EL SALVADOR – SUCHITOTO

January 19-23, 2024

Getting to Suchitoto was an adventure in itself. We had gone to where a bus stopped the day before we were to leave. We like to scope out things like this early. The bus driver told me that we had to go back to Santa Ana in order to get to Suchitoto. He also said there was a bus at 7:00 AM that left from that location. Perfect.

The next morning we went to leave the hotel at 6:30 AM only to find it was locked tight! I mean with 1/2 inch deadbolt that was padlocked. Our upstairs bedroom had a metal grill from floor to ceiling, so there was no escaping that way either. Pierre used his big voice and shouted HELLO! The manager came out and let us out. It was a scary moment not only for the fact we could have missed our bus, but what if there were a fire? We shutter to think!

We walked over to where the bus stop was only to find out that this was not the corner where the bus to Santa Ana stopped. No problem. We went to the next corner and caught the $0.80 bus to Santa Ana. When we got there, everyone just piled out on some random street. I asked the driver where the bus to Suchitoto was. He said that bus 201 was at the terminal nearby. Once we rounded the corner we realized we knew exactly where we were; we had taken the bus to Juayua from that terminal. We made our way there only to find out there is no bus to Suchitito from this terminal. That bus 210 leaves from a different terminal. Wait, what? A different bus number? Oh, and there is no bus to Suchitoto. We had to go through San Salvador. What? We could have taken a bus to San Salvador from Juayua and saved the 90 minute bus ride back to Santa Ana. UGH! A driver finally took pity on us and offered us a free ride to the other terminal. Nice. (Did I mention that we met SO many random people who helped us with no expectation. They may not know their directions and how to get places, but they are certainly kind. I don’t know what the bus number finally was.

We got dropped of at the other terminal – which we had passed on our way into town. A man there helped us carry our bags and helped us buy our tickets ($1.00 each), escorted us to the proper bus and told us that we would have to go to at a different terminal to get to Suchitoto. He spoke really good English, which was a blessing because I was getting frustrated and my Spanish was disappearing as fast as my blood pressure was rising.

We got to San Salvador and found a ticket agent booth. We asked them about a bus to Suchitoto. They confirmed that it was at a different station. I asked them to write down the name of the station so we could show it to the taxi driver. We found a taxi, showed him our destination and agreed on a price. He wanted $6.00 for a 15 minute ride. We got to a place where there were a lot of buses, but certainly not a terminal. No worries, we are used to this “sort of” stations. He asked where we were going. I told him Suchitoto. He said there is no bus to Suchitoto from this terminal. It was a different terminal and would require another $4.00. (My theory of taxi drivers being crooks still stands.) He took us to a completely different terminal than the one we had been told to go to. But he assured us there was a bus to Suchitoto here.

Pierre guarded the bags while I ran to find a bus. I asked a security guard where the bus was. I was standing right in front of it. I asked the driver when he was leaving. He indicated 3 minutes. I ran back to get Pierre and our bags. We boarded the bus seconds before he pulled out. The cost was $1.00. It was hot, hot, hot on the bus. My watch thermometer indicated it was 35 degrees Celsius.

We got to Suchitoto and caught a tuktuk to our guesthouse. The addresses that the guesthouses give are rarely exact. The tuktuk took us to the address indicated, but there was no sign of a guesthouse anywhere. We asked a policeman who was going by on his motorcycle. He didn’t know. Another tuktuk driver pulled up. All three of them were scratching their heads. I tried to call the guesthouse but there was no answer. I tried again, and someone answered. I gave the phone to the cop. When he hung up he said follow me. He drove slowly ahead and we followed like a couple of lost sheep. He stopped in front of Hostal Raices de Mi Pueblo where the hostess greeted us with a big smile.

We checked in then made our way back to the plaza for a cold drink and a meal. We had not even had breakfast and it was now 2:00 PM. We had met Gavin, from Australia, on the bus to the Santa Ana Volcano. Being the only English speakers on the bus, we hit it off immediately. We had exchanged contact information. He had text us yesterday to say that he was in Suchitoto. Perfect. We agreed to meet for drinks that evening. I text him to let him know we had arrived. He ended up meeting us at the restaurant. When it came time to part ways, we discovered that we were staying in the same hostel. Crazy! And we were in the next room. Crazier! He stayed an extra day and we spent a good deal of time together. He is a very interesting man having been a lawyer, a flight attendant, taught English in China and was fluent in Japanese, just to mention a few of his qualifications. We agreed to keep in touch and hopefully meet in his native Australia in the future.

