We decided after yesterday’s Tazumal excursion, today we
would stay a little closer to home; a trip to the main shopping street, Boulevard
los Heroes. Perhaps like me you would have thought walking the ½ mile or so, in
a direct line between the University (near where we were staying) and the expensive
shopping district of Boulevard los Heroes would be a fairly safe choice. It
turns out not so much. Before we knew it we had definitely walked into the
wrong part of town: some kind of slum maze, with buildings piled on top of one
another and leaning together for support. They were literally so close together
no light could get through. The trouble is once you’ve walked in, the paths all
curve back on themselves or lead to dead-ends, so finding your way out is not
so easy.
Fortunately we did make it through, found the beautifully
air conditioned shopping mall and celebrated with a traditional Salvadorian
breakfast…Subway!
Becki wanted to buy some loose cotton trousers, which turned
into a bit of a mission because for some reason, no-one here seems to want to
keep cool. The fashion for women being jeans or woolly leggings despite it
constantly being between 25 and 35 degrees. Also, FYI – sunglasses: not a thing
in El Salvador.
Next up we walked down to the National Palace. Built in 1905
after the previous one was destroyed by fire, and now being rebuilt again after
sustaining significant damage in the 2009 earthquake.
Now who am I to question the architects
involved in designing such a grand building, but even so I don’t think the
placement of that door would pass health and safety back in the UK!
We took in a couple more sights of the city; next door to
the palace was the Cathedral de San Salvador, and just down the road the Plaza
de Libertad - this was originally the central point of San Salvador, with a
New-York style grid system of roads sprawling out from there.
Stopped at one of the market stalls on the way back to buy
Becki a cap for our expedition tomorrow, which brings me to another question:
If you have 8 stalls in a row, all selling the exact same selection of caps and
hats for the exact same price, who are the people who decide it’s a good idea
to open another stall with the exact same thing again right next door!
A quick side note: in our best attempt to keep our clothes
clean, plus our water and other provisions for tomorrow cool, we improvised a
fridge/laundry area in our room.
Day 5 in San Salvador – The Big Mouth
Next up, an expedition to the Parque El Boqueron, a national
park just west of San Salvador centered around a massive volcano.
On the walk up to the top we came across this curious sign.
Needless to say we did as we were told and kept our eyes peeled for giants
throughout. It wasn’t long before we reached a platform on top of the caldera
rim, giving us some amazing views across the whole volcano.
The caldera,
created by massive eruption 800 years ago, is over 5km around and about 400m
deep. In fact the entire park is named after this immense feature; ‘El
Boqueron’ meaning ‘big mouth’ in Spanish.
It used to be completely filled with a lake, but in 1913
there was a second eruption which boiled the lake away (that’s a hell of a lot
of water!) and left the smaller caldera you can see in the picture below. The
little one is called; ‘la Boqueroncito’ – yes you guessed it little mouth.
While we were taking in the amazing views, a flock of Great Black
Hawks were circling around the rim, gliding effortlessly on the thermal
updrafts coming from the (still active) volcano below. They did actually swoop
by pretty close to us, and if we had a professional photographer with us you
would now get an awesome picture like the one on the left, but we didn’t, and
they were too quick for us to do anything but stare at them, so you get the
picture on the right.
We walked around the upper caldera rim, going along stepped
paths from one viewing platform to the next, and
then started our descent down.
The hike to the caldera floor was pretty varied, sometimes
an easy stroll but also difficult going at times. Quite early on we passed a
sign telling us that we had passed the edge of the ‘official park’, and that
the authorities of El Salvador took no responsibility for people who got lost
on the way down, always an encouraging sign.
Technically there was a path the
whole way, but it was pretty steep in places, and not always obvious which was
the right way to go.
There was plenty of nature to take in on the way; lots of
little birds, butterflies in reds and yellows, and some pretty funky looking
big, red, furry caterpillars.
When we looked back up from deep inside the crater, the
clouds were moving overhead so quickly they looked like a time-lapse film. I
guess this is also something to do with the thermals pushing the clouds aside
much faster than they would otherwise be going. It was a strange experience
walking down; the temperature, pressure and humidity all seemed to change quite
quickly and left us with the odd sensation of being simultaneously hot and cold
at the same time.
We stopped for some lunch and a rest before making our way
back up. On the whole coming back up was much easier, since we didn’t need to
spend so much time carefully shifting our weight and using up mental energy
avoiding slipping, but the flip side was it was thoroughly exhausting!
Back up near the top we spotted an 'Agouti Paca', a kind of
large rabbit like rodent, that lives in these parts. Well I say spotted, we
caught a fleeting glimpse before it dashed off into the undergrowth.
After another adventurous bus ride; back down the volcano
back to San Salvador, we arrived home, with barely enough energy to pack up our
things before falling asleep. Tomorrow; on to somewhere new.
No comments:
Post a Comment