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El Salvador - Nicaragua - Costa Rica
Trip Recommendations
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TRAVELING
CENTRAL
AMERICA
by BUS
:
EL
SALVADOR -
NICARAGUA -
COSTA
RICA
ARGO has been
marina-readied and is in good hands with several trusted friends. We leave
the air conditioner, programmed to “humidity” cycle, running as we have
found that this keeps the boat cool and dry (i.e., keeps mildew and mold
from forming) while not costing too much. Rainy season in the Rio Dulce can
make a mess out of a boat interior if proper precautions are not taken, as
we have learned from others. Other methods are using a dehumidifier,
leaving bowls of vinegar out, using desiccants or chalk packets, and putting
packets of formaldehyde (Sun Pacs) throughout the boat.
 From the Rio Dulce,
we bus it to Guatemala City for some routine medical checkups as it has been
a year. During our stay, we visit the consulates/embassies of El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, collecting some useful information, maps,
etc. (i.e., more stuff to lug around). In the spirit of being a true
cruiser, little advance planning has been done as to specifics. When we
leave Guatemala City, all we have are bus tickets to San Salvador and a
reservation for our first night.
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THE CA-4
THING
Most countries limit the number of days a foreigner can stay in
their country; sometimes an extension(s) is routinely granted.
After that, you must leave the country for a specified period of
time.
In
2006, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, collectively
called the "CA-4",
 unified under an agreement to act as one country
for purposes of immigration. So what this means is that when
our time is up in a CA-4 country, we must leave the CA-4 countries
- which leaves Belize and Costa Rica as our closest options.
In 2006 this was not
being enforced (on the Rio Dulce, we paid "official" people to
take our passports to Honduras to be stamped), but in 2007 it is being
loosely enforced. Under
current law, we are allowed 90 days in Guatemala, then we must
leave for 3 days. |
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We are traveling
during the “green season”, which is the tourism's spin on the “rainy
season”; locals call it “winter” and tourists call it “low season”.
Whatever you call it, it coincides with “hurricane season” and spans from
June through November. Typically, the mornings are clear blue skies, and
the afternoons may cloud up with a couple hours of rain, sometimes at night.
Accordingly, we plan our outdoor activities for the morning, and when we are
out in the afternoon we carry an umbrella or rain jacket. But the good news
about traveling now is that there are a lot fewer tourists. The best reason
we can give for traveling at this time is that advance reservations (for
anything) are not needed so traveling without an itinerary or timetable, as
we did, allowed us to be totally flexible. Accommodations (and other
things) tend to be less expensive (we got several free room upgrades). With
the rains come greener and lusher vegetation and flowering plants
everywhere, and more waterfalls, fuller streams and better river trips and
rafting. Scorching temperatures at the coast and lowlands are replaced with
a bit milder climate and arid places are less dry and dusty.
I’m sure there are
more than a few readers out there who are questioning our wisdom of going to
El Salvador and Nicaragua: “Isn’t it dangerous?” “Don’t you know -
there’re civil wars going on.” “You’ll be killed or kidnapped.” “I heard
about . . . “
The truth is that
the civil wars have been over for years and the countries are rebuilding
themselves. These countries are no different than being in Guatemala (ok,
so some of you wonder about our judgment on that, too) or Belize or Mexico
or Costa Rica (more tourist get robbed in Mexico and Costa Rica than in El
Salvador - ok, so more tourists go to those places). We had absolutely NO problems of any kind on our trip (other
than MasterCard cancelling our card due to stolen card numbers from a
U.S. merchant – that’s why we always travel with multiple cards).
The key is that we
always keep safety in mind when selecting our destinations, transportation,
lodging and activities, even though it may cost us a little more. And
common sense goes a long way, too. For example, cheap local buses
(read: easy target) were only used when we weren't carrying luggage.
There is so much to
see in these countries that we couldn’t do it all, so we had to pick and
choose what we thought were the highlights of each country. For example, all
three countries have more than their share of national parks, protected
areas and privately own reserves, but Costa Rica is best known for it's
fantastic rain/cloud forests and huge wildlife population. (Civil war
has kept El Salvador and
Nicaragua from being overdeveloped and from ravaging it's natural resources; Costa Rica has protected it’s
diverse ecology with over 27% of it's land being protected.)
