El Salvador

Arriving in El Salvador, we weren’t really sure what to expect. A country that only recently has become a destination for travellers due to previous safety concerns, it was not necessarily a place that we’d always thought about going. I messaged a friend who I knew had gone the year previous for tips and what places she would recommend. She gave us plenty of options, and we chose just a couple of places knowing that we didn’t have lots of time to actually spend there, anyways.

One of the number one places she suggested was an area called La Ruta de Las Flores. This is a road that connects several lovely, unique towns in a a hilly, very green part of the country. We stopped in the first town along the route, Conception de Ataco. We spent just one night there, so we took advantage. We explored the lovely little town square that they had, ate some really good pupusas, and made a cute dog friend hanging out in the main plaza. We stayed in a little hostel that also doubled as a sort of small-scale dog rescue. The owner has taken in a few dogs that he had found on the streets in very poor health and helped to heal and rehabilitate them. He also sets out food for a regular troop of dogs that visits morning and night. In the morning, we went on a short little run to shake out the legs after the volcano race up to a look at point that had some decent views. Our route to get there took us yet again through the center square, where we bumped into our same doggy friend from the night before. He joined us on our run, all the way up to the lookout and all the way back down to our hostel. We went inside looking for something to give him to eat, but unfortunately in that time a group of the neighborhood dogs scared him off. I was quite sad because I really liked him (I knew we couldn’t keep him, but I certainly would have, if given the chance!).

From there, we went to spend a couple of days in another one of the towns along the route, called Juayua. This town is particularly known for its waterfalls, and there is a hiking route you can do that takes you to at least seven of them. As we were entering our hostel (after a very long, steep climb carrying our heavy backpacks), we saw a couple saying thankyou to a young man who had been there guide to hike to various of these waterfalls. He was wearing a t-shirt that mentioned some kind of trail race. We asked him if he was a trail runner, and, grinning widely, he proudly told us yes. We then asked if he would be able to take us on a running tour of the various waterfalls, which he seemed very enthusiastic to do. We agreed to meet the next morning at 6:30am to do a rougly 20km route that would pass through all of the best waterfalls that Juayua had to offer.

Having a running guide through the waterfall route was wonderful. Not having to think about a route or where we were going was a nice break. He had invited another trail running friend of his, so we were four. It was a beautiful route - we even got to jump in and swim at one of them. They claimed the water was clean enough to drink, but we decided not to take our chances.

One of the waterfalls we actually had to climb up through the falling water. It was amazing, refreshing, albeit a bit scary free climbing up a slippery waterfall. Our guide showed us how to do it safely, so all was well. With him, we learned more about life in El Salvador since the president cracked down and essentially eradicated gangs throughout the country. Our guide, who was only 20 years old, explained that he had only recently gotten into trail running. This was because previously going into the trails was too dangerous. He also told us that when he wasn’t acting as a guide for tourists, he worked on the coffee farms. The coffee farms, however, only pay $8 per day.

After that we travelled to Santa Ana, where early in the morning we would take a bus to Nicaragua. It was a short trip in El Salvador, unfortunately, but we enjoyed it fully.