The view of San Salvador at first light, from our perch on the hills, did not disappoint. After breakfast at the most renowned pupusas place in the area (El Atico Volcano) with a great view, we headed north to Suchitoto.
After a great super-tight twisty road up and down the mountain and a road through farms and small villages we finally arrived at Suchitoto ... a beautiful colonial village close to the border with Honduras ... tile roofs, white walls, cobble stone streets, churches, plazas, and great big lake right outside town.
Suchitoto was founded in 1528 and has gone thought a long and colorful history. After the Civil War in the 1980's, people came back to turn the town into the beautiful place it is today.
We had some drinks on the terrace at the Casa 1800 hotel overlooking the lake and then headed back to San Salvador.
We also met an Italian that was scouting places in several Latin American countries for 3,000 of his friends to relocate from Italy ... which apparently is in terrible decline ... the joys of traveling!
We had a great spirited fast ride back to San Salvador ... with on and off traffic that required our best dodging and swerving skills to get through it ... challenging and fun!
The Hyatt Centric in San Salvador felt like an oasis after crossing San Salvador from East to West in heavy traffic. A nice hotel with cappuccinos and a pool ... just what we needed.
It feels like El Salvador is a bit newer and more developed than Guatemala ... it has better infrastructure but everything is smaller in scale ... however, it has no industry to speak of and no agriculture at scale ... El Salvador has to import a lot of things including its vegetables from Guatemala ... getting huge amount of remittances for their sizable diaspora living in the States also helps with the buying of things.
However, the reality of that Guatemala does have a higher GDP per capita ($6,500 vs $5,500) and it has 3 times the population (17M vs 6M) ... so what is it? I think it is the lack of black-smoke belching buses everywhere like you find in Guatemala : )
In the afternoon, we headed to the historic center ... what a surprise! Beautiful plaza with perfectly manicured landscaping, fountains everywhere, clean, beautifully illuminated, surrounded by the National Palace, the Cathedral, and the newly completed Chinese-funded Central Library. See pictures below.
We had dinner an a nice Italian restaurant at the top of the library and had a nice walk before heading back to the hotel. We also visited the famous Bar La Dalia but it was closed ... this bar and billiards club apparently was visited by Cantinflas, Pedro Infante, and maybe even Che Guevara.
Another great day in a great country.
No comments:
Post a Comment