For those of you
readers interested in traveling to these Central America countries, we have
put together “El Salvador –
Nicaragua – Costa Rica Trip Recommendations” with lodging,
transportation and activity information including costs and trip
tips. Even the casual reader may enjoy looking at this to get more details
and an additional feel for our travels that have not been included here.
|
| |
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EL
SALVADOR
|
OUR ITINERARY |
|
TOTAL DAYS: |
8 |
|
DESTINATIONS: |
San Salvador –
Suchitoto – Morazán/Perquín - Coffee finca in Juayúa mountains
(see map below) |
|
HIGHLIGHT:
|
Day trip to
Perquín, the longtime stronghold of the FMLN anti-government
guerrillas, with a guerrilla-turned-tour guide. |
|
EL SALVADOR |
|
POPULATION: |
6.9 million
(92% mestizo) |
|
AREA: |
8,100 sq.
miles (about the size of Massachusetts) |
|
CAPITAL: |
San Salvador,
pop. 2.5 million |
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LITERACY RATE: |
80%
(rural schools by radio) |
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MINIMUM WAGE: |
$165/month
(highest in
Central America, although stats vary depending on source) |
|
EXPORTS: |
Coffee, sugar,
cotton |
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OFFICIAL
CURRENCY: |
U.S. dollar
adopted in 1991 |
|
VOLCANOES: |
21 known
volcanoes; 3 considered active; Santa Ana erupted in 2005 |
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CIVIL
WAR: |
1980 – 1992: 75,000 killed;
300,000 fled country |
El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and
the most densely populated. It borders the Pacific coast on the west side
(known for it's surfing beaches), and Guatemala and Honduras to the north
and east/south respectively.
In 1998, Hurricane
Mitch devastated the country, leaving 200 dead and over 30,000 homeless. In
January and February 2001, major earthquakes struck El Salvador, damaging about 20%
of the nation's housing. An even worse disaster beset the country in the
summer when a severe drought destroyed 80% of the country's crops, causing
famine in the countryside.
Known as the Land of Volcanoes, there are 2 volcanic ranges
in El Salvador with 3 of the 21 known volcanoes being active. Two of
these active volcanoes have coffee fincas (plantations) on it's
slopes - fertile volcanic soil and their higher altitudes with cooler temperatures
make them ideal for growing crops like coffee - however, it puts many
people's lives at stake. Volcano Santa Ana, after
being quiet for over a century, erupted in 2005, followed 2 days later by
torrential rains from hurricane Stan, creating massive landslides and
burying villages. Damage was worsened by deforestation and overbuilding
in that area.
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LONG-DISTANCE BROTHERS
During the civil war many Salvadoran families took refuge in the
U.S., some
vowing never to return to their homeland. Nowadays, many go there
strictly to send financial support to families back home. Today, the population in El
Salvador is 7 million; there are 2 million Salvadorans living in the U.S.
(mostly L.A. and D.C.).
Those living in the U.S. with modest jobs, called “long-distance brothers”,
send between $2 - $2.5 billion annually back to their families in El
Salvador, which constitutes 16% of El Salvador's gross domestic product.
When those living in the U.S. come back to El Salvador for family visits,
this constitutes 25% of the tourist traffic. And, when returning to the
U.S., “nostalgia commerce” accounts for $450 million (or 10% of the El
Salvador exports). We’ve heard it said several times that the flights
from San Salvador to Los Angeles smell like fried
chicken because the
 cabin is full of cardboard buckets of
Pollo Campero fried chicken - not
to eat on the way but to give to homesick family and friends in the U.S..
But now there are Pollo Camperos in Houston and Los Angeles.
