The Travelling Teacher: El Salvador - Sweet Sunrises at Sky and Sea

February 17-18

Hello everyone!

Half-term meant an opportunity to explore further than normal. A chance to revisit a favourite…

Conchagua

…and discover somewhere new.

Isla Zacatillo

El Salvador is a relatively small place - the smallest country in Central America, and genuinely almost the size of Wales - which can seem a lot bigger when stuck in a long traffic jam. It makes the eastern side of the country a bit less accessible, meaning we haven’t ventured there too often.

The red dot is Conchagua, and the blue dot is Isla Zacatillo

Stunning sunrise view of the Golfo de Fonseca from Isla Zacatillo

At its most southeasterly point, El Salvador has an inactive volcano. Nothing particularly noteworthy about that; there are many such mounds in the country.

Conchagua is actually two peaks - this is the one closer
to the gulf, and you camp on the one behind it

Conchagua means 'flying jaguar'
in the Lenca language

What it possesses, however, is a stunning view over the Golfo de Fonseca, a gulf which is bordered by three countries and which contains many islands.

Looking at the city of La Union and then
Honduras from the top of Conchagua

The nearest island is called Conchaguita

The added reason for this being one of my favourite places in El Salvador is the fact that you can camp at the top, allowing you to see the sun set over the Pacific Ocean before waking up to the sun rising over the land of Honduras or Nicaragua (depending on time of year) in the early morning. Hannah and I did this once before in December 2022.

Camping became quite windy!

Sunrise in 2022

Sunrise in 2026

Some people attempt to hike to the summit, which stands almost 1200 metres above the sea you can see almost immediately below. Travelling with Mini and Maxi - a challenge in itself at the best of times - meant that we were never going to attempt this. Though capable of walking long distances (they have scaled El Salvador’s highest mountain before), they are also capable of deciding a walk ends after 100 metres.

Excited that they're not having to walk

The place translates as 'Spirit of the Mountain', as some
believe that there is a spirit that still lives here

The other way up without a very good 4x4 car (RIP) is to catch a bus from outside a Chinese restaurant in La Union, El Salvador’s final city to the east. Our hope was that going on a Tuesday would reduce the number of people, giving us a bit more space.

The relatively spacious car before getting on the bus

It was fewer tents than last time, but that was on a Saturday night

We were very wrong. 22 going up, more than the last time we went in 2022. I think this is due to three reasons. Firstly, in spite of whether you agree or not with the methods used, El Salvador has become a much safer and more popular place to visit. Secondly, connected to this, Conchagua was featured on the most recent BBC series of Celebrity Race Across the World. Finally, British citizens now need visas for Honduras, meaning backpackers moving through Central America often miss it and go straight from El Salvador to Nicaragua. That’s done from a morning boat that leaves La Union, so camping up Conchagua is seen as a nice option for a final night in the Land of Volcanoes.

Internet picture of Anita and her dad atop Conchagua in season 3

This is not the boat to Nicaragua - it's just a tenuous link
to showing an adorable picture of Maxi on a kayak

Our bus was thus quite full. Though a few of these were friends who were also camping up top, the bus was also populated by six soldiers in full regalia with large guns. One of them, in a friendly way, kept trying to pet the dogs. I’m surprised his fingers survived. What didn’t survive were some of the eggs that they were bringing to the peak. One broke early on and streamed over our coolbox. We had a good laugh about it, in between dodging branches and mangoes that were falling from them.

We think the soldiers were going up for a general activity
or shift swap, rather than due to any threat

We brought a lot of stuff for one night - you can rent
camping gear up here but we have our own

As it has become more popular, some new elements have changed at the top. There is a small temple honouring the Lenca tribe that populated the area before the Spanish arrival, and a path that leads to a sunset point.

The Lenca are the largest tribal group in next door Honduras -
their population in both countries is estimated to be 450,000

Sunset from Conchagua

We had a lovely time up at the top, seeing incredible stars during the night. I was awake because two German speakers in their early twenties hadn’t learnt how to whisper. They also decided that farting loudly at 3am was worthy of deep laughs. I was probably like that once.

As the temperature dropped and wind picked up,
some of us resorted to tequila to stay warm

I still haven't worked out taking star pictures - this is an internet
image that will give you an idea of the magic carpet we saw above us

We woke up for a beautiful sunrise. Different to what we had in 2022, a slightly milkier colour, but just as spectacular.

The clouds made it more atmospheric

The Sun peeking up over what I think is Honduras

What makes Conchagua a bit different is the gulf below, with its islands scattered within. The new element of this adventure, recommended by a Salvadorean colleague, was staying on one of them: Isla Zacatillo.

Zacatillo's main beach at low tide

We stayed in what looked like one of two hotels on the beach

Being one of the closest to the mainland, it’s actually quite hard to see from the top of Conchagua. However, a 15 minute boat ride takes you to the eastern side of Zacatillo, where there is a small beach lined with…well, a couple of hotels and restaurants, and not much else.

Mini loves a boat ride - Zacatillo is less than 10 km from the mainland

This island belongs to El Salvador, but many are either owned
by the other two nations around the gulf or are contested

I’m not spinning that as a negative. The island itself, El Salvador’s second biggest, only has about 2,000 inhabitants. That means that even its ‘busy’ beach was peaceful and wasn’t particularly populated, allowing us to walk the dogs around.

Being tidal, the beach changed from being
enormous when we arrived to tiny later in the day

This wasn't the main beach, but others
like this were uninhabited and lovely

One of the things Mini and Maxi seem to enjoy of late is being on the water. We went for two paddles, one in the blazing heat of the afternoon and the other just after another stunning sunrise. Having massive FOMO, Mini loves to leap and swim between our paddleboard and kayak, swallowing a ton of water in the process. It thus wasn’t surprising to see her immediately vomit as soon as we finished our morning paddle.

Conchagua is directly behind Hannah's head

Mini prepping her leap to the paddleboard

I feel that they want to develop the island as a tourism spot. I have seen a day trip advertised online before, and most of the people who we saw in the afternoon had come on a boat and left before the sun set. The main beach itself had a strange mix of ongoing construction projects, such as the pier, and old buildings that were in disrepair.

A group of daytrippers getting their return boat to the mainland

Fish was very much dish of the day

A Boca Juniors bar, apparently - like
the team, it's seen better days...

Both Conchagua and Isla Zacatillo (its sunrise is the video below) were lovely places in their own right. Very different temperatures, very different experiences, but both showing off the natural beauty of El Salvador. We think the dogs appreciated it…