Finding Tourism

Written by Bessie about El Salvador. Feelin' thoughtful
Bessie_thoughtful
One really obvious thing I've noticed about living and traveling in El Salvador the last two months is that it lacks tourist infrastructure.  El Salvador is to Guatemala (and most countries in CA) what visiting that big ball of twine would be to Disney Land.  Ok, that's an exageration, but you get my point.  There's just not the hype and industry here that tourists flock to visit, and there aren't oodles of tourists clammering to cross the border that an industry is developing. 
Driving, El Salvador
Don't get me wrong, El Salvador is popular the world over with surfers, and I'd highly recommend visiting it to travelers that want to get off the path a bit and experience life and not just tourism.  There's just no over-looking that it can be super hard to find the correct boat dock in town, there aren't a lot of tour operators or they've changed their phone numbers, postcards are nearly impossible (sorry fam - I'm trying!) and in general, locals are not really accustomed to seeing and interacting with tourists.  In fact, everyone from El Salvador only visits places that they know people - it's rare people adventure off in their own country!

All that combined, this less-traveled path is not necessarily a bad thing.  Salvadorans are a friendly bunch, and I have lots of fun memories of people here looking at us interested and intrigued rather than glaring at us or resenting how tourists have changed their formerly charming town.  This trickle versus a flood of foreign tourists has generally meant that tour guides and hostel/hotel staff are genuinely warm and inviting.  People have been generous with their time, information and even the use of a telephone, to help us out.  When we have spent the nights in mountainous Apaneca, charming Suchitoto, and relaxing Playa El Espino, we've been surrounded by Salvadoran weekend-trippers.  I feel like we've gotten a special glimpse into people's lives this way, and it's not all manicured to get our $$.

So all this talk about a lack of tourist industry leads up to us finding a super well-developed and exciting touristy outing.  Not that I doubted El Salvador had it in 'em, but it's taken quite a bit of searching.  We'd been hearing good things about this zip-line adventure in the coffee growing mountain town of Apaneca, and we finally got up there.  Apaneca Canopy Tour was everything I'd hoped for: organized, on-time, well-staffed, and pretty fun.  For those new to the zip-line experience, I'll walk you through the process:

1. Drive down a narrow road in the back of a pick-up truck (it had fancy vinyl seats) through coffee fields to the highest point they could secure metal cables.
riding the truck for Apaneca Canopy Tour Harnesses are hot! It's Canopy tour time!
(i'm scoring low on the fashion points, I know.  I'm not a hat person.)

2. Wear this tight-fitting, flattering harness around your thighs and waist.  Don't forget the hardcore gardening gloves and decorative hard hat.

Apaneca Canopy Tour map
3. A guide hooks the two cords from around your waist (your new umbilical cords if you will), onto your lifeline, a metal cable taking you from one tree trunk to another.

4. Repeat zig zagging down the mountain-side.  Here's our path: 
Bessie hitting the end: Apaneca Canopy Tour, El Salvador
(no Bessies were harmed in the making of this blog.)

My review: It was adrenaline-filled fun.  This was my 3rd zip line experience, and although the others had more dramatic geography going for it (in Monteverde, Costa Rica), there they had us hanging on to this bike handle sort of apparatice that hooked over the cable which was sort of lame compared to this.  I give these guys props because we controlled our own speed based on how hard you grabbed onto the metal cable.  The hardcore gardening gloves actually had well-worn pieces of leather that the line sped against.  It was totally hardcore and awesome.  

Alas, it wouldn't be a cool story about the new daring thing we did without a video.  Here you go, folks:



Kudos to Apaneca Canopy Tour for a rad and well put together tourist adventure.  At $30/ pop it's what I hoped for.

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