Gringos, cruisers and Steve really like their Pollo Campero! |
|
The
heritage of this country has been greatly lost through the years with
1) the near annihilation of indigenous people in the 1930's, 2) the
fleeing of people during the civil war to neighboring countries, 3) the
return of "Americanized" Salvadorans who were U.S. educated during the civil
war, and 4) the large population of
"long-distance brothers" now living in the U.S.. (See
box LONG-DISTANCE BROTHERS.) The general populace wears
western wear (no, not the giddy-up type) and we noted how much more
casual they are compared to Guatemaltecos. For example, it is not
unusual to see women, girls and even some men wearing shorts.
However, we still observed women and girls carrying baskets and all
sorts of things on their heads, including an older woman carrying a
regular car battery on her head - and with no hands!
When we visited, gasoline was
$3.77/gal. El Salvador, without a doubt, has the best roadways
in Central America, paid for by gasoline taxes and probably from some
other source(s). Due to the civil war, roadways (and buildings,
homes, cars, too) are only 15 years old. We saw where an
acceptable asphalt road was being repaved with cement to make it
better; roadway construction takes place 24 hours/day; and get this,
they actually use heavy equipment like in the U.S. (as opposed to by
hand with rudimentary equipment as in Guatemala).
With little land to farm in
this small country, El Salvador is trying to develop itself into a
financial center and a customer service call center. Salvadorans
don't want to work the coffee and sugar cane fields as wages
are very low and the work very hard. Hondurans and Nicaraguans
have been providing some of that labor force. A family of 4
needs $500/month on which to live. Thirty-four percent of jobs
are non-tax paying (like street jobs selling food) and therefore no
income tax is paid. School is required for children through 6th
grade but it is not enforced - families have to pay for their own
uniforms, books and supplies so many cannot afford to send their kids
to school. Private schools are better but cost around $4,000 for
"enrollment fee" + $400/yr + $125/mo., we were told. Tourism is on the rise; however, most of
it is from within the country so no real new revenues are generated.
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BRIEF (I
tried) HISTORY of EL SALVADOR:
In the late
1800’s coffee became El Salvador’s most important cash crop. By the
20th century, 95% of the country’s income came from coffee
exports but was controlled by only 2% of the population (14 families
at one time). With the Great Depression of 1929 drastically
curtailing coffee exports, life became even more difficult for the
working class who had no land to work. An uprising of peasants and
indigenous people in 1932, led by Farabundo Marti, was countered with
the military (now aligned with the wealthy land owners) killing 30,000
indigenous people and supporters.
Indigenous traditions were lost as
a result.
During the next 40 years, while the country was ruled
by various military dictatorships, there were numerous revolutions,
wars and border disputes with neighboring countries, while
landlessness, poverty, unemployment, overpopulation, political fraud
and corruption
worsened.
By 1979, various leftist anti-government guerrilla
groups had organized themselves into the FMLN party (Farabundo Marti
for the National Liberation), now a revolutionary army with the support of the
rich people. Encouraged by the successful 1979 Nicaraguan revolution,
the leftist FMLN saw an armed struggle against the military government
as the only means toward reforms. The assassination (during mass) of
the outspoken Archbishop Romero (hero to the people) by the right-wing
military in 1980 was the last straw that set off a full-scale civil
war. During 1979 to 1982, 30,000 people were killed by right-wing
death squads backed by the military, led by Roberto D'Aubuisson
(founder of the ARENA - National Republican Alliance).
The civil war lasted for 12 years, 1980 – 1992, with a
total of 75,000 people killed under the rule of the military
government. The FMLN guerrillas responded by blowing up bridges,
cutting power lines, burning coffee crops, killing livestock –
anything to stall the economy. At the start of the war, and after
the rape and murder of 4 U.S. nuns, President Jimmy Carter suspended
trading and military aid with El Salvador. However, in spite of
scores of human rights violations, in 1981 President Reagan
intervened on the side of the military dictatorship. During the
12-year war, besides training many of their soldiers, the U.S.
government gave
a staggering total of $6 billion to the Salvadoran military
government's war effort, which only fueled the fire and prolonged the
conflict.
