El Salvador May 1978, Jul 1983
I flew into the capital San Salvador to be greeted by the owner of our local operation rather than the factory manager that I had been expecting. He had borrowed the factory Range Rover which had inch thick steel plate inside the doors and bulletproof glass windows which couldn`t be opened. This was round about the time that El Salvador embarked on a civil war between the ruling government and left-wing guerrillas. Unfortunately he didn`t normally drive this vehicle and didn`t know how to work the air conditioning system so we drove the 30 minute journey from the airport with the HEATING on!! The Intercontinental Hotel that I was based in was nice enough - the country is the most densely populated and industrialised in Central America and services were good and food excellent. Most evenings I would be collected by my ex-pat colleague and we would walk to a local eatery - Pacific seafood and garlic to die for! We never went to the same place twice and always set off at a different time. That way we reduced the risk of being kidnapped and held for ransom. Interesting place. And yet I actually felt more threatened in Kingston, Jamaica.
El Salvador in unique in Central Amrica in not having an Atlantic coast every other nation has both Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It is extremely susceptible to hurricanes but that`s not all. It is of course on the region`s fault lines with associated volcanoes - indeed it is known as the Land of Volcanoes. And associated with volcanoes you also get frequent and sometimes destructive earthquakes. Close to the capital is San Salvador volcano which is more than 6,000 feet high. It last erupted in 1917 but has the potential to cause major harm to the country's capital, which lies just below the volcano's slopes; San Miguel last erupted in 2002, is one of the most active volcanoes in the country; other historically active volcanoes include Santa Ana, Ilopango, Izalco, Conchaguita and Quezaltepec. All in all there`s a lot to experience there. Previously agriculture was a major currency earner with coffee, lemongrass and cashew nuts (see the picture in the gallery) amongst the high value exports and, historically, indigo which is currently making a comeback.
One thing that I must mention is the 5.30 fly-in. Sitting in Bill Kapoor`s first floor apartment he checked his watch and made me go to the window and right on schedule thousand of brightly coloured red/blue/yellow parrots (see my gallery below) flew in to roost on the row of tree just across the road. Just like starlings do in the UK. We are in tropical rainforest territory here and the huge range of spectacular birds and beasties (including peccaries) mean that it`s a naturalist`s paradise now that the place is much more stable politically and is developing a tourist industry. El Salvador’s coast is home to world-class breaks that attract adrenaline seekers from all over; international surf competitions are been held here and surf groups frequent the area. Surf lessons and board rentals are readily available. Surf-oriented hostels with open-air bars are abundant. The beach sand is of course of volcanic origin and essentially grey-black in colour.
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Browse through the picture galleries below relating to this page and you will get a much better idea than just reading my words! Each page has it`s own set of relevant images - where possible taken by us.