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So if you are new to our channel, my name is Chris, I'm Marianne,
and we have just got back from five months backpacking around Central America.
Yeah, an absolutely fabulous experience,
we visited all the countries in Central America.
We did, we visited every single country
and now we're back in the not so sunny UK, at a family member's house
and today we're going to share our top sites of El Salvador.
But they're not in any particular order, so pick and choose as you see fit.
Our first place if you visit El Salvador,
don't miss the capital city!
San Salvador!
Wow! What an experience, we were lucky enough to hook up with a tour company
called EC Tours, that do a free walking tour. That's something we try and do in
every country. It's a great way to see the city, with a local and San Salvador
did not disappoint us!
No we were fortunate enough to hook up with a
lovely young lady called is Estephany, who showed us around like a local,
We met some of the local store keeper, we got to visit all the sites in a concentrated
tour, and felt so safe, so welcome. Everything that the newspapers, the
social media tell you - the complete opposite! What a time.
San Salvador has some amazing structures. the Cathedral is beautiful,
there's also a church which is made of metal and not stone,
which had us fooled!
Yeah and there's some really unusual architecture,
Yes and there's a beautiful structure called El Rosario Church,
it's a really unusual Church actually, because it's in a sort of
semicircular dome shape, Yeah with beautiful stained-glass windows
and then they have this huge wall,
which has the eye of God which lights up in the Sun so
definitely don't miss that if you go to San Salvador.
Yes as you go on the tour downtown San Salvador,
you get to experience all the different types of
food, there were some local fresh drinks from all the fruits.
Everything there is so vibrant, so colourful and so delicious!
Oh the market, the markets! San Salvador has
got a wonderful market, you walk around
and absolutely bright colours, smiley faces.
A market gives a real feel of where you are.
So coming in as second, the must-see site in El Salvador, is the small village of Panchimalco.
Yes, what a beautiful village, located about 20 minutes drive from downtown San Salvador,
it's up in the hills and it is just such a colourful village.
yes, there is a local artist there,
he and other artists of El Salvador and also Central America,
have got together, to create this beautiful sculptured village,
with stonework and artwork and paintwork the buildings the art, is just glorious!
really beautiful, absolutely! And the artist called Miguel Angelo Ramirez,
is the local artist, that has arranged for all these international
artists, to come together, to create the colour in this town,
and we were lucky enough to meet him, he showed us around his gallery and his artwork was
absolutely amazing
and the buildings were so so colourful,
there's also great views, there's a lovely church and located in
Panchimalco, and we got to eat some Street food, we tried some local street
food, always good to do! If you get the opportunity to try it.
And it doesn't disappoint, Marianne tried crazy corn! oh it was definitely crazy on the taste buds
and it was just so much fun as well,
when somebody says something crazy in El Salvador,
it's actually fun! it means fun and tasty, then they did crazy fries,
crazy corn and they just cover them with cheese and different sauces and stuff
but definitely you should give them a try!
The third must-see site in El Salvador
is the beach area called El Tunco.
Wow what a lovely find, it was just such a cool place!
everyone just hanging out, there were lovely restaurants and bars,
so they really geared towards a tourism El Tunco there's a rocky beach mainly surfers go there,
you see lots of surfers enjoying the surf there,
beautiful sunsets!
and just it's probably about 40 minutes drive from San Salvador.
So yeah, just a short trip, that's the one good thing about El Salvador, it's a
small country, so it's very easy to get around and get to all of these sights if
your pushed for time, in fact that is one of many wonderful things about El Salvador!
Absolutely!
So coming in at number four, Lake Ilopango,
Wow it's an active
volcanic lake, and it erupted in 4 to 500 AD.
It was a massive massive earth
changing volcanic eruption,
the whole of the planet was actually affected by this,
but now it is a beautiful glass topped
absolutely beautiful, peaceful lake.
Yes, it is hard to imagine that there was actually a cone volcano where this lake stands.
And there's activities around the lake, it's about half an hour's drive from
downtown San Salvador and you can go diving, you can go and rent a boat, go on
a boat trip around the lake or you can just hang out on the shores enjoy a beer
and just admire the view a really beautiful place and definitely one well
worth it if you like your photos.
Coming in at number five is Suchitoto!
50 kilometres from San Salvador, beautiful town,
cobbled streets and so so colourful!
Wow! all of El Salvador is so beautiful
and so colourful, but Suchitoto is a really good stop off point.
there are activities and tours and it's one of those old colonial towns,
and if you do go to Suchitoto, make sure you visit Casa1800,
this wonderful restaurant on the edge of town has absolutely amazing views
over late Suchitlan,
in fact we were told this is the Instagram shot of Sutchitoto!
they have got a rocking chair
and you get to take a photo of the beautiful
views behind you, they also have a magnificent menu,
with so many different dishes, in fact they've got the national dish of pupusas
and they've mixed it in with a pizza, and it's called pupizza !! Oh delicious!
All the flavours of a pizza, but with the pupusa, it was just such a lovely dish in fact they have so
many local dishes and they also have fusion dishes.
So, yeah a really really good place to visit.