Salvadorans see the civil war as a struggle between the
U.S. and Russia on Salvadoran soil: The U.S. supported the
military government while the guerrillas were sponsored by Russia. Interestingly enough, the
Salvadoran civil war ended just after the Berlin Wall fell, and the
Nicaraguan civil war ended. In the end, neither the military
government nor the opposing guerrilla forces won the war. But
everybody lost. The war set back El Salvador’s development by 30
years. Roads and bridges had to be rebuilt, coffee crops replanted
and matured, utilities reinstalled, etc.. 300,000 Salvadorans fled
the country – to neighboring countries and the U.S. - many
promising
never to return.
In 1992 the government signed a Peace Accords with the
guerrilla forces, ending the 12-year civil war. The guerrilla-based
FMLN became an opposition party that the government agreed to work
with and so far this has been happening. It is remarkable in that
this is a model example of where a former guerrilla organization has
successfully joined the formal political process. Many of
the reforms have been made (e.g., voting, no more persecution,
political) but economic reforms have been slow to come.
Today, this strong left wing FMLN party, although it
does not have any executive power, has almost 50% control of the
congress. Elections are coming up in 2008 and some say the FMLN may
be able to win. Those in opposition say that if the FMLN wins, that
that would be the beginning of communism. But others argue that no
Salvadoran wants communism, they’ve seen what has happened in Russia
and in Cuba, and they value their relations with the U.S.. El
Salvador’s government is low-profile/non-committal with neighboring
Nicaragua, now that Ortega is back in power and in bed with
Venezuela’s Chavez, Cuba’s Castro and Bolivia.
El Salvador
attempts to closely align itself with the U.S.. In 2001, it adopted
the U.S. dollar as the official currency (3rd to Panama and Ecuador in
Latin America).
The nation implemented a free-trade agreement (CAFTA) with the U.S. in
2006, the first Central American country to do so.
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- -
-
 A 4-hour trip from Guatemala City on a deluxe double-decker
bus puts us in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. As we crossed the
border from Guatemala into El Salvador (no passport stamping due to the CA-4
thing), we were surprised by the immediate,
obvious differences between these 2 countries. Our first impressions of El
Salvador: Excellent highways – yes, we can actually call these “highways”
- impeccable surface, divided with landscaped medians, wide shoulders, well
marked and good signage – we thought we were in Colorado; much cleaner and
less roadside trash; lack of colorful traditional dress that we’ve become
accustomed to seeing in Guatemala; local buses (and cars) in much better
condition.
- -
-
  We spent our first night in
Suchitoto, a small,
cobblestoned-street, colonial town. It is an
hour north of San Salvador, situated high up on a hill overlooking serene
Lake Suchitlán.
This town, once a cultural center, was a stronghold of the guerrillas during the civil war, and
accordingly suffered great damage. Since 1992, it has been rebuilt and
become a weekend and holiday getaway for wealthy Salvadorans. Although not
 obvious at first glance, there
are several very nice hotels and restaurants, and a budding arts scene.
Some describe Suchitoto as what Antigua, Guatemala must have been like 25
years ago. We ate Sunday lunch (Argentinean grill) at a nationally
renowned artist's (wood sculptor and painter) house, which is his workshop
and gallery Monday thru Saturday.
We stayed at a brand new guesthouse with a lovely view of the lake and
surrounding volcanoes from the balcony. Lake Suchitlán, constructed
over pyramids in 1976 to make power, has water taxis but no recreational
vessels (the water is considered unsafe for swimming due to runoff from the
surrounding hills). Being pretty laid-back, we watched the holiday weekend
festivities, explored locally and planned our next destination.
- - -
 San
Salvador,
the capital, is a pleasant city
with two very safe areas (Zona Rosa and Colonia Escalon) to stay in and
explore day or night, with lots of restaurants. The international bus
lines are also located here so we were able to easily "shop" our
transportation to Nicaragua. We also made use of the city buses to take us to
several very nice museums (see Trip Recommendations), and
one day inadvertently took a 2-hour city tour en route back to our
hotel.
 El
Salvador does not offer a lot in the way of artisan crafts. Of note,
however, is the folk art of Salvadoran Domingo Herrera, showcased in the
small Museo de Arte Popular. Her classic pieces are sorpresas -
"surprises" - a tiny, meticulously painted clay figure depicting a
profession or domestic scene, hidden inside a hollow clay "egg" cover.
