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...

Part 1:  On the Beaten Path at Parque El Boquerón The San Salvador volcano is called the sleeping giant for good reason. It is a geographically broad, primarily stratovolcano made up of layers of built-up lava and tephra (ash, cinders and rock that blasts out as pyroclasts during an eruption and then settles). Stratovolcanoes are usually cone-shaped. More than 40,000 years ago, the immense, conic San Salvador volcano dominated the landscape of El Salvador. A mammoth eruption truncated the volcano, leaving behind an ancient crater in which the Boquerón volcano grew. About 800 years ago, Boquerón erupted and the central cone collapsed, leaving behind a crater lagoon and the profile which we recognize as the San Salvador volcano today. Photo taken on the day of writing this story: the San Salvador volcano as seen from southeast of the volcano, with an approximation of volcanologists believe was the ancient profile of the San Salvador volcano about 40,000 years ago. In the photo, El Bo...

Today we are not winding down the hill below Suchitoto to catch a boat on the shore of Lago Suchitlán .  Today we are not going to hear a grandfather's story while bumping along on the road between Aguilares and Suchitoto. I realized today that Suchitoto appears as a character in several of my stories, but never as the main character. So today, it's time to actually go to Suchitoto. Central Plaza in Suchitoto (©2023 Linda Muth) The city of Suchitoto is situated between the Guazapa volcano and the Lempa River valley, on the western edge of the Department of Custcatlán.  The name "Suchitoto" originates from a Nahuat word meaning "bird-flower." Archeologists believe the town was established as a Pipil (indigenous) settlement in the mid-11th century CE. Near to the city (and within the Suchitoto municipality), Spanish colonizers  established what is known as the second "Villa de San Salvador" (the capital of San Salvador) in 1528 CE. Although the town...