Playa de Acajutla

Next, Acajutla, El Salvador (our first new country!)...

Only 15 miles from Guatemala, we arrived at the very busy industrial port of Acajutla (that rarely sees any cruise ships and has a lot of industry). El Salvador, a Country of 7.2 million is made up of 14 cities, with a difficult history resulting from multiple civil wars. So much so that over 3 million people have moved from here to the U.S. to get an education and work. The El Salvador diaspora has brought billion to the U.S economy over the years as well as allowed them to send back much need aided to their families here. El Salvador exports a lot of coffee, sugar and balsam (used to make perfumes), fertilizer (maybe it’s the same stuff that makes perfumes) and has a large oil refinery.

The temperature has slowly increased every day as we travel south. It began in the 70’s, 80’s and now in the 90’s as we are getting closer to the equator. We spent the day in San Salvador, a 2-hour (85+ mile) ride from the port, which was quite a beautiful ride as we passed 3 volcanos (within 12 miles of where we were). These are all still active, with Izalco (last erupting in 1966), Santa Ana (2005) and El Boqueron (1917). In addition to these eruptions, earthquakes have destroyed San Salvador six times over. So what was left to see?

When we got to San Salvador we saw interesting architecture on the buildings restored and the new buildings. We went to the National Palace (now a museum - see the floor), Metropolitan Cathedral where we heard the detailed story of the beloved Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero who dedicated his life to bring social justice to San Salvador and was sadly killed, starting a generation of very corrupt government and inequity in this nation. We walked through the government square and the streets of the city which looked beautiful (although we heard about what used to transpire in this square). We walked and observed the interesting vendors, each with a different product they sell to the locals (packaged food, groceries, fruit, meat, flowers, electronics, tools, etc). We also watched them make the mainstay food of El Salvador, pupusas (stuffed tortillas).

The area is very active and used to be quite overrun with street peddlers and lots of crime. What happened? The government cleaner it up! There are security, police and soldiers everywhere and the people in the street are extremely nice to meet and speak with. We even walked off the beaten path in our free time and felt very safe. It is a brand new world here and they are trying so hard to get tourism back and increase visitors. We even had paparazzi wherever we went and they wanted to take our picture for local newspapers (El Diario) and magazines to show that American tourists are back. We saw the building of a beautiful new library and many new buildings to bring back art and culture. The only thing that seemed to be a little concerning was the amount of Chinese investment here in everything from renewing the architecture to building new buildings and helping increase commerce. Time will tell.

Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero's Cathedral (rebuilt 3 times after earthquakes) (photo 1)
National Palace Gardens (photo 2)
National Palace, Now Museum (photo 3)
Everywhere we went were police and Military protecting us (photo 4)
Original Architecture (photo 5)
Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero - Worth reading his story (photo 6)
PUPUSAS!!! (photo 7)
3 for a dollar! (photo 8)
National Theater (photo 9)
Lunch in the Shadows of a Volcano (thats what I saw after a few of these) (photo 10)
Believe it or not, the NEW San Salvador Library being built!!! (photo 11)
The Palace and the Queen (photo 12)
And I was worried about a haircut! $2.50 was a lot... it was much cheaper in one of the"barber tents" (photo 13)
The Original 300 year old floor ..what do you see? Blocks or Stars of David? (photo 14)

A great video that Karen took on our way back to the port from San Salvador. We finished lunch at 1pm (an abbreviated lunch less than half hour) and the ship was leaving at 1:30pm. Try this math: It was a 2 hour (85 mile) ride to San Salvador and we now had a HALF HOUR to do the same trip and there was lots of traffic and construction. We got a police escort along with an insane bus driver (hit 70 mph at times on the curves). We got back at 2pm ... they waited!

https://youtu.be/O5iuikm1QqcRead more