Walking With El Salvador

 Part 2: Off the Beaten Path at Ecoparque El Espino View looking down from Mirador Aleman  Before dawn on a recent morning, my husband and I headed up the San Salvador Volcano to do some hiking and bird-watching. Our destination was Ecoparque El Espino - a place we have heard about for years but a place we had not yet explored. We will definitely make this a recurrent destination to enjoy on our own and with delegations of visitors. Situated on the southeast side of the San Salvador volcano, Ecoparque El Espino consists of 102 acres of protected land, at an elevation of just under 4000 ft above sea level. Unlike Parque El Boquerón (featured in Part 1 of this story),  El Espino is not managed by the national park system, nor has it been developed as a tourist site with "fancy" amenities. It is owned and managed by the El Espino Cooperative, which garners income from coffee production and, since 2003, eco-tourism.  Can't pass up a swinging bridge! We wandered, carryin...

El Salvador is a land of volcanoes - a land of volcanoes and of craters and of lagoons. Some lagoons are mostly known by photographs, like the elusive green lagoon which rests inside crater of the Santa Ana Volcano (The lagoon is often hidden in the clouds, disappointing hikers who make the long trek to the summit.) Some lagoons, like the large crater lakes Ilopango and Coatepeque are very accessible for tourists and locals who want to enjoy some fun on the water or along the shore. Some lagoons are remembered for what they left behind as they evaporated or drained away, like at the base of El Boquerón or El Jardín Botánico La Laguna (literally named "The Lagoon Botanical Garden." And, some lagoons, like the one featured in this story, are just the right size and shape to circumnavigate and explore in a walk of an hour or two. One recent, sunny Saturday morning, we drove east from San Salvador to Usulután for a day of fun with some friends. Our activities were centered ar...

Up in the cloud We walked around the block, found Oscar and then drove 'up to that cloud.'  Those were the only directions we had, given to us by the museum guy. The road was not car-worthy, but we made it up the 10 km trek of rock and ravine and slippery gravel. Once we had a scare, when the car died.  The cord that Oscar had removed for overnight security of the car came unplugged going over all those bumps! (though it took a bit to discover that was cause of the aforementioned dead car.) We finally made it. A man with a machete met us and said, $2 each to get in and an extra $5 to go to the river. Of course we paid the extra $5 - because we never say NO to an adventure! I found them.  In the middle of a plain, brown journal, in between stories from the previous year, there are two pages written in small, neat script. The title at the top of the page says "RANDOM PAGES, October 2014." Well, when you run out of pages at the end of a journal, you have no choice but to...

When someone says 'Soyapango' what comes to mind?  Violence? Violence due to gangs?  Commerce?  Factories?  Probably not an ecological park.  We are working to break the stereotype and bring another identity to Soyapango. When we suggested to our long-time friend and driver that we go to Parque Chantecuán, he was a little bit skeptical.  The Mission of Healing post-team had spent the morning visiting the public clinics in Nejapa and Guazapa, and we were hoping to do a little something fun for the early afternoon.  I had found an article about the park online and was actually able to find it on Google maps.  The trick was figuring out which road actually has access to the park.  The article said to take the "old road to Tonacatepeque." Our driver was not the only one who was skeptical.  This is familiar territory and we are aware of the groups that control the area.  We collectively decided to give it a try, and after carefully fig...