I had recently learnt about was the city’s Botanical Gardens. Up to that point, I hadn’t known such a place existed in San Salvador. Having a few free days before school’s back in session, and actually being close by when getting a dental scan, I decided to explore.

The garden is located in the crater of a
volcano that erupted 2,200 years ago

The garden was opened to the public in 1976

For quite a while, I thought the map was wrong. I was driving through what one would politely describe as ‘an industrial area’. I was weaving through large trucks, with factories flanking either side of the road.

It is in an area called Antiguo Cuscatlan

No idea what they produce, but plenty of
factories like the one at the end of this street

One final left turn took me to a small entrance to the botanical gardens. Being a nice day and the tail end of a week including a public holiday, it was pretty busy.

Not a great view...

...until you turn 180 degrees

Once the $1.75 entrance fee has been paid, you walk a few paces before being transported into a different world, far away from the factories. 

There are more than 3,500 species of plants

Red bananas - their original habitat was Southeast Asia

Well, not too far away. Depending on where you are in the gardens, you may still see or hear - definitely hear, actually - the thrum of industry happening the other side of the fences.

The tip of San Salvador's volcano, Boqueron,
is also visible behind the factories

A lot of the flora found here can actually be found in many different places around the country. The flowers below both grow in my back garden, for example. 

Heliconia plants

Zingiber spectabile is native to Southeast Asia

Other plant species come from further afield. They have a ‘diverse’ section where you can find plants from all over the world. Well, plants that can survive and thrive in El Salvador’s climate, so not many from Europe, actually.

The average temperature is 23'C with 75% humidity,
though this obviously changes through the year 

This is a Juglandaceae tree from Central
America - they are in danger of extinction

When away from the edges and nearer the industrial zone, the botanical gardens have a peaceful, tranquil air about them. Different sections have water features, a nursery and even beehives.

Honey bees beat their wings 200 times per second

A 'waterfall'

If you look carefully, you’ll be able to see fish in the picture above. Dozens of tilapia shuffle around the ponds, with other fish present but less visible.

Tilapia is the second most farmed fish in the world

Fish here ranged from goldfish to koi

They’re not the only creatures to be found here. I didn’t see many interesting birds - it may be the wrong time of year, I’m not sure - but there were plenty of turtles and a few agouti scuttling about.

Not sure what type of turtle it is

Agoutis are able to crack Brazil nuts with their teeth

There was also another animal that was well camouflaged to the point that I almost stepped on it. There are quite a few iguanas that are found in different zones in the gardens, be it on a grassy patch or nearer the ponds. Aside from the one I almost squashed, they weren’t much for moving: it was a hot day.

They can grow up to 2 metres long

Its scientific name is Iguana iguana.
So good they named it twice.

Jardín Botánico La Laguna was a very pleasant surprise. When a city can feel like a bit of a concrete jungle at times, it’s nice to know that there are still a few hidden treasures which can help you escape and feel a little bit more at peace.

A type of Ixoroideae - easier to admire than pronounce

This type of cactus can grow to be 8 metres tall

Anthurium, also known as the flamingo flower

Love you all,

Matt