El Salvador- What They Don’t Tell You.
El Salvador was the last country in Central America that I made it to. And I honestly did not have a lot of high expectations going into it.
If you haven’t been there, you may have only heard the following things:
El Salvador is unsafe.
There isn’t a lot to do in El Salvador.
Most people go there just to surf.
Skip El Salvador.
Well, I went, and I am here to tell you what they DO NOT TELL YOU!
1) Salvadorians are some of the kindest people you will ever meet.
I went to El Salvador during the time I was living in Costa Rica, and I have to say, Salvadorians are even more welcoming and inviting than Ticos (and that’s saying something, because Ticos are VERY welcoming).
They are friendly, hospitable, generous, inviting, warm, and SUCH FUN PEOPLE!
These people (known as guanacos) have been through so much. The bloody civil war during the 70’s/80’s, the current political problems and lack of tourism have affected these people.
But you would never know because they do not seem to have been hardened by their life experiences. If I had to choose a favorite country based on people, El Salvador would be one of them.
19% of the country lives in less than $1.25 a day, and these people suffer from earthquakes, lack of exports and a struggling economy but it does not keep them from their magnetic and hospitable personalities.
Some of my favorite memories that include the locals:
- Singing in a public park and putting our hat out for people to put money in. We had so much fun and ended up earning several dollars, which we gave to the local kids that danced with us after.
- Sleeping at the home of a coffee plantation owner that we met at the beach and spending the next day riding his four-wheelers
- Dancing on a street corner for over an hour to the music of a guy just chilling on the street with his giant speaker and reggaeton music. People came out of the shops and sat to watch us and dance along!
- Riding on the back of the policemen’s four-wheelers, pretending we were lost and didn’t know how to get to our hostel
- Asking a local shop if we could make our own pupusas for dinner, and they actually taught us and let us do it ourselves!
- Meeting some local police at a waterfall on their day off and them offering to give us a tour of the town on their motorcycles
- Our guide showing up in Suchitoto and showing us pictures that apparently he had taken of me running that morning hahhaa
2) The food is incredible
I went to El Salvador after about 2.5 years of living in Costa Rica. If you know me, you know how much I LOVE Costa Rica but…..the food just isn’t that great haha.
And honestly, I don’t love the food in Latin America. There’s a lot of deep fried breads, sugary foods and meat. I have missed good old vegetables. And just……more variety.
The story was different in El Salvador. It may be the country with my favorite food in Latin America. We just couldn’t get our hands on it all. We couldn’t have enough pupusas. And there were SO MANY OPTIONS!
It was a foodie heaven!
I LOVE how in El Salvador you can just drive around and stop along any road to buy fresh local produce or a hot pupusa along the road.
While the US has chain fast food restaurants off of the freeway, El Salvadorian road trips include exotic fruits, sweet breads, and the most fascinating combination of foods that you have ever tried. There are literally stands of fresh food on (what seems like) every-other street.
Everything was so fresh and we never once got sick. One of my favorite memories was going to a market and just trying a bit of everything. Crazy fruits I had never seen, seafood and amazing rice dishes, women pouring giant ladles of exotic juices and savory meats swimming in the most incredible sauces.
3) The history is fascinating
Maybe it was just me being ignorant, but I really didn’t know a lot about El Salvador’s history before I decided to go. I had heard that there were gangs and some sort of political unrest, but I didn’t really know too much else, to be honest.
Before I go to a new country, something I have started to like doing recently is to join Facebook groups in order to get up-to-date and local information about what is going on in the area. Insider tips that you can’t find online, opinions from regular people actually living there, etc.
Through this group, I started to get the idea that there was so much more to El Salvador than I had ever realized.
The Salvadoran Civil War was mostly in the 1970s and 80’s and was fought between the military-side of the govt and a coalition of several left-winged groups.
The Catholic Church was a part of it, and even little kids were used to fight as soldiers. Over 75,000 people died in the 12-year span, not including the people that went missing.
There was still a lot I did not understand behind the reasoning of why everything happened (our tour was all in Spanish), but I remember our guide talking about how he remembers the war when he was a kid. Schools were used as battle stations. There were no schools available, and this is one of the reasons that El Salvador is “behind other Central American Countries”.
