Introducing Northern El Salvador

A short bus ride from San Salvador are the small towns of northern El Salvador and the Chalatenango department. Suchitoto is the honey pot of the area, and possibly the country, attracting hundreds of visitors every week with its colonial good looks, laid-back attitude and artsy bohemian style. La Palma, up the road, has less flair than Suchitoto, but shares its artistic leanings - Salvadoran painter Fernando Llort taught his style and technique to local artisans, who now earn their livings creating the colorfully painted wood crafts that are so well known in El Salvador and abroad. Throughout the area are great hiking opportunities and lush mountain views, including those from the summit of Cerro El Pital, El Salvador's highest (but most easily climbed) mountain.

During the civil war the north saw intense fighting between the Salvadoran military and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrillas. Villages here, including Suchitoto, bore the brunt of the military's tierra arrasada (scorched earth) campaign, in which entire towns, communities and farms were destroyed. Salvadorans fled en masse to Honduras, where 'temporary' camps just across the border became home to thousands of refugees for more than a decade, and became the source of tension between the two countries. Many refugees returned as the war wound down, and after the signing of the 1992 Peace Accords. Others, especially those who fled to the USA, have never returned - it is not uncommon to find Salvadoran immigrants who not only still haven't gone back themselves, but who in some cases refuse to allow their children to visit either. Those who did return formed new towns, like El Manzano, so refugees and former combatants whose hometowns were destroyed would have a place to call home.