The smallest and most densely populated country
in Central America, El Salvador is chiefly remembered for the vicious
civil war of the 1980s, when streams of harrowing news stories
brought this tiny country to the attention of the world. For a decade,
atrocity
followed atrocity in a seemingly unstoppable sequence. Then in
1992, with both sides having fought each other to a standstill, Peace
Accords
were signed, and the attention of the world's press moved elsewhere,
leaving behind a brutalized country faced with the immense task
of rebuilding itself.
Tourism in El Salvador has lagged behind that of its Central American
neighbours. Despite its compactness and considerable natural beauty,
many would-be visitors are deterred by the half-remembered headlines
and the country's reputation for violence, danger and difficulty.
Its geographical position doesn't help, either: tucked into the
Pacific underbelly of the isthmus, El Salvador is easily bypassed.
Those
that do make it here, however, are well rewarded by the sheer physical
beauty of the place, with lush Pacific lowlands sweeping up through
fertile hills and coffee plantations to rugged mountain chains.
Almost every journey in El Salvador yields photogenic vistas of the
majestic
cones of towering volcanoes , while some of the secluded pacific
beaches are as fine as any in Central America. |
