El Salvador - Feeling Fresca

February 18-20

Hello everyone!

To get people exploring more of the country, El Salvador’s tourist authorities seem to have devised a system of different ‘routes’. Having explored places such as Apaneca and Ataco Ruta de las Flores in October, this was the time for something new: Ruta Fresca.

View from the top of El Pital

Our little hikers!

The ‘fresh route’ was devised in 2011 and encourages you to visit the northern frontiers of the country. It is comprised of three villages (I don’t think they’re large enough to be called towns): La Palma, San Ignacio and Citalá.

The Ruta Fresca can be found in the north-central part of El Salvador

A wall mural in Citala

We visited two of these places on our return. Firstly Citalá, which is pretty much on the border with Honduras. The little square, with its neoclassical church sitting in front of a looming mountain range behind, is picturesque. As with many places on Ruta de las Flores, walls have been transformed into fantastic and vivid murals to give the place a splash of vibrancy.

The name is from Mayan,
meaning 'River of the Stars'

The colonial village was apparently one of the
main areas of resistance against the conquistadors

We also stopped in La Palma, which is renowned across the country for its connection to El Salvador’s most famous artist: Fernando Llort. His distinctive style of combining bold colours, dark lines and religious symbols has been transported across the country. 

Llort was actually born in San Salvador
but moved to and set up an art community
in La Palma in the 1970s

His art is ubiquitous: this is inside a coffee shop

Llort moved due to the Civil War, which is the other notable aspect of La Palma. This is where negotiations were first initiated between the government and FMLN rebels, which ended with the Peace Accords being signed in Mexico in 1992. This is less obviously seen in La Palma, which I would otherwise describe as a mildly busy mountain village.

Negotiations happened here in 1984...
the accords were signed in 1992.

I imagine the main park is a lot busier than
it was on this particular Monday morning

We didn’t stop in the other location on Ruta Fresca, instead driving through San Ignacio to get to a camping spot called Allá Arriba. Waze, the more commonly used navigation app in El Salvador, took us the very long way round from San Ignacio, which at least allowed us to enjoy some beautiful views.

We both noted that the country's dry season was
far more visible up here than in Santa Tecla

Views for days!

We had camped at Conchagua before but this was a little bit more traditional. The campsite itself didn’t have much - and had even less after our gas cylinder and cooking pot, which were in a plastic bag, were ‘taken by a dog’ overnight on our second night according to the owners - which meant we spent more time exploring.

Mini played chief guard. Well, when
she wasn't shivering from the cold...

Many flowers such as hydrangeas are
grown in the gardens of Alla Arriba

The basement of the main building was very eclectic
- on the left there is a jukebox machine!

Our main adventure was scaling the ‘highest peak in El Salvador’. It is called El Pital, and has a height of about 2,730 metres above sea level. 

It's quite a steep incline from Rio Chiquito 

I had five layers on at this point, showing
you that it wasn't the warmest ascent...

You may be wondering why I’ve put that statement inside quote marks. You see, GPS trackers suggested otherwise at the top…

To the left of the line is Honduras.
To the right of the line is El Salvador.

A cabin near the peak...but in which country is it? 

That blue dot, us, is very much in Honduran territory. Where exactly the ‘border’ is, I’m not sure. 

Probably wouldn't have seen a border anyway with the mist!

At the 'peak area' of El Pital

We definitely started in El Salvador, hiking with Mini and Maxi from the village of Rio Chiquito along a lovely, easy trail. 

A collection of jams and preserves. The lady also sold
large, yellow granadillas, which tasted phenomenal.

Enjoying being in nature

After a reasonable walk - I’m amazed the dogs did it with minimal fuss - we reached what I would call the ‘peak area’. There didn’t really seem to be one peak; rather, there were clumps of trees on less accessible areas slightly above a grassy knoll. The number of cafes and restaurants reflect the fact that this is a popular excursion for Salvadoreans, though it seemed that many had driven rather than hiked up.