It was brutally hot in Suchitoto with temperatures constant at 37-38 degrees Celsius. It was too hot to do much of anything. We tended to hide in the hostel most of the time. The hostel came with breakfast, so that helped. We made our way to Lake Suchitlan. It is also known as the Cerrón Grande Reservoir, It was created in the winter of 1976 with the construction of the Cerrón Grande Hydroelectric Power Plant. It was a short walk of about 2 kilometres round trip, but it was fairly steep decline to get there, so it was a bit of a work out to come back. The lake was fairly big and had rough waves. There were mountains on the other side and a few islands in the middle. Having grown up in Alberta, it was not as spectacular to us. It was a lake, that’s it. Sorry.

As we were leaving the lake I spotted an interesting statue. It is a monument World Solidarity for the Freedom of the 17.

Human rights defenders fought for the freedom of women who were unjustly accused, convicted and imprisoned after suffering out-of-hospital emergencies, denying them the right to the presumption of innocence and imposing sentences of up to 40 years in prison for a crime that they did not commit. The rural Salvadoran women, living in poverty, had a hasty childbirth (miscarriage) in their homes and were reported for abortion; but were prosecuted and convicted of aggravated homicide. The State did not assume the health problem that the women suffered, but instead criminalized them. Amnesty International even got involved when a group of citizens presented the Legislative Assembly with 17 requests for pardon for each of the 17 women. The monument is an globe shaped iron structure. Inside there is a tree and two women. One is supporting the other as she tries to reach out through the bars to grab a key to freedom. More than one million Amnesty members individually sent different coloured ribbons to be hung on the structure.

All around town there were spray painted pictures of a bird sitting on a branch a flower. Below were the words which translated to “In this house we want a life free of violence towards women.”

Another day we walked about 7 km round trip to see Cascada los Tercios. We knew there was no water at these falls this time of year but were told the rock formations were interesting. We paid our $1 USD each and started down the rough trail to where the water would be flowing during the wet season.

We made our way to the 35 metre (115 ft) drop off. The walls of the canyon are made of hexagonal columns. It was very unique! We made our way up the river bed and had a good look at the tops of the columns as we scrambled across them.

Further up was a viewing area with a cabana where we sat on the swing

then lounged in a hammock while we looked out over the lake.

We were going to go to Cinquera, but didn’t. There were only two buses per day and we could not get a consensus as to the times. If we missed the returning bus – that left either at noon or 2:00 PM – we were stuck for the night. Considering the bus arrived at 10:00 or 11:00, that did not give us a lot of time. Also, our research showed that the museum we were interested in was hardly mentioned. So why did we want to go? This area had the fiercest fighting during the Civil War. The Guerrillas hid out in the forest here. After the war they created a Rain Forest Park because they felt that the forest had sheltered them and even took bullets for them, so they wanted to protect the forest in return. The tour guides were former Guerrillas. Another reason we didn’t go was because they didn’t speak English. But it sounded interesting….

Although we had a hostel with a kitchen, we ate out. We found a lovely restaurant just off the church square, La Lupita del Portal, and frequented them every evening for a chicken garden salad. It was super hearty and delicious. It cost $9.50. Add in a couple of huge fresh lemonades and it was a refreshing meal. And it was too damn hot to cook!

Suchitoto proved to be a sleepy little town. People gathered in the square in front of the church, more so in the evening and on the weekend.

Vendors had food stalls set up next to the square.

The church bells rang every half hour, adding to the cacophony of noises. People sat on the steps outside of their houses, visiting with friends and neighbours, in the cool evening air.

Children played soccer on the streets or sidewalks with an old ball.

One group of kids showed us their homemade table soccer game. It had nails pounded into a piece of plywood representing the defence. The idea was to take your pencil and “kick” the marble soccer ball once. Where it stopped was where your opponent had his “kick”. It was actually lots of fun.

Clothes hung on clothes lines and power lines, drying in the sun. Tuktuks putted up and down the cobblestone streets taking tourists and locals to their destinations. Every trip was $1. There were 3 wheeled tuktuks and 4 wheeled tuktuks that resembled a SMART car.

There are lots of flowering trees and bushes in the yards and along the streets. Roosters crowed in the mornings and the dogs that slept on the sidewalk during the day barked at night.

It was lovely, and we grew to love it. But it was time to move on to San Salvador.