El Salvador Santa Ana and the Ruta de Flores

Another long bus ride, this time across the Guatemalan boarder into El Salvador to a town called Santa Ana. The drive to Santa Ana was very picturesque, again through mountainous / volcanic landscapes (242 volcanoes in El Salvador) and then we arrive in Santa Ana, to what looks like a fairly basic, dilapidated town. Very sad to see many homeless lying pitifully on the streets with their rotting bodies festering in the sunshine (and one man running around completely naked and scrambling in the drains 😳. The boys didn’t point and stare at all 😂). Thankfully, we’ve booked a lovely home-stay, where we are immediately greeted by Ana, the host, who welcomes us into her museum of a home. She even has a working old-style telephone ☎️ that the boys are amazed with, ‘how did it take so long to dial a number’ say the boys! The home is a breath of fresh air amongst the chaos just outside the front door. 

Our first stop is a short walk into the centre of town (Centro), which is a typical Central American square, with a huge church (gothic) at one end, a central waterfall surrounded by plants, taco and pupusa (the local food) stands. It is  bustling with people, noise and general every-day life, with a lovely local feel. 

Not too much to do in Santa Ana so the following day we get up early, and head straight to the bus stop to catch a ‘Chicken bus’ to climb the ‘Santa Ana’  volcano.  Unfortunately it is too windy to see the crater, but we have beautiful views of the volcanoes. We then head to Lake Coatepeque, another caldera lake surrounded by volcanoes, where we can escape the heat for a while with a swim in the beautiful lake. 

The following day, we decide to have a bit of independence to explore the mountains and volcanoes , so we hire a car to head for ‘Ruta de Flores’, a picturesque road connecting 5 small towns in the hills/mountains/volcanoes. 

First stop….a river and waterfalls where the flowing  water is 37 degrees, yes a fully flowing hot river! What more could you want on a hot day 😳, oh and a splattering of leeches after a brief dip!! Despite the screams, this was an incredible place to visit and certainly nothing I had experienced before and I’m pretty sure that for most of the locals, this was their first experience of bathing in hot water. 

Next stop, a small mountain village called ‘Ataco’, which was a lovely breather from the heat, set high in the hills. This small village had a whole heap of gastronomy cafes and restaurants, and was surrounded by coffee plantations as far as the eye could see. We now know all about the coffee making process after a tour of one of the beautiful plantations (kids geography lesson ✅). 

During the next few days, we had many adventures including a visit to the El Salvadorian equivalent of a theme park, where we got lost in a giant maze, and lost our stomachs on a massive, and I mean massive swing. Of course the kids thought it was a breeze, but Mum was embarrassingly petrified!

We also did a hike where we joined the locals and travelled in the back of a pick-up truck (OMG all safety standards out of the window) and waded-through,  abseiled-up and swam in a plethora of waterfalls amongst some lush jungle. This was followed by a quick pitch of the tent (not a chance of a quick pitch as one must always erect a tent in a ‘perfect’ fashion just in case!), and a nights camping at another surrounding coffee plantation. What more can I say, a lovely few days back to what we all love the most, the big outdoors, geez the children are looking feral!