Dogs: knackered

There was a boy rolling down this hill

A cheaper method of transport

These photos may give you an idea of how the weather changed throughout the day. Someone had tried to sell us woolly hats in Rio Chiquito. I found it fascinating to discover that this is the only place where snow has been recorded in El Salvador: on one day in 2004.

Also the snow was in April! April!

Thankfully, the grey sky cleared just as we had decided to start our descent. The result were these spectacular vistas.

Whichever country we were in at this point,
that is El Salvador in the distance

This view made our trip worthwhile. The Ruta Fresca is cool in many ways, and worth a wander around if you have a lot of time in El Salvador.

A mural in Citala

Near the top of El Pital

An incredible view

Love you all,

Matt

El Salvador - Hump(back) day!

January 27-29

Hello everyone!

Whale, whale, whale…

Humpback whale

What do we have here?

Mini: enjoyed her weekend but was
more interested in squirrels than whales

A variety of the world’s largest mammal, the humpback, spends its year moving between warmer and colder waters. They move to warmer water in order to breed; eleven months later, they return to give birth.

Stock pic of a whale frolicking in the Pacific

This means that, between December and March, quite a few humpback whales appear off the coast of El Salvador. An opportunity hard to pass up.

In between, they feed in the colder,
more food-rich waters closer to Alaska

We’ve seen whales before in South Africa, a memorable experience watching Southern Right whales soar and splash whilst standing on the shore. This was slightly different. This time we were going into their territory…the water…

This stretch of water has restricted fishing 

Not technically in the water. The rules very much forbid that. Instead, we would be on a small boat leaving from the otherwise sleepy village of Los Cobanos.

We boarded at about 8am

It actually took closer to 3 hours, owing to
massive traffic and many accidents on the way

We stayed in an AirBnB a little way from the shore

We’d been sent some instructions - including that rule about not swimming with whales, which had never crossed my mind - in advance. These also suggested that you would probably get wet and therefore protect any valuables you bring with you. When we arrived, we were told that the water was choppier than usual; we would definitely be getting wet.

It had never crossed my mind

This turned out to be excellent advice

Choppy waters - we were given a
seasickness pill before leaving

Within two minutes of bouncing up and down on the windswept waves, my bag was soaked through, with ziploc bags protecting the most valuable assets (phone and wallet) and my towel absorbing water to protect other items such as binoculars and the camera. 

When we hit calmer sections, we had a great
view of the volcanoes rising from the land

This partly explains the lack of pictures from this trip. As we were fighting against the waves on our way out, we were relentlessly battered by salty water which took your breath away and stung your eyes, even with sunglasses on as protection. It’s hard to take photos when you can’t see!

Water: choppy

After what seemed like quite a long time, we abruptly changed direction to follow two boats which seemed stationary on the horizon. Excitement grew, which was slightly tempered by the amount of seawater I was swallowing. Excitement grew more when we started spotting spouts of air blowing from the surface of the sea.

More boats soon joined the group

There were quite a few boats in the vicinity when we arrived. As a dark shadow rose to the surface, we soon realised why. The baby, which was admittedly still massive, followed soon after.

I'm not sure whether this
is one of our photos!

The serenity of the movement was spellbinding. This could be the excuse for not getting any photos of the whales. In reality, it was because I had tried to take a photo with my camera…and ended up with a wave covering it with water. It immediately turned off.

Even with a working camera, no one would have had the foresight to capture what happened soon after. Without any warning, a humpback suddenly soared into the sky to our left. Its rotation allowed us to see a lot of its stomach before it crashed back into the water. As quickly as it happened, it was over.

They're under there somewhere...

We were ready for the second whale to follow suit…and it duly obliged…

There was another big splash later on behind our boat, which only Hannah managed to see. Thereafter we spent a while driving near, but not too near, the mother and child as they floated further south.

Moments like this are one of the reasons Hannah and I moved. We wanted to have easy access to the coast and to beaches. Add in some enormous visitors and it makes us feel happy to be living in El Salvador. Even now it is without a decent camera.

Hannah's artistic impression

Whale watchers!

Love you all,

Matt