And the town is beautiful, they have got a lovely square,
as many of the town's do, a nice church overlooking the square, where this
various stands and stalls selling bits and pieces. But also Suchitoto is a
great place to do some tours in the surrounding area. Yeah, we were lucky
enough to go on a tour, a bird-watching tour, that actually took us out in Kayak
canoes, over the Suchitlan lake, and it was just phenomenal! Early start but
definitely worth it, absolutely beautiful views and we saw some beautiful birds
and everything, well worth it, and we also got an opportunity, we went and did a
jungle trek and met Don Rafael who was one of the former rebel guerrillas,
during the Civil War.
Fascinating, really interesting and then we got to chat to
him, and then we went up into the forest and into the tree areas where they stayed,
and we saw their hospital, we saw their Vietnamese kitchen and how they would
have lived at that time, during that really dark difficult days of El Salvador,
and there was some great views from the jungle there and the wildlife.
The nature that we saw was just phenomenal! The butterflies, the lizards
and things, just stunning!
Coming in at number six is Santa Ana!
Everybody's heard of Santa Ana when they visit El Salvador!
It's one of THE places to visit,
and it does not disappoint,
there is so much heritage,
so much culture and the architecture is glorious!
It is! It's the second largest city in El Salvador
and has a central square, a beautiful cathedral,
and then around the square, there is the National Theatre
and beautiful stands selling food and souvenirs
yes indeed and there are lovely little boutique restaurants as well
so there's something for everybody
in Santa Ana
Absolutely and the market, it's got the most fascinating market at weekends,
oh yeah as we did around San Salvador.
We had a good look look around the market, safe to walk around, no problems
whatsoever and lots of friendly people selling lots of delicious foods and bits
and pieces.
Yes do not go to El Salvador, to lose weight, there is so much food and
there's just something for everyone, we loved it and the pastries and cakes!
Absolutely, so also in Santa Ana they have some natural pools we managed to
find them, I'm not going to try and pronounce them because I can't pronounce
them, but I will put a link above now just to show you where they are, but if
you're looking for somewhere to relax, there are some beautiful pools and it's
very reasonably priced to get in to go hang out for the morning or the
afternoon whilst you're in the city. And Santa Ana is a perfect location to kick
off your adventure to the Rutas de las Flores.
Coming in at number seven is a
las Rutas de las Flores
which is the 'flower route'.
So this 20 mile route takes you
through colonial towns and coffee plantations.
The best time to see the
flowers, is actually November to February now we went in the summer
which was perfect too, because the rainy season had started and it was just
springing to life.
You get the opportunity to go to the little local markets,
meet local people, see these beautiful local buildings and they are
all colourful and the cobbled streets just wind and meander through these towns.
So all the way along the Rutas de las Flores our beautiful towns, we stopped
off with this wonderful town, beautiful square, great market and a great place to
get some food
and as you go along the route, there are just absolutely more
amazing towns, like Ataco!
Oh wow, we fell in love with Ataco!
What a lovely place. It really really was, we were lucky enough that it was Father's Day celebrations,
when we were there, and there was food
all over the central square.
Beautiful coloured buildings, cobbled streets,
churches and the friendship, people literally came up to us, welcomed us
to Ataco, and you just got all these lovely little coffee places and
marketplaces, and we love coffee! and this region was just full of coffee!
we did, we actually whilst we were on the Ruta de las Flores,
we got to visit a coffee plantation,
Entre Nubes - Yeah!! you know it! absolutely beautiful coffee.
We had lovely coffee, saw coffee growing and had a lovely walk around their
beautiful gardens, and they guarantee that there will be flowers in their
gardens all year round! Yeah they actually had a huge
selection of flowers and they were well chosen and they were there specifically
to bring colour and interest to these gardens they were glorious gardens.
I love beautiful gardens and flowers and they have put so much work,
magnificent viewpoints and everything, so if you do get a chance to go to the
Entre Nubes, go there, you won't be disappointed!
Yeah and a beautiful tasting coffee, absolutely beautiful, and so hard to
distinguish which was our favourite town in the Rutas de las Flores,
because Ahuachapan, yeah we ended up at Ahuachapan, well another
great town, the most northerly point of the Rutas de las Flores
and we finished there before we headed back to San Salvador
and it was a great place to base yourself to go and see
the surrounding areas, we got a bus to Ataco
from Ahuachapan, we were based in Ahuachapan and used that as a springboard,
to go off to do tours and visit other places,
just lovely the whole Rutas de las Flores, does not disappoint, absolutely!
So if you do end up in Central America like we said, make sure you go to El Salvador!
You won't be disappointed,
the people are absolutely amazingly welcoming,
if you've got any questions about our time in El Salvador.
Then don't hesitate to drop us a message below.
We hope that this little short tale of our adventures will actually inspire you to give El Salvador a chance.
Absolutely, it is so worth it and we would not recommend it highly enough.
Absolutely, so thank you to the people of El Salvador for making us feel so so welcome!
and # Don't skip El Salvador!
We've done a whole series of our time in El Salvador,
so I'll put a link to the playlist above
and if you want to see the detailed information of all those areas.
Where we stayed, which tour companies we used, etc
Then make sure you check out the playlist above,
but we also, are n the process of planning something very interesting.
We are going to drive around the world and our campervan starting in January 2020.
Indeed, so if that's something, that might interest you - Travel,
then why don't you subscribe to our YouTube channel, to come on the adventure with us!
See you next time!
it erupted in about? oh
and it erupted in about 4 to 5 AD, it was - 500 AD !
400 - 500 AD !! - CUT!
They have got the national dish of ............ cut !!
Oh - Do you want me to say it ? Yep - Sorry !! - Cut !