Week 10/11 – Ruta de las Flores in El Salvador

Seems I have some catching up to do 😊 Santa Tecla and the girls just keep me too busy.

I spent two weekends at the Ruta de las Flores (Route of the Flowers) in the north of El Salvador. The route is called this way as in spring (Nov-Feb) you will find plenty of flowers next to the road. The Ruta de las Flores stretches over 60km through the mountains and volcanos from Ahuachapan to Sonsonate with lots of small villages, which are worth visiting. The bus 249 actually takes a short cut from Sonsonate to Salcoatitan but captures the most important places.

Coffee Tasting at the Ruta de las Flores

If you want to learn more about coffee, you are right here. The best coffee of El Salvador grows here and many consider it the best coffee in the world due to the unique soil, the altitude, the sun and the volcanos. You can visit a Coffee-Finca or a cooperative to learn more or even help with the harvest and of course you can try the coffee. I tasted three different coffees (Pacamara – a specialty of El Salvador, Bourbon – it has nothing to do with alcohol – 😊 and I, of course, forgot the name of my favourite one) and they all smell and taste differently. Furthermore, you can also try corn coffee, coffee made out of corn and many people who don’t like caffeine are drinking this version. The taste is interesting, it does not taste too much like corn and smells like real coffee.

Ataco – my favourite town on the Ruta de las Flores

My favourite town in the Ruta de las Flores is Ataco. It is a small town with couple stone streets and on many houses are beautiful murals either describing the purpose of the house/store or the history or festivities of Ataco and El Salvador. I was so impressed by the town, that I just kept wandering around to enjoy the awesome artworks. Ataco is not very touristic, neither considering local nor foreign tourists, but still you will find some hostels. In Ataco you will also find the best souvenir market in El Salvador at the „Mercado de artesanias“, which stretches over a couple of streets. They offer everything from clothes, small souvenirs, hammocks to adornments/jewellery. One of the stores you should not miss is the store “La casa de los Telares.“, it is famous for the cats. The store is connected to a coffee shop or bar. I love coffee, and I had the best Capuccino I ever drank in my whole life in precisely this coffee shop – not too sweet, not too strong, the creamy texture absolutely perfect. I was honestly thinking of going back to Ataco (2h drive) just to drink the coffee again.

Vegetarian food is a little bit difficult to find, at least I found it quite difficult as Pupusas are often only served at dinner time, not for lunch. Kafekarli– a nice restaurant at the central park  – has at least vegetarian crepes; The one with tomato-mozzarella-basil is so good.

On the local food market, you can also try all kinds of fruits. Before visiting El Salvador I was not aware that there are so many different types of Mango. In El Salvador they have six types – I was warned about the small ones, it seems they can be used as colon cleanser making you run to the bathroom all night. Another thing I Iearned here as well is that Mangos taste even better with spices and sauce. I am not exactly sure what the women at the food market mixed into my Mangos, but it looked like salt, then a green powder and a red chilli sauce and a black sauce. You could, of course, decide to take only one or two of these, but I tried everything together, and it tastes excellent.

The Salvadorians donˋt do this only with Mango, but also with other fruits or vegetables, like Mamoncillo „Spanish Lemon“, ( I just call it Central American Lychee ) or cucumber. You get these snacks in plastic bags (I know, that is not environmental friendly) and then you mix everything in the bag and eat it with your fingers. I always thought it is an Indian thing to eat everything with the fingers, but no Salvadorians have this tendency as well. Another fruit you should try is Annona, it tastes less like fruit but more like candy. I had the impression that it tastes a little bit like a marshmallow.

Apaneca – and the Salvadorian hospitality

I was only quickly in Apaneca, another town on the Ruta de las Flores, to visit a teacher from the school, who lives there. The teachers are very lovely and welcoming at School. They barely know you, but invite you to their houses. Of course, in her home, we enjoyed another cup of coffee and quesadillas. Coffee with Quesadillas you might think now. Yes, sounds weird, but Quesadillas in El Salvador have nothing to do with Burritos. It is a muffin-sized pie with cheese, but totally different to cheesecake. I have not seen much of this town, but bought the coffee from the Finca „Santa Leticia“. I still have to try this coffee; I hope it is good 🙂

