El Salvador: San Blas beach and Coatepeque volcano

For: Javier Brandoli (text and photos)
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In the middle of a conflict, still surrounded by violence or criminal groups, what is imposed is the routine of life. Because almost always, except when nameless bombs fall, there are people who live there with a certain normality, children going to school, businesses that open to sell something to eat, stalls where you cook, couples who fall in love and fall out of love and friends chatting around a table.

Both times I have been to El Salvador it has been for work and always with topics related to the strong wave of violence that the country is experiencing and that it did in 2015, Syria apart, the most violent place on the planet with an average of 103 murders for every 100.000 inhabitants. Both times I have taken the opportunity to see the city, do some tourism around the country, meeting people who are especially nice to me, eat in some good restaurants and even try to understand some of its history and art. Both times at the same time that the journalist listened and saw terrible situations, the traveler had a great time and was wanting to see more.

Both times at the same time that the journalist listened and saw terrible situations, the traveler had a great time and was wanting to see more.

I wrote in 2015 a post in which he spoke of the capital, his church of the Rosary, Monsignor Romero's mausoleum, the downtown squares or the wonderful views from the San Salvador volcano.

This time the trip was shared with Juan Carlos, an American photojournalist of Salvadoran origin, and Herbert, driver, two fantastic guys I worked with doing the violence reports. One Sunday morning, when we finished the homework soon, I told them to go and get to know the country and head to Lake Coatepeque first.. (It's hard to talk about a place if you haven't known at least something about its other faces. I have learned it as a correspondent and reading texts that always forget to offer something from the headlines.).

The lake, which in Nahuatl means "hill of snakes", occupies the caldera of a beautiful volcano with a surface of 25,3 square kilometers. On its shore there are rows of beautiful restaurants with their terraces hanging from the waters. Boats and jet skis pass by prepared for visitors. There are families, groups of friends, tables of lovers who have come there to spend their Sunday. We talk to some beers of life, of Dreams, of work. A Sunday, normal, brilliant, in a beautiful place.

On its shore there are rows of beautiful restaurants with their terraces hanging from the waters

Suddenly we decided to go to the sea too. We take the car again, at the top we stop to contemplate the beauty of that volcano with blue waters and green slopes and head towards San Blas beach. The entrance to the city of Liberty is a chaos of cars that, like us, have come to the "tourist" municipality to spend their day off.

We head to the port area and stop to eat at La Dolce Vitta restaurant. It is an Italian beach restaurant, next to the sand, that has a pool. It is full of families. The beach is black, volcanic, and struck by the rough waters of the Pacific. Seniors and children play in the waves and sand. While we eat the owner approaches, a friendly Italian who accurately tells us about his life.

Summing up the story, he is from southern Italy; he went to Florence to work in a restaurant; he realized he didn't know english, what was important, and went a year to learn it in London; he stayed twelve years in London where he worked for some Jews who were very good people; he met his wife, Salvadoran; when the civil war ended in El Salvador he told him to come here to set up a restaurant, something his wife didn't want, but he insisted because with the money he had here he set up a restaurant and in Italy or London he didn't set up a kiosk, explains; He is doing very well, his two daughters studied and earn good money; did not complain, didn't say anything wrong and went after 15 uninterrupted monologue minutes to attend other tables. He left smiling as he arrived.

We're done eating. It was raining something and there was a lot of traffic back. We return to San Salvador after a wonderful day. Nothing happened other than enjoying travel and life. Upon arriving at the hotel I thought I have to come with my partner to travel around this country.

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