El Salvador - A volcano in a volcano…

 February 7

Hello everyone!

The Land of Volcanoes, one of El Salvador’s self-titled nicknames, has a wide variety of them throughout the country. One of them, with a bit of effort, you can stand…in…

Sitting in El Boquerón

Standing on Boqueróncito

I live in the shadow of one of these large volcanoes: San Salvador Volcano. It’s rarely called that, instead being known by its popular name of El Boquerón, meaning ‘big mouth’ (Google Translate actually says it’s anchovy but…not this boqueron!). It looms large over Santa Tecla, where I live, and I see it every day when arriving at work.

The volcano is north of Santa Tecla and northwest of San Salvador

The volcano seen from school

In spite of it being so close, I don’t head up the volcano that often. I went to the top in my first week of living here, back in 2022. I’ve gone up the higher side once to its tip, called Picacho, on a hike, and to the top of the crater itself one more time as part of a trail run. Other than that, it’s something I’ve looked up to rather than down into.

Up at the top in August 2022

At the top of Picacho in October 2022

Of course, when you look into most volcanoes, you may be expecting to see bubbling magma and fissures of steam. In El Salvador, it’s not uncommon to be looking at a beautiful crater lake. El Boquerón apparently had a lake in it until its last eruption in 1917.

Mum looking into Ilamatepec - Santa Ana Volcano - in 2024

Maxi looking slightly stressed in a crater lake at Ilopango

What you’re probably not expecting to see is a second crater. A smaller crater, hence the name Boqueróncito (the suffix -cito is used to add that something is small and often cute, like a small coffee sometimes being called a cafécito). But that brown mound, over 550 metres below the crater’s rim, is another cone with another crater.

The top of the original crater is over 1800 metres above sea level

The little crater was formed after the 1917 eruption

Looks interesting from up high. What I discovered early on after moving here is that, with the right people, you can hike into the volcano to stand in Boqueróncito. One of those people was Rudolf, the man who led my hike up Picacho. That hike was supposed to include going into the Boquerón crater, but we didn’t get to as others in the group couldn’t keep pace. This time was going to be different. We would head into the volcano.

I don't think doing this is illegal - I'm not sure how legal it is, though...

Rudolf with our group at the top of the volcano

So it was that eleven of us joined him a little after 6:30am on a Saturday morning to descend into the crater of El Boquerón. A short walk took us to the rim, which has a circumference of about 5 kilometres. We followed that path for a little while before turning right. Turning down.

The positioning of the route meant that
the sun was rising on the other side

Starting our descent

The start was easy enough, with a seemingly well-worn dusty path covered by fallen leaves and branches. This changed soon after, with the path turning into rocks and requiring us to start holding on to tree roots to secure us. Health and safety officers in the UK would have had a heart attack.

The fertile volcanic soil has meant that a
plethora of trees have grown inside the crater

I think the yellow caution tape is actually used to show the route down

They may have spontaneously combusted at a section roughly halfway down the crater wall. I hadn’t done a lot of research, so hadn’t expected a rope to be brought out. Holding the rope with the left hand, we then had to manoeuvre around a boulder - through a tree - before sliding down another root. I didn’t realise how high this particular part was when reaching down with my left leg, leaving my right foot up towards head height. Good stretch.

How it starts...

...and how it ends.

When obvious, the path became a bit slippery from the mass of dust that hadn’t been washed away due to it being our dry season. Hands got increasingly dirty as we navigated down towards the bottom.

My watch was playing up a bit, but I believe it when it said
that this kilometre had an average of a -22% gradient

Lots of careful steps required!

About two-and-a-half hours after starting, we suddenly came to an opening and were surrounded by tall, yellow, straw-like grass. We were in the crater itself. 

Suddenly felt warm at this point - the sun,
not an imminent eruption from below

This is the other side of the crater

Of course, getting into Boqueróncito would involve climbing up the side of that particular cone. At 37 metres, it’s not that tall, so soon enough, we were on our second crater rim of the day. Much yellower than it looks from the top!

Some of the grass was very high as well as yellow!

Hiking down into the little crater - the path was mainly
made of loose rock with occasional lava remnants

It’s impossible to see from the very top, but there are painted white stones inside the baby crater, which are often manipulated by successful hikers to spell something. Hilariously, when we arrived we found that they already spelled out the name of one of our group members. Once we had headed into the crater, we changed it to do a bit of school advertising.

General consensus was that our A could have been better 

This plastic tube checks for seismic activity below -
important, as I've been told that El Boquerón erupts
roughly every 100 years...and it's been 108... 

After a much-needed snack and stop in the shade, we headed back the same way which we had come down. I found this much easier and quicker, with a little bit of rock climbing added in. I’m thankful that I didn’t suffer from the new Spanish word I learnt today: one of our group got ‘calambre’: cramp.

Our guide leading us uphill

Some rock scrambling was needed

In total, our hike lasted a little under six hours. Returning to the top a little sore, rather dusty and very glad that I had managed to do this hike before leaving El Salvador. It’s not every day that you can say you’ve stood inside a volcano!

Standing at one of the lowest points in El Boquerón

A cool way to spend a Saturday morning!

Our team of 11

Love you all,

Matt