This has flourished into a local, if not national, art form describing whole
scenes of festivals, daily life, etc., made up of hundreds of these
miniature figurines. The tipíco sorpresas have evolved
into pícara
(mischievous) sorpresas - imagine the surprise when you lift the lid
to reveal a petite ménage à trois! (not pictured).
 A somber sight is the Monument
to Memory and
Truth, built in 2003,
 dedicated
to the children, women and men who were the innocent victims during the
civil war. The monument is a 250 ft. long black granite wall -
patterned after the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. - with an
alphabetical listing by year of more than 25,000 (of the estimated 75,000 in
total) people who were killed or disappeared during the war. The
number of names shown for 1980-1983 alone is staggering. To one side
of the monument is a long 3D mural depicting the Salvadoran people and their
conflict.
- -
-
Juayúa:
We wanted to experience the
fertile volcanic mountain area where coffee is grown. We did an overnight
trip to El Portezuelo Finca (elev. 3,300 ft.), in Juayúa, (near Sonsonate)
along the Ruta de las Flores,
where we stayed in the artsy guest house on a working coffee finca (plantation).
(The owner is one of the 5 major coffee producers in El Salvador and they
sell exclusively to Starbucks. Interestingly enough, we were NOT served
their coffee for breakfast.
    
Being the only guest there, we were waited on
hand and foot. We did 2 guided hikes: One to the very hot springs/geyser flowing
down the mountain with a great view into the valley (but cold springs would
have been more refreshing!). The other hike, our favorite, was through coffee
fincas, a corn field and
up into the cool tropical cloud forest, over the mountain and down to Laguna
Verde, a crater lake,
returning on winding, hilly dirt roads alongside other coffee fincas.
This is where we saw another use for snow chains: Finca workers put
them on their trucks so they can drive on the muddy trails.
    
Outside the cities, and in
particular on coffee fincas,
we observed that most of the workers are women and girls, as
the men and boys were killed during the civil war and others are in the U.S.
sending money back to families. The women and girls are very strong.
We saw them doing
the heavy work, including an older woman carrying a regular car battery on
top of her head (wish I had a picture) and girls using machetes to trim
trees. On more than one occasion, we’ve had a skinny girl working at the
hotel carry all 3 of our backpacks at once – that’s probably about 70 pounds
– but then we insist on carrying some.
- -
-
Morazán /
Perquín /
El
Mozote: Although we’re not history buffs, we wanted to understand
what the civil war in El Salvador was all about. As with probably most
Americans, about all we knew was that there had been a long fought civil war
in El Salvador in recent years (and hoped it was over with since we were here). Thus, we decided we’d like to visit that part of the
country best known for its guerrilla warfare.
We took a long (14 hour) day trip along the Ruta de la Paz, “Peace Route”, up
into the mountains in the far northeast part of El Salvador called Morazán. This remote area, and in particular the town of
Perquín,
was the headquarters of the guerrillas during the civil war. Through the
tourism board, we contacted Mario
who gave us an excellent, eye-opening private tour of the area. A portion
of the tour was conducted by Mario’s good friend, Luis, 38, a former FMLN
guerrilla who began fighting at age 12. Another
portion of the tour was to El Mozote, the scene of a short-lived but brutal massacre
of innocent people by the government. (See below.)
|
TRIP to AREA of PAST INTENSE
GUERRILLA WARFARE
(slide show below) |
|
 PERQUIN: FMLN HEADQUARTERS
Perquín
is located in the remote, high mountainous region of northeast El
Salvador, very near the Honduran border. This was the primary
headquarters for the FMLN guerrilla war effort. The guerrillas hid
in the forest and in underground tunnels; trenches on top of the
mountain provided safe observation. The FMLN's underground radio
broadcast was operated from here.
