Up in the clouds and surrounded by volcanos

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Trip Start Aug 26, 2005 Previous
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  Juayua, El Salvador
Friday, April 20, 2007

Im way up in the mountains in Northern El Salvador in a town whose name
I cannot pronounce. Its cool, refreshing and surrounded by 3 massive Volcanos. Santa Ana, Cerro Verde and Izalco. Santa Ana which is the highest in El Salvador is at
around 2240 metres and is very active. Only 2 years ago it covered the
whole town in a thick blanket of ash, and as a result, the trees and
plants are thriving. Its a beautiful place, orchids that cost hundreds
of dollars back home grow on telegraph poles on the main road, Which is
lined with cute little houses, made of mud and painted bright colours.
Sure they all might be a bit neglected and falling apart, with stray
dogs on every corner but that adds character and the town really is a
little gem.

A beautiful central plaza is the main atraction, with the whitewashed
church dominating one side. It holds the only black Christ statue in
Central America. It was damaged in a fire long ago and never painted
white again.

The plaza is full of big shady trees and very little light makes it to
the ground, where old men sit on benches and play cards and drink
excessively, kicking the poor homeless dogs as they play.

Each weekend, the town plays host to the Gastronomical festival. A food
fest, with live music - albeit an old guy singing karaoke to packs of
stray dogs and later, he is kicked off and reggaeton is played at
inappropriately loud levels while people sit under a ten on the main
road and enjoy a surprisingly good selection of foods, including gallo
pinto (rice and beans).

We stated early and a few beers for lunch, turned into a bottle of wine
with a kebab and finally a bottle of rum with some beer snacks and that
was our gastronomical experience. Id tell you more, but i simply cant
remember.



The next day, we headed to the waterfalls, down the bumpy cobbled
street jumping from shadow to shadow to avoid the hot sunday sun.
The cobbles turned into dirt and finally a small path which led us deep
into a fertile forested valley full of rubbish.

At the end of one trail we came across an amazing array of waterfalls.
Each of them, an underground stream breaking through and pouring out a
cliff face. No river or anything, it was quiet surreal. A few of the
falls had been dammed and the water diverted to a hydro electric plant.
This was a long way away and in the meantime, the dams had created
amazing swimming holes where the crystal clear, fresh water gathered
and was diverted into tunnels, which join to the next pool

A few local kids disapeared into one of the pitch black, indiana jones
style tunnels and never came back. I asked a few locals what the deal
was and they informed me that the tunnels joined up with a pool about
40 metres away.

I wasnt about to go throwing myself into a dark tunnel without a bit
more research, so round the corner i went and sure enough, there were
the kids.

So i went back and jumped in. And 5 seconds later wondered what the hell
i had done. The tunnel turned round a  corner and i had barely
enough headspace to breathe. With my head turned on its side, i
struggled for air and descended into the darkness. The roof got lower
and lower and suddenly i had no room the breathe. A quick panick and i
figured there must be a way out, so with the little air in my lungs, i
held on with my hand touching the roof, waiting for the stream to take
me further along and feel for an air pocket.

This was one of the most scary moments of my life. Absolute pitch black,
cold water, no way out, no air, it was terrifying for about 5 seconds
longer, then the air pocket reappeared in the roof and i could breathe
again, i let the water take me and around a corner of the small
passage, onl big enough for one person and there was the light of day
at the other end.

I emerged out of the waterfall and said you idiot to myself and
returned to the original pool where i explained to Jenny
and Trevor that i had almost died.

-----------
Lago Verde is a lagoon in the crater of a very old volcano. Its clear waters have only recently claimed the life of a local who apparantly was sucked underwater by a whirlpool. Large lava tunnels create whirlpools in the centre of the lagoon and occasionaly draw in water.
After a mild climb along a steep dusty road, we arrived at the Lagoon. Mildly spectacular with the forested crater walls providing a great backdrop.
A few locals were fishing with bamboo poles and three kids had slingshots and were taking shots at the local birdlife. We asked them to stop - they just laughed.

The higest town in El Salvador is Apaneca. After the lagoon we were able to hitch a ride to a the nearby cobbled town and ate El Salvadors famous dish - the Pupusa.
A pupusa is a horrible thing and they should be ashamed of themselves for its existance. They use the most disgusting flour in existance called Maize Seca, add water and there is your tortilla. They simply hollow out the tortilla and add a disgusting cheese and some pureed beans then fry the thing in old oil and there you have it. The Pupusa!

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Random Article:

On October 1, 2005, El Salvador's Santa Ana Volcano,
also known as the Ilamatepec Volcano, erupted-it's first eruption since
1904. In addition to volcanic ash and lava flow, the October 1 eruption
reportedly shot out car-sized lava rocks and a flood of boiling mud and
water. According to BBC news and ReliefWeb reports, officials initially
reported two deaths, several injuries, and the evacuation of
approximately 2,000 people. El Salvador's president warned of the
possibility of a second eruption.


Volcanic activity is not unusual in El Salvador, which sits on the
eastern edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire. As this three-dimensional
image shows, volcanic activity has defined the geography of the region.
This false-color image was made from data collected by the Advanced
Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra
satellite on February 3, 2001, well before the 2005 eruption. The Santa
Ana volcano rises on the left side of the image, forming a large
flat-topped mound. The volcano sports several crescent-like
craters-"nested" craters-at its summit and a 20-kilometer-long system
of fissures. A tiny blue spot in the center of the inner-most crater is
a crater lake, the likely source of the boiling water flood.


Behind Santa Ana is a large caldera lake inside the Coatepeque
Caldera. This caldera was created when a series of volcanoes like Santa
Ana collapsed in explosive eruptions between 72,000 and 57,000 years
ago. There is no record of historical eruptions of the Coatepue
Caldera. In the foreground is El Salvador's newest volcano, Izalco.
Izalco sprang up in 1770 and erupted frequently until 1966. The young
volcano isn't covered in vegetation (red in this image), but remains
black with recent lava flows.


Though it may not seem imposing in this image, Santa Ana is the
highest point in El Salvador. The volcano is 2,381 meters (7,812 feet)
above sea level and sits roughly 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of the
country's capital, San Salvador. A stratovolcano, it is built
from alternating layers, or strata, of volcanic materials, such as ash
and large chunks of once-molten rock. This volcano's activity has been
documented since the 16th century, and consists mostly of small or
moderate explosive eruptions.


For all its destructiveness, volcanic activity makes for fertile
soil-and dilemmas. Attracted by the ability to grow good crops, along
with the cooler temperatures that come with higher altitude, people
often risk volcano hazards. Residents near Santa Ana proved no
exception; many of the evacuees from the October 1 Santa Ana eruption
had cultivated coffee beans in the region. The human presence in the
area can be seen in the city of Santa Ana, the silver sprawl in the
upper left corner of the image.


Satellite images such as this one can help emergency planners by
providing a detailed overview of the topography of a region. The data
for this image was provided by SERVIR, a project set up to help decision makers in Central America access satellite data and online maps.

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