El Salvador - Spectacular Sunrise over Three Countries

December 9-11

Hello everyone!

El Salvador is a little place which seems to pack in a lot of everything, from beautiful beaches to mega mountains. This blog shows arguably the most spectacular sight so far.

View of the Gulf of Fonseca

Sun rising over Honduras in the distance

Welcome to the top of Conchagua, a volcano found in the southeastern corner of El Salvador. It overlooks the Gulf of Fonseca, a small bay of the Pacific Ocean which is flanked by three countries and filled with many islands. Disputes have formed, and been settled, over their ownership.

The drive meant listening to a dramatic World
Cup penalty shootout on the phone

This was the ultimate destination, 24 hours later

Being a small country with good roads, this far-flung corner of the country is about four hours from Santa Tecla, even in Friday afternoon traffic. As we knew we couldn’t make it to the volcano in time to reach its peak (you’ll see why daylight is important later), we spent the night near El Tamarindo. The sunset pictures below are from nearby Playa Blanca. 

As El Salvador faces south, it's a bit strange to
see the Sun disappear into the ocean

Unlike those nearer Santa Tecla, the beaches
here often have white, non-volcanic sand

As usual for trips out of the city, a large group of us were staying together in an AirBnB. This is the usual way of finding lovely places to stay for affordable prices - splitting $230 between 10 is a lot better than splitting between two. This was one of the stranger places we’ve stayed…

Our AirBnB for Friday night

How they got this extremely heavy bed upstairs is beyond us

The following morning was spent at the nearby beach, a personal throwback to lakeshore beaches in Malawi with its colourful fishing boats and relative peace. The volcano looms large to the north, the Sun rises above Honduras to the east, and the western tip of Nicaragua is hazily visible to the southeast. An incredible experience.

Being a sheltered bay, the water is calm 

This crab-like critter was scuttling around,
with the volcano in the distance 

Enjoying a cooling morning dip

Scaling Conchagua involves a drive up on the northern side, from the regional town of La Union. As we weren’t taking our own cars (thankfully), we parked at the meeting point: a Chinese restaurant. I’m not sure how popular this cuisine is in eastern El Salvador, but we were happy to spend a couple of hours there watching football before our ascent.

Sorry! I was supporting England!

Our mountain-scaler

Like the beach from the morning, the vehicle was a throwback to African life: essentially, a large safari van modified with the installation of aeroplane seats (no screens in the back, for some reason). After loading, we bumped and bounced our way up towards the 1,200 metre or so peak, known as Espiritu de la Montaña. This road is a key reason for us not heading straight up on the Friday. I hesitate to call it a road, actually - more a cluster of rocks which big vehicles can use as a path. Occasional glimpses of a stunning sea view remind you why you’re allowing your body to be flung up and down in a safari van.

In the indigenous, pre-Columbian Lenca language,
Conchagua means 'flying jaguar'

The edge of La Union, the capital of the eponymous
region which covers the eastern frontier of El Salvador

This area has been developed by an entrepreneur called Luis into an area which people can visit. The popular thing to do is to go up in the afternoon, sleep on the peak overnight, then wake up for sunrise the following morning before heading down in daylight. 

It's a little under an hour from pick-up point to the peak

Somehow our contact had 'reserved' our tent spots,
which were in the best possible position

View from the tent!

The view from the camping platforms is jaw-dropping. A wide panorama encompasses the shores of La Union and a Honduran forest across the bay before being interrupted by a large, green landmass called Isla Zacatillo. The vista then switches to the east, revealing a plethora of small volcanic islands sitting in the gulf in front of the west coast of Honduras. Sweeping to the southeast, you see a distant volcano which constitutes the western tip of Nicaragua, before looking due south at the enormous blue of the Pacific. 

El Salvador only has 29 km of shoreline on this gulf,
so a lot of the land under the cloud belongs to Honduras

You can stay on some of these islands and
do a boat trip through the gulf - next time!

You need a couple more pictures of that, don’t you.

Our camping spot just after sunset

The view at about 8am

El Salvador is a warm place, where winter and cold don’t really exist as concepts. The peak of Conchagua is one of those exceptions, particularly after that spectacular sunset. We started layering up, warmed by laughing and a barbecue. Oh, and Baileys, of course.

Marshmallows to keep us warm!

A smorgasboard of food considering the trek up!

There was also a large Moon rising,
which was orange for quite a while

It wasn’t a time to be staying up too late. After all, the hype about Conchagua is the sunrise. We had positioned our tents to face first light, which would appear over Honduras. I woke up shortly after 5am to this…

As more people began to stir, the light began to paint its pretty patterns across the sky…

Before peeking over the faraway hills just before 6am. I’ve been lucky to see some incredible sunrises in places as diverse as the Okavango Delta and Iceland. This was one of the best.

I saw Luis before we took our bumpy bus down the mountainside. He said that there were plans to slightly expand to include areas for yoga retreats. I hope it doesn’t start to become too busy. Part of the charm of being on the mountain was the feeling that you and the other campers had hunted to find something special.

There were probably about 40 people at
the top but it didn't seem crowded

Pondering life - or more likely not thinking at all!

We had come here as my early birthday trip. It more than lived up to the hype, and was worth the relatively long journey across this country which is increasingly demonstrating its magic.

Great company for a magical weekend

Enjoying beach life

We'll be back!

Love you all,

Matt