El Salvador was a late addition to our travel plans. There was nothing particular drawing us there, but it was much cheaper and faster to fly into San Salvador than it was into Guatemala City. This time and cost saving, plus a love of scratching additional countries off the map, led us to book tickets into the country. I had very few expectations and no real plans for the country. Perhaps that is why I ended up liking it so much.

El Salvador is not an easy place to visit. A basic ability in Spanish is a necessity, and the tourist infrastructure is very underdeveloped. Longer trips often require either a private shuttle or car which is very expensive, or taking the public buses which are very cheap and very rough. The in between options are basically non existent. This same system applies to food, with maybe the addition of American fast food as the middle option. But, it is very rewarding. Everywhere are a people eager to share their country with outsiders, very proud of the progress they have made. It is beautiful, with its black sand beaches and forested volcanoes, its colonial architecture and abundant street art. And it is compact, so if you do opt for the chicken bus, take solace in the fact that your journey will never have to be far. Yet, even so, I feel as though I have barely scratched the surface of what El Salvador has to offer. I certainly didn’t eat near enough pupusas.

It is a bit of travel cliché to claim that the entire population of a country is very nice based on a week long vacation. A claim made even more suspicious by the fact that the only people likely interacted with were literally there to serve you. Numerous times I have heard “the people of Belize/Mexico/the Bahamas are so nice” from some one who only visited the physically walled off portion of the country designated for tourists. But I am not far removed from this reality either, as much as I would like to lie to myself. The staff at a hostel are in no way representative of the people of a country; they are as often as not from a different country altogether. Some of my best travel memories have had more to do with the hostel and the people I met there than anything to do with the city or country I was visiting.¹ So account for this also when I tell you that the people of El Salvador, in nearly all the occasions in which I interacted with them, were wonderful. They were always helpful, from the armed guards to the stranger waiting at the same bus station. They were very patient, especially given how little of their language I spoke. Restaurant service reached almost American standards, but without the American caveat that they are just trying to rush you out the door.² On two separate occasions I didn’t have to cash to pay at a restaurant that didn’t except credit cards and it was insisted that we eat first and then go to an ATM for cash. And everywhere people wanted to know if we enjoyed El Salvador. And were delighted to hear that we did.

They were just as delighted to hear that we felt safe, they took it as a great compliment. We did feel safe, though only after we adjusted to our surroundings. At first the ever present armed guards and concrete walls, barred windows and razor wire inspired the opposite of the security it was supposed to provide. But after a while you realize it is all a legacy of a before time. Then you notice the smaller details. People running in the park, women walking alone or in very small groups, children playing in the streets. You see young people sitting on benches talking about movies drinking coffee. People where tank tops and shorts, they wear fancy earrings and America’s best brands.³ We were never warned not to go out at night, or to leave our valuables behind. And very quickly we stopped worrying about the walls.

This is not to say that El Salvador is without problems. They have had to abandon their own currency to pay back American loans. The country invested in cryptocurrency in a big way that has yet to pay off. Infrastructure is still catching up after decades of neglect. And most alarming of all, their president, still popular for his role in reducing crime, seems to be sliding further and further into dictatorship.⁴ I have always held that to give up freedom for safety is to forfeit long term prosperity for short term security. But I have never lived in a place once referred to as the “murder capital of the world.” And it is hard to argue with policies that have taken the murder rate from a high of 6656 total homicides in 2015 down to just 495 in 2022, a number projected to drop even further this year.⁵ The people of El Salvador, as do people everywhere, deserve to feel safe in their homes.

I do not know what the future holds for El Salvador, but right now I know this: I went to El Salvador with few expectations and some trepidation. I leave immensely thankful my travels took me there, only sorry that I did not have more time. I’m not going to tell you to visit El Salvador. You know what kind of vacation you want to take. But I will tell you that it is safe to visit El Salvador, safer likely than staying in the US. And I can also tell you this. It will exceed your expectations.

1I might have to do another supplemental just on hostels and backpacker culture.

2You don’t fully notice how much American servers interact and interrupt you until you have spent time abroad, especially in Europe where meals are supposed to be enjoyed not inhaled over a trash can on your 5 minute lunch break.

3Ok this kind of sucks as more cultural imperialism. But also it is what people want, and they can afford it and enjoy it is the point I am making.

4‘It’s a war on the people’: El Salvador’s mass arrests send thousands into despair | El Salvador | The Guardian

5Is El Salvador Safe to Visit in 2023? Safety in El Salvador (elsalvadorinfo.net)