We visited 5 sites of Mayan ruins while touring El Salvador, all of which were located in the central to northwest half of the country. We started with Cihuatan, the most extensive site with an estimated 25,000+ inhabitants; some believe it was the largest prehispanic Mayan city between Guatemala and Peru. It is the first site excavated in El Salvador. Its museum has excellent interpretations of the history and structures, with fluent and complete English translations. Our next stop was at Joya de Ceren ("the Pompeii of the Americas") and nearby San Andres; and we wrapped up the antiquities tour with Tazumal and nearby, newly-excavated Casa Blanca. All these sites have $3 entrance fees for non-Salvadorans, and all have good, government-funded museums associated with them. Unfortunately for the gringo tourist, there are no pamphlets or maps, and most information - including well-informed human guides - is provided only in Spanish. Maybe bring a Spanish-English dictionary with you for those times the English-language signs are missing.
Some of the restoration that you see at these Salvadoran sites has to be put into context. Back in the mid-20th century when most of the major archaeological digs were at their most active throughout Latin America, large, flashy, world-class sites like Palenque in Mexico and Copan in Honduras received much more attention and funding than the smaller sites of regional significance such as you find in El Salvador. Moreover, the sites in El Salvador were - and still are - located on multiple parcels of private land, which has complicated exploration into the present day.
El Salvador's ruins had varying levels of archaeological (and governmental) interest and funding at the time of initial excavation, which determined the extent and the quality of the excavations and restorations at each site. Thus we see past restoration techniques that often included modestly-priced concrete facing, in an effort to mimic the stucco that had once covered the original stonework and to conceal the imperfections that had occurred during the reconstruction of the monuments. At first I disliked the concrete-as-stucco technique on principle, but having first seen other sites (like Monte Alban in Mexico) in which it was not used, it sort of grew on me as a way to envision how all the structures throughout Latin America had looked back when they were occupied. As examples, here is a view of a ball court in Monte Alban, Mexico, in which concrete was used only to set the original building stones back in place. What might have covered the bare stone is left to the visitor's imagination.
Compare the Monte Alban ball court reconstruction to how the temples at Tazumal in El Salvador were reconstructed. Here, some of the original building stones were put back in place but have been left exposed to show to the visitor how the temples were built. However, other portions of those structures have been faced with concrete to suggest a finished structure. Now, all that's left to the visitor's imagination is the image of bright red, white, blue and yellow paint that according to archaeologists covered the original stucco. Must have been quite a sight, back in the day.
The present-day funding and government support for the Salvadoran sites is much better than in the past - especially considering the country's limited budget. Each site has a good, government-funded museum associated with it, where the ruins and the artifacts found there are well interpreted (albeit usually, only in Spanish). Archaeological approaches to excavation and restoration have changed over the years, so now, rather than reconstruct a Mayan temple with concrete, many structures are left unexcavated. Cihuatan is an excellent example of how a valued archaeological site can be properly excavated, preserved, and then interpreted to the general public. The Cihuatan museum even explains the pressures that private land ownership and other factors continue to have on archaeologists' ability to investigate a site and thereby preserve a country's history and culture: "Only 6 lifetimes have transpired since the Spanish Conquest (485 years/6 = 81 years). The last 30 years have seen the most rapid losses of our prehispanic heritage, with the disappearance of traditional houses ("ranchos"), the near cessation of ceramic traditions, and the extinction of traditional varieties of corn and other crops, in addition to the unprecedented destruction of our archaeological sites due to intensive agriculture, subdivisions and other development projects."
The site at San Andres is a good example of the difficulty of balancing private land use with the national interest in preserving an archaeological site. Here in this view, we see the north plaza complex of the Mayan ceremonial center of San Andres. It remains unexcavated and fenced off from the rest of the site, because this portion of it is located entirely on private farmland. Horses and cattle graze there. Presumably archaeologists have at least had access to map the entire site on all the various parcels of private property surrounding the portion of the ruins that are open to the public.
The prehispanic Mayan farm village of Joya de Ceren presents a nice contrast in preservation techniques. Joya de Ceren was buried under 13-26 feet of ash in 640AD, when a volcano less than a mile away, belched. Everybody seems to have escaped but the crops, buildings and artifacts left behind (in a hurry, it seems) are described as the best preserved in the Americas. During the following centuries (after the ash became more stable), a few people resettled the area. In 1976 the ruins were accidentally discovered when the site was being bulldozed for some kind of construction project. Fortunately, the contractor stopped work and contacted the authorities about the discovery. Nowadays, the excavated ruins are protected by a roof and a fenced walkway, and Joya de Ceren is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The land-use pressures are great indeed at sites like Tazumal and Casa Blanca, which for centuries have been surrounded by private property and towns. There is no doubt that a large portion of the old Mayan cities are buried underneath the foundations of 21st-century houses. In the case of the Tazumal ruins, the large, established Chalchuapa city cemetery encompasses a Mayan ball court and nearby structures. Hope the locals are careful when they plow a field or dig a well.
