We’ve seen a lot of nature in the past few days. Therefore, it’s time for us to visit a big city again. And San Salvador really does count as a big city. We also didn’t expect San Salvador to feel like a well-developed American city in terms of infrastructure in the modern parts of the city, rather than a chaotic Central American metropolis. Normally we are no longer particular fans of big cities, so we come to San Salvador with some ideas that specifically call for a big city: Paddy is still looking for a new battery for his dive computer so that he can spend the days between Christmas and New Year safely underwater and Mimi needs new wool for her next knitting project. So much in advance: we were able to find both items in El Salvador, which would have been unthinkable in other cities.

City center of San Salvador

In addition to the duties mentioned above, we also take a trip to the city center. Since we are already in the city, we want to get a feel for what the city is like. And we can truly say that San Salvador continues the tidy and well-kept impression. Always bearing in mind, of course, that we are still in Central America. We visit the Basilica Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, the cathedral of San Salvador, and right opposite we take a look at the new library. The library is due to open in December 2023, when we visit San Salvador, and the building looks as if it has been transported from a high-tech metropolis such as Shanghai. On closer inspection, this might even be closer to reality than expected; Chinese characters reveal close cooperation between El Salvador and China in the realization of this building.
We also visit an abstract, architecturally interesting church a few blocks away from the other two buildings, the Iglesia El Rosario.

As San Salvador is chronically drowning in traffic, we take an Uber for trips to shopping malls (to get more things, which are otherwise few and far between in rural areas). And indeed, in the end we are stuck in traffic for a total of over 1.5 hours for two 8km rides across the city.

Our journey continues a little north of the capital near a beautiful lake. We’ll be in touch again!