El Salvador

I have been to El Salvador twice now in my life.  It is the home country of my wife and while I love my wife and enjoy accompanying her on her travels, I would have to say I am unlikely to go there again.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a beautiful and fascinating country.  Additionally, as a Korean-American, I never felt any hostility or racism.  In fact, I found Salvadorans to be more or less fascinated by my presence.

There are two reasons I was not a fan of El Salvador.  First was the climate.  Oppressively hot and humid – the climate reminded me much of South Korea in the summer.  However, South Korea has the benefit of having a winter.  Whereas, El Salvador has two seasons – both hot, but one extremely rainy and the other not as rainy.  I happened to visit during both seasons, and I was not a fan of either.  Perhaps it would have been more tolerable if air conditioning were more widespread.  Even while staying with my wife’s cousin, who’s considered wealthy in the country, it was difficult to get comfortable with the weak, window units she had.

The second reason I didn’t care for the country was the stifling security.  Gangs are a major problem there.  As a result, any nice place where the well-heeled tread has an armed guard in the front and 20-ft concrete walls around.  The grounds of where I stayed were beautiful; however, with 20-ft high walls surrounding it the place felt more like a prison than a luxury resort.  Growing up in America, it’s just very odd to see these kind of measures.  I did not like the feeling that I could not simply venture out into the streets and take a walk.  The one time I did, the Salvadorans I stayed with looked at me like I was taking a crazy risk.

I want to be clear that though I probably won’t return there, I overall enjoyed my stay.  Every supposedly poor country has an upper class and I had the privilege of getting to know this lifestyle.  I was treated to some delicious food at a beautiful restaurant on the side of a volcano.  Furthermore, I had the best coffee I had ever had in my life here.  I still think about that delicious cup of amaretto latte to this day!  Downtown San Salvador had areas that were akin to any luxury district in any city in the world.

I’m also glad I got to experience it.  One hears of El Salvador’s problems in the news.  It’s different, though, to see the country yourself and realize why a country could have so many problems.  The capital city, San Salvador, reminded me a lot like a mattress pad.  The landscape is a sea of steep, undulating cones that go up and down into the horizon.

As I drove around with my traveling party, I continuously saw people simply struggle to travel, especially when it was raining and huge streams of water raced down the steep hillsides.  Driving itself was often treacherous.  People underestimate the role of geography in having successful infrastructure, society, and commerce.  However, the correlation has been scientifically proven.  Hilly terrain is simply an impediment to thriving as a society.

The security issues were also obvious.  Though I never saw any violence, it is obvious that everyone goes about daily life with a fear of something lurking that could spring violence on them at any second.  I really hope this country full of great people can get the corruption-free government it deserves and thrive as a society.