In the meantime, if someone offers to sell you an "authentic" Mayan artifact from El Salvador, be careful: it may very well BE an authentic artifact that Uncle Pedro found when he was digging in his vegetable garden, or that Grandpa happened across back in the 1950s when he was helping move stonework on some archaeological dig. Personally, I'm saving my money to get a very good, certified-in-writing, reproduction of an authentic Mayan artifact. Because I don't want to become a "thief of time," as Tony Hillerman might have put it.
[By the time you see this post, Dear Reader, The Fox will have left Marina Barillas on April 1 and will have (hopefully) visited anchorages in the El Salvador portion of the Gulf of Fonseca, then moved on to explore a bit of Nicaragua. However, for the past 2 months as we've traveled ever-southward, we've been unable to post to the blog while underway due to ongoing connectivity problems with Skymate, our onboard satellite-to-computer link. We'll let you know how the troubleshooting goes. Meanwhile, here's something I wrote when I still had conventional Internet connectivity in Barillas. Enjoy.]
During our time in Marina Barillas from 12.March to 1. April - including time spent watching the weather for a break in the Papagayo winds - we wanted to see inland El Salvador before moving further south. Most yatistas who bring their boats to El Salvador and want to do some inland touring, leave the boat at either Bahia del Sol or Marina Barillas and head immediately by bus for Antigua in Guatemala, rent a car there or take another bus, and then visit the ruins of Copan in Honduras. Those are each world-class destinations and should not be missed, but our agenda was a bit different so...we missed them. Our pals on s/v Curare were also here in Barillas and were willing to chip in with us on a rental car, but they couldn't leave faithful boat-dog Jessie behind. Therefore, it made far more logistic and economic sense for us all to rent a car locally. However, if you rent a car in El Salvador, for insurance purposes it needs to stay in El Salvador. No problemo; El Salvador's great.
Curare and we toured the country for 5 days (3/16-3/21). Had big fun. If you believe El Salvador is scary-bad, please be reassured: we felt safe and were welcomed everywhere. GB remarked, "El Salvador is a country of small surprises." One such surprise was, unlike Mexico, Jessie-Dog was welcome everywhere we went - hotels, restaurants, everywhere but museums and Mayan ruins. Salvadorans like animals; they all asked what Jessie's name was, and one kind restauranteur even offered to give Jessie some tasty chicken scraps while we humans sipped our beers. We found that as long as you and your dog behave yourselves the Salvadorans will happily accommodate you.
Downside: the Pan-American Highway and many roads in El Salvador are well-paved, but many others are not. Directional signage is intermittent to nonexistent, and some of the traffic is what I'd call "undisciplined" - so I don't recommend touring by rental car to just anybody. It worked for us because our friends on Curare are well experienced in third-world car travel. That said, the places we visited are easily accessible by bus or tour van; and since El Salvador is about the same size as the US state of Maryland, every destination is only about 30 minutes by car from somewhere else that's interesting. Here's what we saw, in semi-chronological order, starting in the SE part of the country and generally traveling in an oval path N, and then W before returning SE to Marina Barillas. Maybe you can include some of these sights in your own trip around El Salvador:
Alegria - nice, clean, friendly small town; won first place in 2009's "Pueblos Vivos" tourism poll. A good choice of small hotels and cabanas near the zocalo; and a very open and friendly yet vigilant constabulary. When we were undecided about where to stay (due to lack of off-street parking for the rental car) one of the local police officers personally led us to Cabanas la Estancia de Daniel with its secured parking. Free parking, double beds, private bath, TV, free Salvadoran coffee in the morning, $20. Nice. Visited Laguna Alegria (volcano's crater lake just a couple miles outside of town).
Next day's trip took us through the towns of Ilobasco (handicrafts, bought some) and Cinquera (civil war mural and memorial in zocalo, stopped and paid our respects). Cinquera's war memorial consists of the tail piece of an American helicopter that, according to the story told by the mural and the plaque at the war memorial, was shot down by locals in the jungle when the helicopters threatened the town and destroyed the town church. It was informative, to stand in the town square as a very obvious gringo and see the effects of US involvement in prolonging a civil war for 6 years by supporting the wrong side. Kudos to ya, President Reagan and CIA director George HW Bush. Good for us all that this blog discusses cruising and not politics.