When I am already talking about sweet things, and confusing words in El Salvador – the principal of the school asked me this week, whether I had already eaten „pan“ in El Salvador. Pan (English bread) is/was for me just french bread, baguette or similar and I was very confused by this question as in bakeries they usually only have french bread and potato bread, so not a big choice. She then invited me to eat „pan“. It turned out that Salvadorians consider all the sweet stuff in a bakery as bread, so cakes, muffins, biscuits, etc are all „bread“.  I tried my first Salvadorian Alfajores. I had known Alfajores only from Argentina. In Argentina Alfajores are terribly sweet cookies filled with „dulce de leche“ (caramelised condensed milk) and covered with chocolate. In El Salvador Alfajores are not that sweet – the chocolate is missing, and the filling is not dulce de leche, but another creme. Depending on where you buy them, they might even have a slight coconut flavour. I can recommend trying Alfajores from both Panaderia Lilian and La Teclena (with coconut) 🙂

Juayua – Food market and seven waterfalls

Juayua (say why-u-a) is more touristic than Ataco or Apaneca; this is mainly due to the food market, which takes place each weekend and is the biggest in the country. Many locals come here from all over El Salvador. During the week this village is rather calm because many inhabitants work in San Salvador and spend the weekdays there. The food at the market looks delicious, and for a huge portion you pay 5-6USD. If you love meat or seafood, you should come here. I only saw one vegetarian dish, which just consisted of vegetables, no rice, no potatoes, so very dull. I went for Pupusas instead.

Close to Juayua, you find again many coffee fincas and cooperatives. Some fincas also offer accommodation.

Another tourist attraction in Juayua is the seven waterfalls hike. It is a 3h hike leading you amongst others trough coffee plantations. You should only make this tour with a guide as you would get lost without one. The guide will also have to pay a fee to the owners of the land, the path is going through. Therefore, you have to pay 15-20USD per person for the tour as the landowners get approx. 10USD/person. During the hike you can enjoy an astonishing view over the valley. The path is very adventurous, it is very tiny, and the slope is quite steep, so if you step too far to the side you might roll down the hill until a tree or bush catches you.

Be prepared to get wet! You have to cross the river three times, and there is no bridge, so you walk right through it – three times! In other travel blogs I read about this hike and looked at the pictures, so it was no surprise to me, that we had to climb the 4th waterfall (the first one in the collage). In the pictures I have seen, they had a rope and wore helmets… hahaha, not with my guide, which kind of scared me at the beginning. Luckily, my guide knew the „easy way“ to climb it, which means he did not choose the steepest part to climb and he explained to me every step, like „put your left foot here, your right one here and your hands here and then….“ and it was working quite well. I am just not sure how people with shorter legs can handle this as some steps were really broad for me, and at one point I was glad that I started with Yoga a while ago. So I made it without falling or hurting myself, I was just completely wet. After the hike you can go to the natural pool and relax. This part is included in most tours. However, as this pool is also privately owned, it might not be open to the public every day. The water in this area is very clean and when you run out of drinking water – donˋt worry, the water is good to drink (maybe not in the pool, but at the waterfalls 😛 ). I stayed in the hostel and the women owning the hostel is so nice, I usually donˋt mention hostels in my posts, for this one I am making an exception – Hostel Doña Mercedes is excellent. Super friendly owner, who answers any question you might have and the breakfast (typical one) is delicious.

From Santa Ana or Ahuachapan, you can also visit the Maya site Tuzamal in Chalchuapa – the bus 202 from San Salvador also passes through this city. After I have seen photos I actually wanted to go there. Due to the rainy weather, I, however, preferred to enjoy another cup of coffee instead.

How to explore the Ruta de las Flores by Bus

You can either start from the bus terminal in Sonsonate or Ahuachapan. If you come from San Salvador you can take the bus 205 to Sonsonate, which stops at tiny terminal in Sonsonate just across the street of the big bus terminal). If you want to go to Ahuachapan you take bus 202 from San Salvador. Both cities can also be reached easily from Santa Ana. In Ahuachapan the buses and minibusses to explore Ruta de las Flores leave here.  So if you arrive with bus 202, you have to get off at the last stop (terminal de buses 202) and walk around 5min along the main road.

The bus going from Sonsonate to Ahuachapan (or vice versa) is number 249. They stop in the small cities on the way and in Juayua. From Ahuachapan to Apaneca (via Ataco) there are also other buses/minibusses leaving at the same spot. The towns are usually displayed on the front window, but as always people are very friendly to point you in the right direction. And donˋt worry if you cannot pronounce the city names, I was still directed to the correct bus though pronouncing it completely wrong – it seems the people are already used to it – especially when it comes to Juayua – which is not “Chua-ua” but “why-u-a”.