The only downside to travelling from Suchitoto to Santa Ana (again using the local chicken bus) was having to pass through San Salvador, which looks and feels like any other midsized Central American city, with its wide boulevards prey to chain stores, gas guzzling 4WDs and endless fast-food joints.
Parque Nacional Los Volcanes encompasses three major volcanoes (Cerro Verde, Volcán Santa Ana and Volcán Izalco) and covers thousands of hectares. It’s a major bird sanctuary, with many migratory species passing through, including emerald toucanets, jays, woodpeckers, motmots and 17 species of hummingbird. Suffice to say it’s stunning place to visit.
I chose to climb Santa Ana Volcano, which is located about one and a half hours from Santa Ana. At 2,381 metres above sea level, it is the highest volcano in the country. Unfortunatley you have to join a tour group to get to the top, which includes an obligatory police escort! I hooked up with 25 other tourists, but sometimes numbers swell to as many as 80 or more people who play ‘follow my leader’ and walk the moderately challenging hike to the rim of the crater.
It takes about one and a half hours to get to the top but, as long as the weather is favourable, the view into the crater, and also the surrounding landscape, is spectacular. Inside the crater is a green, bubbling lake of sulphuric acid!
A short bus ride from Santa Ana are the the Mayan ruins of Tazumal, in the small town of Chalchuapa.
The Tazumal site is quite small and surrounded by shops and restaurants in Chalchuapa’s business district, but the ruins themselves are large; the main pyramid that dominates the site rises about 75 feet. The site also contains the remains of tombs, smaller pyramids, an indigo workshop and a ball court, on which Mayans typically played games knocking a heavy, rubber-type ball through vertical stone rings. Tazumal also is home to a large rock with a Mayan carving that depicts a visiting Olmec dignitary from Mexico holding a scepter, as well as a museum that displays some of Stanley Boggs’ early finds, including Mayan pottery, jewelry and early tools such as jade axes.
Next stage: Ruta de Flores.