Suchitoto - pretty Colonial town with large lake nearby; tidy, friendly, many photo opportunities, good restaurants, many hotels to choose from at various rates. We enjoyed Hotel La Posada Alta Vista 2 blocks off the zocalo; it includes free secured parking in what used to be this private house's inner courtyard/horse stable/carriage area. Double beds, private bath, A/C, TV, access to rooftop patio, $35/night. What a country.
We visited 5 sites of Mayan ruins: Cihuatan (most extensive and first-excavated site in country, excellent museum with English translations), Joya de Ceren ("the Pompeii of the Americas") and nearby San Andres, Tazumal and nearby Casa Blanca. More detail soon coming in a post near you.
Day trip to La Palma in NW highlands near Honduras border. Spent night at Lago de Coatepeque, another volcanic crater lake, at lakeside Hotel Torremolinos. A nice lady who ran the small market where we bought our evening's beverages, allowed us the use of her hostel's dining room and pool table so we could dine in comfort, eating the pizza we ordered from the takeout joint next door. We paid $5 to "rent" her rec room for a couple of hours. What a country.
Next day: day trip thru NW highlands and Concepcion de Ataco & Juayua (coffee plantations, handicrafts). Overnight in San Salvador's Zona Rosa; dined across the street from hotel at Japanese restaurant Kamakura. Big city, Japanese restaurant, sushi...equals big-city prices. But what a treat. Next day, big-city provisioning with big-city American prices at one of San Salvador's big malls, then return to Marina Barillas. Whew.
We had a great trip and were well taken care of throughout the whole country. Many Salvadorans speak at least some English, if not incredibly fluent English given that (1) so many of them fled the country during the troubles and spent a couple decades in places like the US, Canada and Australia before coming back home; and (2) there are English-language academies for locals in San Salvador and many upscale parents send their children there. Anyway.
My suggestion to all you future El Salvador visitors: taking small 3-day trips to specific areas of the country, by bus or tour van, may be the most efficient way for you to visit El Salvador, But it's definitely worth a traveler's time!
The Gulf of Tehuantepec is a large body of water bounded on the east by the narrow isthmus that separates the Gulf of Tehuantepec from the Gulf of Mexico, near Mexico's southern border with Guatemala. The T'pec spans roughly 250 miles from the town of Huatulco on its northwestern edge, to the commercial port of Puerto Chiapas on its southeastern edge. Vessels like The Fox that leave Mexico for Central America must cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Difficulty: Mexico's isthmus includes a gap between two relatively high mountain ranges, and any wind that is blowing from the north or northeast in the Gulf of Mexico tends to get funneled through the mountain gap and accelerates dramatically into the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific side of Mexico. Other nearby areas can be calm while Tehuantepec winds are very strong, especially in the center of the gap at 95 degrees west longitude.
The greatest danger to Pacific boaters is that the strong T'pec winds make the seas build quickly into high, steep waves with very little space between them. Even vessels the size of commercial freighters can sustain heavy damage from such conditions; and when the T'pec really starts to blow the high winds and steep seas can spread out from the gap for hundreds of miles, making travel in any direction at practically any distance offshore very risky. The most reliable strategy for dealing with the T'pec's conditions is for vessels - especially small boats like The Fox - to cross the Tehuantepec by keeping as close to the shoreline as possible to minimize the effects of any building waves. And by "close," the cruising guides mean a boat should travel just a few hundred yards outside the breaking surf, in 30-40 feet of water. And is expected to continue to do so for the whole 250-some miles of the Gulf - except for those places where rocks and shoals jut out into the Gulf for a few miles. A T'pec crossing can take at least 2 or 3 days, and often longer. It is also very demanding, navigationally speaking, keeping so close to shore with so little margin of error. Fortunately the strong T'pec winds are well forecast, so a prudent boater loads up with fuel and studies the weather closely, and often, for days before making the commitment to cross.
Here, then, our story:
7.Mar.2010
Bade a sad farewell to Mexico. Checked out of Huatulco, left Marina Chahue, and traveled 4.75 mi. to the bay of Tangolunda, so that GB could clean the hull and prop and we could both rest up for a sunset departure into the Gulf of Tehuantepec. The weather forecast was favorable; indicated northerly breezes in 20-knot range through the following morning, thereafter decreasing to less than 16 knots for the next 3 or 4 days, giving a wide weather window for a crossing. Plan: follow the one-foot-on-the-beach strategy to transit the T'pec, leaving Tangolunda just before dark to make 60 miles overnight, before crossing the potentially windiest & busiest portion of the Tehuantepec (including the commercial port of Salina Cruz, the center of the gap at Bahia Ventana, and the two sets of shoals at the estuary mouths past Ventana) during daylight hours.