It is easy to understand why over 1 million Salvadorians fled to other countries during this time.
Lots of sad stuff, but these people are just incredible for what they have been through. And they are strangely incredibly happy.
4) The geography is mind-blowing
It is the smallest country in Central America, which makes it really easy to see most of it in a short amount of time. You can drive from the north to south in less than 6 hours and from west to east in 3-4, depending on traffic.
But the landscapes all across the country are so unique and different!
The only thing I had ever really heard about El Salvador was the surfing. It is an amazing place to surf, but there really is so much more to see and do, and that is because of it’s unique geography.
El Salvador has mountains, beaches, volcanoes and jungle. It shares borders with Guatemala on the North and Honduras on the East. It is actually the only country in Central America that doesn’t have a Caribbean coast!
5) It’s a good place for a budget
One of my favorite memories of El Salvador is sitting on the warm cobblestone ground in front of a beautiful Catholic church in Suchitoto while the sun set.
Sasha and I were stuffing our faces with our $1 dinners (pupusas, salad, sauces and a fresh fruit drink). I remember thinking to myself as I laid back against the hard ground, warmed from the setting sun, “This is a good place.”
Everything we did seemed to be decent prices. And I am sure we could have bargained people down, but it definitely didn’t seem the right time.
A combination of lack of tourism from political problems, ideas of safety in El Salvador from foreigners and Covid’s impact on the economy made me feel a lot less comfortable with my normal bargain-hunting attitude.
Private rooms for 2 people were $20 a night (AC and wifi included!), dirt cheap pupusa stands lined the roads, and activities were much cheaper than anywhere else I have been in Central America.
I loved my surf lessons in El Tunco. $30 for an hour with a really nice guy named Jose. He helped me stand up on the first wave! I was really anxious, however, hearing that a professional surfer had died in that same area the week before.
6) You probably won’t ever feel unsafe while there
Yes, it is true. El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world. But it is important to understand why that is, and what exactly that means.
After the civil war, there was an “abandoned generation”- kids that grew up during the 70’s and 80’s with no education, unstable family life (some families had members fighting on both sides) and political unrest in every aspect.
Even after “peace returned” to El Salvador, young people had (have) few options to make a decent living. Some resort to joining a gang.
There really still is a ton of violence between gangs these days in EL Salvador. Even while we were there, we heard a report that there was some stuff going on along the border with Guatemala.
In 2015, 61 policemen and 24 soldiers died in a direct combat with gangs (and this doesn’t include the civilians and youth).
I don’t want to play down any of this because it is serious, and it is happening. But I think it is important to realize that these problems are targeted at gangs, and not against tourists.
I traveled alone with one of my girlfriends and never once did we feel unsafe there. I ran alone in the mornings, we ate dinner in public after dark, we danced and played and hiked.
We even slept at the house of a coffee plantation owner that we met at the beach.
And never once did we feel unsafe.
Of course we made safe decisions. We asked locals if it was safe before we made decisions to go out alone or be out after dark. We didn’t care around flashy jewelry or gadgets. And we were intentional with decisions we made. But they were decisions that we would have made anywhere- Not just because we were in El Salvador.
6) It is a country filled with adventure
In the short time we were there, we didn’t even scratch the surface. We could have done a 12 hour hike, visiting several local waterfalls. We could have camped overnight at the top of a volcano. We could have ridden horseback through the area where guerillas hid in the jungle. We could have SCUBA dived in a lake with a sunken city.
There is just so much to do there.
And that’s just how it is when you take the time to go somewhere new. This world is full of adventure. The real world is not what you read online. It’s not what the most popular Instagrammers or social media influencers post about.
Every time I go somewhere new, I am blown away by HOW MUCH there is to see and do there. And how much there is to see and do INSIDE of what there is to see and to.
And I’d love to see it all.
I want to help shed the stereotype that El Salvador is unsafe. I want to scream from the top of my lungs, “Don’t skip El Salvador!” If you go there, you will fall in love with the delicious food, the coffee plantations, and the access to such adventure and excitement.
And you most surely will fall in love with the people.