El Salvador: o que fazer e visitar

El Salvador is small and mountainous, and the only country in Central America without a Caribbean coast. San Salvador, the capital, sits in a valley under the San Salvador volcano, with a neoclassical National Palace and a modern cathedral. Santa Ana, the second city in the north-west, has a Gothic-style cathedral and lies below Santa Ana volcano, the highest in the country.

Joya de Cerén, a Maya farming village buried by ash in about the year 600, is a UNESCO site not far from the capital, and the ruins of San Andrés and Tazumal show how far the Maya world reached. Lake Coatepeque fills a crater near Santa Ana, and the Ruta de las Flores winds through coffee towns with murals and weekend food fairs. On the Pacific, La Libertad draws surfers, and Acajutla is the main western port.

Pupusas, thick corn tortillas stuffed with cheese, beans or pork and served with pickled cabbage, are the national dish, with horchata made from morro seeds and sweet corn drinks. Coffee grows on the volcano slopes. The rains fall from May to October, and the dry months from November to April bring clear skies.