7.-12.Mar.2010 First 30 miles parallelling the shore from Huatulco to Salina Cruz at about 4 miles offshore. Rolly seas with sets of 4'-5' waves at 5 seconds, SW winds behind us at 7-10 knots. At the 30-mile point the winds quickly turned westerly, then N-NE, and built to 15-24 knots. The now-headwinds and rolly seas continued for about 10 hours through the rest of the night and after sunrise on 8.March as we passed Salina Cruz and had Bahia Ventana abeam. Given the uncomfortable seas we headed due E to close the shore and find shallow water. During the day of 8.March we transited the coast in depths of 40-45 feet about 1/4 mile or less offshore. Occasionally we moved 1/4 mile further offshore for deeper water, but the wind and waves increased significantly so we turned back into shallower water. Lesson learned: in the T'pec, every quarter-mile can make a big difference in conditions. As we followed the shoreline around to the SE the N-NE wind drew aft of our beam and decreased to 12-17 knots. Seas flattened. As we approached 95 degrees longitude and the center of the gap, the wind suddenly shifted again to forward of the beam, SW 9-13 knots. These light conditions became steadier so we mutually decided to sail further offshore, and at 1600 on 8.March we changed course to cross the T'pec along 16 degrees latitude. NOTE: this "shortcut" worked for us but we do not recommend that anyone use this as their main strategy. It saves only a few miles at most. However, we chose to take the risk because we'd had a forecast from a reliable source that was favorable for several days, and we in fact experienced very calm conditions throughout the forecast period, alternating sailing with motor-sailing. In other words, we got lucky.
Conditions remained so light, that we actually flew our geniker for several hours. Flying a geniker while crossing the dread Tehuantepec - it is the stuff of legend.
Except for a near-collision with a fast-moving (19 knots) freighter on autopilot heading W out of Puerto Chiapas after sunset on 9.March, the sailing conditions were excellent. As we put Puerto Chiapas behind us and entered Guatemalan waters about 20 miles offshore, we picked up a 1.5-knot current assist that increased to 2.0 knots when we closed to about 3-7 miles offshore. Transiting Guatemala, we dodged several commercial shrimpers & many pangas (lit only by fishermen's flashlights) during the nighttime hours and several small drift nets during the day, but The Fox and all other vessels behaved themselves well and kept their distance from one another.
The favorable current and light winds carried us all the way to El Salvador. In fact, the wind, seas and current were all SO favorable, we had to slow the boat down by reefing the main sail and foresail to avoid arriving at our destination - the estuary mouth and sand bar at Bahia de Jiquilisco, El Salvador - before daylight and high tide slack. What a shame, to waste such incredible sailing conditions!
As morning came on 12.March our good luck continued. Instead of having to hold station at the entrance waypoint outside the bar where boats meet the Marina Barillas pilot panga, we had no waiting at all: shortly after we'd hailed Barillas to request a pilot, the pilot miraculously appeared - having just finished guiding a departing sailboat out from Barillas, as we approached to enter. Awesomely sweet timing.
The bar at Bahia de Jiquilisco is about 2-3 miles long, but boats are guided around one end of it instead of straight over it. Thus the water is deeper and entering the channel is easier and safer - although a bit rolly because boats must travel beam-to the incoming surf for about 2 miles. We and our good buddies on s/v Curare, who'd crossed the T'pec during the same time we had and appeared at the entrance bar about the same time as we had, both entered the estuary without incident and followed the pilot's panga 10 miles up the estuary to the mooring field of Marina Barillas. About 5 minutes after we tied up to a mooring ball, the pilot returned with 7 officials (port captain, Customs, Immigration, marina manager, and harbor police) to check us in to El Salvador. A brief inspection of the boat, shuffling of paper, and a quick trip onshore for Immigration to stamp the passports and shuffle a bit more paper...and it was done. Very simple, very easy, and only US $20 to enter the country. Bonus: marina manager Heriberto Pineda even took time to teach us the meaning of all the symbols on El Salvador's beautiful flag. What a nice welcome to the country!
Total time from Huatulco, Mexico to Marina Barillas, Bahia de Jiquilisco, El Salvador: 111.25 hrs., over a period of 4 days, 5 nights plus one morning, Total miles: 612.