El Salvador: a country on the rise

21.07.2023 - 07:59 / roughguides.com

Well over two decades have passed since El Salvador’s brutal civil war. And while the country still bears the scars of its past, El Salvador is looking to the future. Freya Godfrey reports from a nation on the rise.

“Every time we talk about El Salvador, we are talking about the civil war.”

Benjamin, a bird-watching enthusiast and our guide for the next few days, is driving us along El Salvador’s Ruta de Las Flores.

This «Flower Route» is a picturesque journey that takes in dramatic volcanic scenery, coffee fincas and a series of the country’s prettiest colonial towns. Here, in such seemingly peaceful surroundings, it’s easy to forget that the 1980–92 Salvadoran Civil War ever happened, but Benjamin tells us it pervades Salvadoran life.

Estudio Maia/Shutterstock

The civil war left behind a country crippled by poverty and stunted economic growth, as well as a tourist industry in tatters. But tourism is once again on the rise, and it’s easy to see why.

What started as a left-wing uprising against a military-dominated, repressive regime became – to simplify things – another proxy cold war for the US. The Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), fought US-backed Salvadoran government over twelve bloody years, during which more than 75,000 people lost their lives, many of them civilians, and a million more people found themselves displaced.

Twenty-six years ago, the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed, but this left behind a country crippled by poverty and stunted economic growth, as well as a tourist industry in tatters.

But tourism is once again on the rise, and it’s easy to see why. The country boasts a rich mix of colonial and traditional culture, while the line of volcanoes that runs east to west have created some awe-inspiring natural features, from the Boquerón crater – a favourite spot for hiking and birdwatching – to the black-sand beaches of La Libertad. There’s also a number of top surfing spots – and, of course, a wealth of Mayan sites to explore.

Perhaps the most interesting of these ancient sites, because it offers something totally different to Guatemala and Costa Rica’s Mayan ruins, is Joya de Cerén, which we visit at the end of our trip. A volcanic eruption perfectly preserved a Mayan settlement here – complete with a female shaman’s divinations hut – leaving behind something of a small-scale Salvadoran Pompeii. We explore the place with hardly another tourist in sight, the sparse information boards a sign of the untapped potential that El Salvador has to offer.

Hugo Brizard/Shutterstock;

Outside, a man in a tracksuit asks us where we’re from, our sunburned faces giving us away as western tourists. The son of Salvadoran parents, he lived in America