Los Caracoles (les coquillages/the shells), on Playa Maculis

“This plush guesthouse, operated by exquisite Los Almendros de San Lorenzo in Suchitoto, is right on the waves of gorgeous Playa Maculis, just north of El Tamarindo (she probably meant south of El Tamarindo, if we have to believe the map in her book). The four-bedroom hole sleeps eight very comfortably in an architecturally outstanding abode. Accented with designer kitchenware, bedding and other luxurious amenities, the setting is divine. There is a full kitchen, and all meals and maid service can be provided. The covered oceanfront deck, with hammocks and other furnishings, is inlaid with a lovely pool, kissed by the waves at high tide…” This is how Paige R. Penland, in her guide book on El Salvador (published by The Countryman Press, Woodstock, Vermont, 2011) describes Los Caracoles, a beach house where we are spending a few days. It reads like a publicity plug but it isn’t far from the truth! let's not be mistaken: it is still rustic (this is not a design-home of the kind you find at the Sea Ranch on the northern coast of California!) We are having the place to the two of us, Cynthia and I, and it is paradisiac!

Drove from San Salvador; a 3-hour drive, roughly 200 kilometers (the last 10 or so on a rough, dirt road, part of which because “they are fixing it!”) But I see on the map the markings of an airstrip nearby – for military (and less admissible) purposes – a remnant of the civil war, no doubt…!

Back to the guesthouse, the kitchen and the living room are in the open, giving on the deck and the inlaid ceramic-tile Jacuzzi (the pool Penland refers to), facing the beach. We have selected the largest bedroom in the place, which is a detached structure (still on the property, just 2 or 3 meters away) from the main building which houses a couple of bedrooms, the kitchen and the living room. Very comfortable (with the mosquito net on top of the bed, although I have not seen any mosquito – but it is the “invisible” ones that we should worry about!)

Playa Maculis is huge enough, about 2km long, a well-pronounced arch, east-west, bordered at each end by rocky patches. Los Caracoles sits about the middle. It’s midday, and there is nobody on the beach. I walked from one end to the other earlier in the morning. Sand a pearl gray. Very smooth, and “deep”. The waters recede 400 to 500 meters from the top of the beach, at low tide. There must be a 5 to 6 foot tide, not very high, some rocks appearing on the east side of the beach at low tide. The west side is somewhat more “developed”. There is a fishermen/boat colony. Lots of fish caught; boats-filled (judging by the quantity, I suspect they trade with the trawlers we see at a distance). Black vultures waiting close by.

There are also birds diving in the ocean, for fish (pelicans, says Cynthia). I say “more developed”, there seem to be more houses on the beach, one being constructed, and a cluster of them, built on a somewhat elevated cement base, on rocks, where the beach ends, at the western tip. There are a few houses on the east side, large cement structure – among which the eyesore next to Los Caracoles – that are abandoned (as it turns out the house next to the guest house is not abandoned, simply not used very often!). A very isolated beach. There were 3 or 4 bathers around 4pm, kids from the neighboring houses, at the back of the beach…otherwise, the odd dog from around…

It’s really at the south-eastern extreme end of the country, on the Pacific, but just as the coast turns from the Pacific to go north to the Golfo de Fonseca. It is probably just a matter of (a few) years for this corner of paradise to be “developed” with a major resort complex…(just make the road more accessible!)

El Salvador, February 16, 2012