El Salvador has 22 volcanoes, four of which are active, and 14 volcanic lakes (reminds me of that volcano movie with Pierce Brosnan when the old lady jumps ship into a lake- apparently a very shallow one- filling with liquid hot magma and pushes James Bond, Sr. and his crew in a rowboat to safety). The small country also features seven mountain ranges. El Salvador is certainly great to navigate via car, as it is possible to drive north to south or east to west in just four hours.
The national currency was the Colon(!) until the year 2000, but has now adopted the U.S. Dollar. This makes sense because 30% of the population lives on remittance- which means 3 million Salvadorans live and work abroad (mostly in the U.S.) and they send money home. That is a huge portion of El Salvador's economy! Most of the country's population works in agriculture or manufacturing.
The original inhabitants of El Salvador were the Pipil (sounds a lot like "people") Indians. Then the Mayans (their close neighbors) moved in until the Spanish decided to permanently vacation there in the 16th century.
82% of the country's population is Catholic, most of the rest are Protestant- one of the fastest growing religions in all of Latin America.
Security in El Salvador is either awesome (it's not) or terrifying (it is), because everywhere you go, there are "security" with sawed-off shotguns, machine guns, or other types of weapons keeping something safe. These security personnel patrol hotels, parking lots, banks, restaurants... everywhere! Most of them are privately hired, so who knows what type of training they've had.
Perhaps I should be thankful for the hoards of men toting automatic weapons, since many Salvadoran gangs target tourists- and will frequently stab or shoot their victims and take everything from them, leaving them for dead in the streets- a big difference from the typical petty theft that occurs in many tourist-directed crime-heavy cities (I would much rather get pick-pocketed on the metro in Madrid than stabbed and/ or shot for my $120 in El Salvador).
El Salvador must be limbo for retired Blue Bird buses. After their life has passed in other countries, they come here to wait in Purgatory for many years after their prime before they are ultimately laid to rest.
Some taxis are still Datsun B210s- when is the last time anybody has seen one of these for sale? 18 year olds may not have been able to vote.
Some of these things make sense: the country was in a civil war from 1975-1990! which is sure to prevent any country from experiencing a great deal of progress.
Before you go ahead and assume (if you already haven't) that I have nothing all that positive to say about my experience, hear this: El Salvador is trying hard and has many good things going for them like being a hub airport for TACA airlines, but they have a long way to go before they can compete with destinations in Central America like Panama or Costa Rica. At present, I would not recommend traveling there unless it is for a business related reason. El Salvador is not my first choice destination in Central America, but it looks to be on track to being a viable choice for travelers looking for an adventurous experience in a small country.
Dante's Peak! That's the volcano movie I was thinking of.
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