El Salvador Travel

El Salvador is the most densely populated of all Central, American nations. The results of heavy population pressures are seen in eroded hillsides, the flow of rural migrants to shantytowns in the principal cities of San Salvador (6,40,000) and Santa Ana (200,000), and the migration of Salvadorans to less densely settled areas in adjacent Guatemala and Honduras. The occupation by these migrants in disputed territory along the El Salvador Honduras border was the cause of the 1969 war between these countries. As in other Mainland Middle American nations, population growth is rapid (3.2 percent). In contrast to other Central American nations, El Salvador does not have an agricultural frontier. Increased agricultural production must involve higher yields per unit of land and not expansion of cultivated areas. The traditional landholding patterns have not been broken, and little has been done to improve agricultural efficiency.

Rather, emphasis is on industrialization, and consequently the success of the Central American Common Market is vital to El Salvador. El Salvador, however, does not possess many attributes for manufacturing. No minerals of significance are known; power supply must be imported; the only local raw materials are those of agriculture; and the labor supply, although abundant and cheap, is not skilled.

The landscape remains the most turbulent aspect of El Salvador. Volcanoes rise out of flat valleys, lakes fill in the spaces where once there were craters. The Pacific Ocean slams into its side and mixes with the sweet waters of the many rivers that slither through the country.

El Salvador is not as geared to backpack tourism as neighboring countries, but a trip through El Salvador affords a whole new experience of watching a country redefine itself.

El Salvador is famous for its rich flora and fauna. Around Montecristo there are quetzals, toucans, white-tailed deer and a couple of species of monkeys. Plenty of birds live in the coastal areas. Herons, Kingfishers, brown pelicans, egrets, parakeets and sandpipers can be spotted.