El Salvador - Big Mouth

August 7

Hello everyone!

It’s always a bit of a blur at the start of living in a new country. So much to take in, understand, excite…and then share with the wider world. Some might say you would need a big mouth in order to share so much. Luckily San Salvador has one of those on its doorstep…

At the crater of Boqueron

Actually, more like in its upstairs bedroom or attic. You see, El Salvador’s capital city sits close to and below a rather large volcano. This is called El Boqueron in the local tongue. It translates as ‘Big Mouth’.

The park is 23 km from the historic centre
of San Salvador - it's even closer to
where we are in Santa Tecla

Many pine trees have grown on the crater

The reason for the name? We were told but I can’t actually remember. Like I said, so much to take in. Taken literally, it does potentially look like a cavernous orifice. Well, once you get up there.

The volcano is to the north and northwest of the
cities, parts of which are actually on the slopes

What’s interesting is that many newcomers, myself included, won’t actually pinpoint the volcano itself. I was looking at the triangular point on the eastern side. It turns out that the crater is further west.

The view of the volcano from one of the
apartments we looked at on Sunday morning

We went to Boqueron on Sunday after viewing some other apartments and a house. Having been out the night before, a few of us were a bit fatigued and not fully focused during the hunt. 

One of many apartments we saw on Sunday morning

At this point we weren’t sure we were going to be going up the volcano owing to traffic. It’s a popular weekend jaunt for people from the city, and there is only one main road up to the national park which houses the crater. If you can take your eyes off the fairly narrow road upon which all kinds of vehicles jostle for space, you get some pretty good views.

In the distance is Lake Ilopango, to the east of San Salvador

The big dog is a stray which came to say hello

The entrance to the park is cheap - $2 or $3, I can’t remember - and opens up some trails for you to explore. Going off-track is apparently not to be done without a guide. No further explanation was offered. As usual, there were security guards with fairly sizeable guns at the ready.

Getting to the crater viewpoint is well-marked.
Getting into the crater apparently isn't.

Getting up to the top means you are about 1,900 metres above sea level. This is quite something when, traffic permitting, you can probably be at a beach on the Pacific Ocean in 45 minutes from here.

This is the lake - the Pacific is to the south

You may be wondering where the videos of spitting magma and lava rivers are at this point. As you can see, it’s not particularly active. The most recent eruption occurred over 100 years ago, in 1917, and actually led to the crater lake evaporating.

The crater is 1.5 km in diameter

The result is a strange phenomenon. Volcanic soil is incredibly fertile, resulting in lush vegetation sprouting and flourishing across the volcano, including in the crater itself.

The cinder cone at the bottom, called Boqueroncito,
was created by the 1917 eruption

There is lots of colour if you look closely

Pines covering the crater

There’s a fair bit of wildlife up here as well. I’m not sure what the bird is in the video below - it looked like a bird of prey to me - but it’s swirling arcs suggested that there is living food for it to find in the crater.

The crater is 550m deep

It was a whirlwind visit to Boqueron - we were being whisked off elsewhere for lunch - but one which was very enjoyable. It’s nice to be in a place with such a variety of nature on your doorstep (well, if you have a car). I’ll definitely be back and will encourage people with my not-so-big-mouth to visit ‘Big Mouth’ if they ever visit El Salvador.

Love you all,

Matt