Gooooood morning San Salvador! It’s already 9am in the country capital but here we are ready to see what this big & chaotic city has to offer. Thankfully, from Ximena’s Guesthouse (an old hostal located in a safe and relaxed neighbourhood called Colonia Centromerica), we can easily reach both the historic center, Santa Tecla and the museums of the Zona Rosa.
Exiting from the hostal and onto the boulevard Los Héroes, there is the well-known Metrocentro or in other words, a huge mall where you can find anything you can ever need plus plenty of cheap fast-foods (seems like USA…) but this is also the hotspot for the majority of the buses. In fact, it is here that we get our first city-bus (30B) to the historical center . Getting there seems to be already a challenge but once there, that’s when the fun starts! In case you don’t know, the historical center of San Salvador can be pretty much summarised as an endless Municipal Market in the heart of the city. There you can literally buy anything, whether its clothing, food, haircuts or movies, thats the place to be. After a while of walking around the market maze, we realised that all along the market there are tiny churches which play the part of “safe-zones” where people can get a break from the chaos (and tourists like us)!
After having something to eat at a local comedor, tired, sweaty and ready to see something different we decide to move on and get a bus to the Zona Rosa , an area known for its modern bars and locals. In reality, its nothing like we would have ever expected; in fact, this area is simply a more widespread Metrocentro with the majority of the places that have been americanised. Obviously, the prices are way higher than anywhere else in the capital so be aware if you wanna go out for a snack. But we’re not here for this fanciness, we’re here to take our chances with the Museum of Antropology, a great place worth your time if you’re interested in learning something more about the country. Current society, economy, migrations, history, culture and much more: there’s everything you might be interested in!
If you really wanna stop for a bite or for a great coffee in the Zona Rosa, then make sure to check out the Coffee Tempo , a relatively small coffee-bar which offers great services and foods together with priceless views over the city for a very modest price (for being in Zona Rosa). The owner is specialised in preparing a wide variety of coffees and has won several awards in the past following the idea of creating “Coffee with italian roots but salvadorian innovations” so make sure to taste at least one coffee before leaving.
Talking of priceless, the next day we meet up with an Argentinian couch surfer that has been living in San Salvador for the past six months and he offers to give us a ride to one of the nicest tourist-free beaches in El Salvador: Playa Costa del Sol . What a nice guy! Car ready, beers in the portable fridge and chips already going through the tasting session: we’re ready to go! To get to the beach it takes us a bit over an hour and once there we decide to rent for a full-day a couple of hammocks together with a table (3USD in total) so that in-between one dip and the other we can take shelter in the shade of the seaside restaurant. The beach is great, very laid-back and more importantly absolutely no touristy; differently to El Tunco, here you can see local people having fun, chilling and spending a nice weekend with the family.
All in all, San Salvador is a city that has its own charm and features a wide variety of places that will keep you entertained all day long; additionally, it’s also a perfect base to explore the fascinating colonial towns in the surroundings, either with a bus or car. While in San Salvador we spent some time visiting Santa Tecla, the Pueblos Vivos (colonial towns scattered all around the country), the lake Ilopango and a the beautiful beach mentioned before.
Oh, did we mention that every Wednesday all movies at the Cinemark in Metrocentro cost the reduced entrance of 2.75USD??? So if you fancy taking a break from the noisy city (possibly on a Wednesday), why not check the cinema out, you’ll probably gonna find only Salvadorians!
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