Inside the Museum of
the Revolution - we were not allowed to take pictures - we saw a large and
extensive assortment of Russian-supplied weapons,
ammunitions, missile/grenade launchers, etc. and some of U.S. origin
that fell into their hands. Lots of photos were
displayed of the guerrillas and Luis pointed out his uncle (who we met
that day) and other family and friends. So many of them were very,
very young - just kids, as was Luis. Surprisingly to us, women played a very important role in
the guerrilla war effort. About 40% of the FMLN members were women,
and they held 20% of the high leadership positions within the organization and
composed a third of the active
combatants. Outside, we saw planes (of Russian and U.S. origins),
each with a story to go with it. More artillery.
We went in the room from which the clandestine FMLN radio
broadcasts were made. Located high up on a mountain helped the signal
get out. Again, no pictures allowed, but the room was totally
"wallpapered" in egg cartons to absorb the sound, and various equipment was
laying around. Remember, the war only ended 15 years ago, so it hasn't
been that long.
A walk around the "compound" revealed bomb craters, shell
casings, oh yeah, and a Cadillac that somebody important rode in. The
organizer of the museum we met. |
 MASSACRE IN EL MOZOTE
In December 1981, under false
pretenses by government officials, residents - mostly women and children
- from the outlying villages gathered in El Mozote to seek shelter from
an impending military strike against the guerrillas. But for no
apparent reason (these people did not extend aid to the guerrillas), an
elite U.S.-trained Salvadoran military group captured, terrorized and
separated men from the women and children. They were locked up in
various places, and then sadistically killed - infants speared with
bayonets, children machine-gunned down in the church, men decapitated, women and girls
raped in the hills. The bodies were burned along with the town, or left
to rot. Only a handful survived (see box ABOUT OUR GUIDES below).
Even though the FMLN guerrilla's
underground radio reported the atrocities, and the Washington Post and
New York Times interviewed 2 eye-witnesses, both the Salvadoran and U.S.
governments denied this ever happened. It wasn't until after the
Peace Accords were signed more than 10 years later that exhumation of
some of the bodies confirmed the massacre.
In all, almost 1,000 people,
mostly women and children, were killed over a 3-day period. |
|
Click here to
view Slide Show of
Trip
to Perquín and El Mozote
|
|
ABOUT OUR
GUIDES
 Our
trip guide, Mario Dominguez, 31, was born in 1976, just a few years before the
civil war broke out. His father, who was a traveling salesman and
feared he would be killed, moved the family to Brazil, to return later
after the war ended. His family was more afraid of the National
Guard and soldiers than of the guerrillas. During our visit, Mario
was noticeably disappointed that Americans in general weren't more aware
of their civil war history.
Mario is a supporter of the leftist FMLN
party.
 Our
ex-guerrilla guide, Luis, 38, was born here and lives in Perquín. He was
12 when the civil war started and fought for 12 years with the FMLN. He explained
that there are many reasons why one becomes a guerrilla: Luis had
family members fighting (we met his uncle) and some were killed; others fight because they believe in the cause,
while younger members might do so just because they live there or have older family
members fighting.
Our eye-witness survivor guide in El Mozote, Rufina Amaya
Márquez, was there when the soldiers stormed the village, and
captured and murdered everyone. She saw her husband shot and
decapitated, and heard the horrific screams of her 4 children as each was
brutally murdered. At the end of a line of women walking to their
deaths, she fell to her knees begging God, and just happened to be between
2 trees that hid her from the accompanying soldiers. Having to lay
absolutely still and silent as soldiers meandered around and the killings
continued, she eventually was able to crawl into the thorny brush to await
the soldiers departure. She eventually made her way to safety where
she was found naked by guerrillas who were thankful for an eye-witness
survivor. She is
one of only a handful of survivors. Her family was all killed - she
showed us their names at the monument. |
- -
- After an
enjoyable and educational eight days in El Salvador,
a 3:00 a.m. “luxury” bus takes us out of El Salvador, through
the volcanic foothills of Honduras at sunrise, and into
Nicaragua .
. . |
|
Also see “El Salvador –
Nicaragua – Costa Rica Trip Recommendations” with lodging,
transportation and activity information including costs and trip
tips. Even the casual reader may enjoy looking at this to get more details
and an additional feel for our travels that have not been included here.
|
|
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El Salvador - Nicaragua - Costa Rica
Trip Recommendations [ Top of page ]
|
