"Canuckmike in El Salvador" a El Salvador Travel Page by canuckmike

For some reasons people often tend to skip El Salvador on their Central American trip. Granted I wouldn't make it a destination on it's own, but I found myself staying longer than I originally planned. Yeah they had a violent civil war but that is long over and there are gangs but you would have to go out of your way to get involved. I was very impressed with the country. It was a bit more expensive that most of the other areas of Central America due to the dollarisation. When I was there, El Salvador was really coming into it's own. It has one of the strongest economies in Latin America as it is actively attracting foreign investment. A lot of people say there is a lot of crime here. I spent almost twice as long here as I did in Costa Rica and saw/experienced a small fraction of the incidents here than in Costa Rica. The only thing that happened to me in El Salvador was that I got obviously ripped off by a cab driver for around US $7. Most of the sights are not as good as they are in other countries but there are a lot of things to do. You got Mayan ruins and beaches. Cosmopolitan cities and quaint little mountain towns. Fancy shopping malls and national parks. Enough to keep the average tourist busy for a little bit.

El Salvador has an area of 21,040 sq km and is bordered by Guatemala, Honduras and the Pacific Ocean. It is the most densely populated nation on mainland America. The highest point in the country is at 2,730 metres. Due to the whole Ring of Fire thing, this place has had a it's fair share of earthquakes.