"Travel Notes from Juayua" Juayùa by gdilieto

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Juayua is probably the best-known and most touristic village of the five along the Ruta de las Flores. It has colonial architecture with a lovely parque central (main square) and a colonial church of some relevance. Main attraction yet is the Feria Gastronomica (Food Festival) that over the weekends draws visitors from all over El Salvador. Actually the food festival - as I attended in a rainy Sunday - is just a line up of few food stalls and tables, but the crowd it draws around makes the village lively and colorful, while the food stalls provide good opportunity to sample some of El Salvador typical dishes such as pupusas and carne asada. I have attached some photos I took in my Juayua Photo Gallery for an additional insight. Thank you for visiting my pages.

The church of Juayua, also called Iglesia del Cristo Negro (Church of the Black Christ), is the only remarkable church I saw in the villages on the Ruta de las Flores. It has a funny colonial architecture with big red crucifixes and other red themes on the facade. Originally built in XVI century by the Spaniards, it has been rebuilt three times, last few decades ago. The church is famous for the XVI century carved crucifix hosted in its nave - the Black Christ of Nuestro Señor de Juayua - object of worship and pilgrimage.

The parque central during the weekend is crowded with street vendors offering entertainment for tourists like rides in horse-pulled carts, a train-cart touring the center streets, mototaxis (like Asian tuk-tuks) and similar. I met Zorro in Juayua ... Spot him in the picture aside.