Volcano – tick!

Finally I’ve succumbed and climbed a damn volcano! They are everywhere in this region, and locals are forever trying to sell you tours up them. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a walk but only when the ground is primarily flat, which volcanoes are by definition not. I’ve almost signed up for some 2 or 3 day volcano hikes before, then common sense prevailed, and I bailed in favour of stationary Spanish classes or simple honest Netflix watching. I couldn’t leave this area of the world without at least summiting one though, and I’m happy to say I have now achieved that!

Santa Ana, or Ilamatepec as it’s also known, stands over 2,300m/7,800ft tall and as such is the highest volcano in El Salvador. But thankfully, the climb only takes a hour or two. Can you start to see why I picked it!? A group of us tourist gringos amassed at the entrance to the Cerro Verde National Park waiting for our guide to show up. There’s a guided hike everyday at 11am for the grand sum of $1 per person. The guide turned up with a policeman, who gave us some words of guidance about the hike (don’t be pregnant, don’t have a back injury, do have a lot of water, etc.). Then they both led us off on our jolly march.

We ploughed through dark damp woodland, then rocky mountainside paths dotted with succulents, and finally scrambled up to the crater summit, slipping and sliding on the sharp volcanic gravel. We were rewarded at the top by epic views of the crater filled with a bubbling, steaming, milky green pool of sulphur infused water.

In the other direction there was the even more spectacular view of Lake Coatepeque, which apparently is only this mesmerising aquamarine colour for two months of the year. Lucky us for the timing!

And behind us, visible throughout our climb, was the tall cone of neighbouring volcano Izalco.

It was a tough climb for this short-legged, accident prone girl. I came away with some grazes on my legs and small cuts on my hands but I survived! And the views were definitely worth it. No more volcanoes though. Thank you.

In search of some final moments of tranquility in El Salvador I stuffed my rucksack onto 3 successive packed buses to get to Suchitoto; a picturesque artsy village on the shores of a man-made lake. As soon as I stepped off the final bus, even though I was tired, my bag was heavy and the temperature was a warm 35 degrees, I felt the calmness of the place wash over me, it was a lovely feeling!

The central square was so still and quiet, a grand church at one end (standard), little artisan shops dotted around, and a strangely high number of cute couples smooching on park benches.

The only hostel I could find was double the price I’d been used to paying, a whopping $22 (£17) for a bunk bed in a small 6 person room! You can’t get mad when the place is as cute as this though…

Its called Grandma’s House as well! Breakfast was included and I was the only person in the room as it turned out, so not too bad. After dumping my bag and having my second shower of the day I explored the village, so amazingly pretty!

I hit up two museums. The first was called the Peace Arts Centre. I skimmed past the two room exhibition on the history of the area because it was mainly long paragraphs of Spanish text rather than visual displays of objects. This selection of seeds in bowls was the visual highlight.

There was some lovely art to admire though. A series of paintings in very different styles. Your friend and mine, swinging breasts woman, makes another vile appearance. There’s literally no escaping her.

A couple of sculptures caught my eye too. The second one looks like a sewn up skull or alien head to me, not sure if that was the artists intention.

On the wander to the second museum I found lots of the same stencilled images next to the front doors of houses.

It reads “In this house we want a life free of violence against women”. Google educated me about the sign, it was part of a campaign to raise awareness of violence against women and children in their own homes and an attempt to reduce it. There’s more info here.

The second museum was the old house of, and now museum dedicated to, the so called ‘Son of Suchitoto’ Alejandro Cotto. He was a famous film maker, who was born and died in Suchitoto, and did much to educate the world about the awful things that happened here during the country’s civil war. I’ve learnt a little about the war from my guidebook, but I haven’t found too many English language guides or museums here to learn more from. I feel a bit sad about that, maybe I should have tried harder to look for something.

The museum displayed lots of photos of him on and off set, many pieces of artwork he collected, and there was a whole room of awards he’d received. The building was set in the most beautiful rocky gardens overlooking the lake too.

For my final morning I spent a lovely couple of hours reading and swimming in these pools near the edge of the lake. Had them mostly to myself as well, divine!