S/V Pacific Mystic

Date: 28 Apr 2010 01:00:00

Title: Tour El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala - Day 1

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Upon our arrival at Bahia del Sol, our friends Vicki and Rudy of ‘Inspiration at Sea’, who had arrived a few days before us and had made arrangements with another couple, Gayle and John of ‘Sirens Call’ to go on a 3-day guided tour of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala with a private tour guide leaving the next day, invited Eric and I to join them.

Jorge Martinez, our personal tour guide who drove the 6 of us around in his tour van through El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala for 3 days, was fantastic.

You can visit his Web site at: http://www.tourinelsalvador.com

Day 1:

San Salvador, El Salvador

rudy tour 001.jpg

Starting the day with a hearty breakfast of stuffed pupusas, the national food of El Salvador, in a popular (at least with our tour guideJ) pupuseria in San Salvador.

Yum!

John, Eric and Rudy waiting in the courtyard of the pupuseria while the pupusas are prepared

Salvadoran landscape outside of San Salvador

Joya de Ceren, El Salvador

Joya de Ceren Archaeological Site is a pre-Columbian Maya farming village that has been preserved remarkably intact after it was destroyed by volcanic ash around 600 AD.

Loma Caldera, a nearby volcano, erupted and buried the village under 14 layers of ash. The villagers were apparently able to flee in time – no bodies have been found – although they left behind utensils, ceramics, furniture, and even half-eaten food in their haste to escape. The site was discovered in 1976 by Payson Sheets, a professor of anthropology. Since then the excavation process has continued. About 70 buildings have been uncovered.

Even more important than the buildings, however, are the paleoethnobotanical remains. The low temperature of the wet ash from Loma Caldera, as well as its rapid fall, ensured the preservation of much of the plant material. Of great importance is the discovery of manioc fields, the first time manioc cultivation had been found at a New World archaeological site.

And in recognition of its archeological importance, in 1993 it was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This site has been compared to Pompeii and Herculaneum for its superb level of preservation and has been referred to as the Pompeii of the Americas.

The site has been populated with rich tropical flora and fauna

Eric and Gayle on a path to the archaeological site

A cashew tree

Ceiba tree, the Mayan tree of life

Avocado tree

Inside the excavation site…

We were fortunate to see a torogoz, the national bird of El Salvador, upon arrival at the excavation site. What a good omen!

A modest two-room Mayan home. The bedroom is the one to the left with the raised platforms

Another modest Mayan home. This one only has one loft-style room with the sleeping area on the left.

This is the village medicine woman house, recognizable by its spiral-like design to protect her from evil spirits, which in Mayan culture are believed to move in a straight line

This was the public place where public celebrations were held.

The structures photographed here were for storing and cooking large amounts of food.

Mayan ruins of San Andres, El Salvador

The San Andres ruins are located in the valley of Zapotitán about 5km southwest of Joya de Ceren. It is one of the largest pre-hispanic ruins in
El Salvador and was a regional capital during the late Classic Period.