Driven back from Los Caracoles to Suchitoto by Pascal & Joaqim, the owners of the guest house (and of the hotel where we are going to be staying in that city,
Los Almendros de San Lorenzo). Stopped for a bite at their new restaurant,
Bistro de San Lorenzo (in case you wonder, Lorenzo, it’s the dog!) in San Salvador. They were kind enough to give us a couple of hours to visit both museums nearby –
Museo National de Antropologia Dr. David J Guzman (Pascal oriented us to room 5 – a history of the country through religion - fascinating: such a contrast between the pre-Hispanic and the colonial periods!), and
Museo de Arte de El Salvador (special exhibition of local painting artists since the 19th century), both recent constructions.
Drive to
Suchitoto, 47km north of San Salvador, late afternoon.
Suchitoto is a small town (but a city; ciudad – 5,000 people, but many more around the city proper, perhaps some 20,000). It seems though to be an important one, in the region (further north from San Salvador, but still geographically central). The name would actually mean “place of birds and flowers” in Spanish! The cultural centre of the country, they say. Perhaps because its colonial, Hispanic character has been preserved, cobbled stone streets and all! Although most of the buildings have been erected after the independence (1821), including the beautiful
church of Santa Lucia (mid 19th century - picture above) – one has to see the wooden-columned interior, long and narrow (picture below) – that dominates the main square (
Parque Centenario) where, at the other end of it, sits
Las Puertas Hotel (where Cynthia stays when the more luxurious Los Almendros – see below – is fully booked), which was we are told a jail a one point, converted into a bordello (!), then in a hotel – the rooms are upstairs, on the second floor, each with a balcony that must offer a unique take over the square.
There is the
“International Permanent Festival of Art and Culture” going on in February every year (the XXII edition this year!). This weekend, there is a performance by two Mexican artists, a pianist and a guitarist… Paid a visit to the art gallery across the street, called Galeria Pascal (guess who is the owner!) where there is a photo exhibition of pictures of Suchitoto by the wife of a German diplomat on posting in El Salvador; interesting…
Suchitoto is also the place where the
Stratford Shakespeare Festival theatre company from Ontario has chosen to help a local group –
EsArtes – to build up a theater concern, a few years ago, perhaps remembering how Stratford itself started from nothing some 60 years ago… That’s why Cynthia is here, along with several other theatre people that are here (mostly from Stratford; but some from other places – Victoria, Montreal…) who come here throughout the year to assist this nascent theatre group – go to Stratford Festival’s website for a couple of videos on this unique experience (supported by CUSO)… We were fortunate to have a long conversation over dinner with the local leader of this initiative…
We are staying for a couple of days at
Los Almendros de San Lorenzo (picture above), described in one guide book as
“by far one of the most luxurious independently owned hotels in El Salvador”! It’s a former hacienda (abandoned some 200 years ago by the wealthy Bustamonte family who left Suchitoto for the coffee-growing hills further north, like many others when at that time the natural (and toxic) indigo dye was taken over by trade in the synthetic variety); Pascal bought the place in the early 2000 and renovated it (redone and expanded) with immense taste! Beautifully furnished and landscaped. With what is also known as the best restaurant in town – in a glass enclosure at the back of the property, bordering a larger courtyard and a pool! Only 8 rooms; we are upgraded to a suite, room #4 (beware though if you go to bed too early – it is right above the bar, and you can hear the noise until late at night…) The quieter suites I would imagine – there are 2 others – are at the back, overlooking the second courtyard. Cynthia is staying in that hotel during her stay in Suchitoto (well, almost all her stay…when she does not have to go to San Salvador, or move to the other hotel, Las Puertas…)
Suchitoto was spared by the civil war – it was very much at the center of it though – and most villages around bore the brunt of it. But somehow it was not destroyed – they say it’s because of some local artists, like resident film-maker and cultural mover-shaker
Don Alejandro Cotto, who were able to speak to both sides…. It’s election time in El Salvador – local elections, mayors (and heads of departments?) for 2012-2015, but throughout the country. San Salvador is placarded with electoral campaign signs (FLMN, ARENA, GANA, ASI, and other parties…) – it is more subdued in Suchitoto though (I mean the signs…)
There are a few things you can go and see in Suchitoto – Los Tercios for instance, 30-foot waterfalls about a mile away from the center of town. I decided to walk down to the lake –
Lago Suchitlan (picture below) – huge, the largest in the country; man-made: they dammed the effluent river in the 70’s for power, sacrificing arable land and displacing people. It’s also a kind of bird sanctuary, where some 200 species of migrating birds – some from as far as Canada – come, I read. It is quite a steep road downward – I would say a good half-hour walking from the main square (got a lift coming back up!)
Lunch at
Villa Balanza, with some of the Stratford people – I had my introduction to the local dish –
papusa – the night before with all of them at a private residence – the best papusa in town, if not the country (!) they say… Dinner at the restaurant of Los Almendros – very good – steak and salmon, and a Saint-Emilion. Cynthia says the quesdadilla – a corn meal pound cake – deserves special mention.
Suchitoto, February 17, 2012
