Luckily most people in the US still believe the country is as dangerous as in the reports from years ago so prices are still really low and we're already planning our third trip. That will probably change in the next couple of years as the secret gets out and then it will be much less affordable. (It will actually be the 4th trip for our daughter because she went there on a school trip where they both toured and engaged with the local kehilloh.)
Less than 2.5 hours from Miami, we found flights for just $46 on Avianca. It was our second time there - this time we came with extended mishpocho. Everything is cheap (including flights at just $46!). The shul in San Salvador went out of their way for us in catering meals. It’s mostly comprised of geiri tzedek who spent years in the process under the guidance of various talmidei chachomim from Argentina and Mexico before converting in several waves over the last decade. Dozens of families were in each wave; many couples were halachically married as needed right after milah/mikvah. Many have made aliyah, emigrated to Mexico, or even Brazil in search of a stronger Jewish infrastructure, but it’s amazing to see what they manage to achieve on a shoestring budget with the little infrastructure they have, and to see their commitment to torah u’mitzvos.
You won’t have to change any money because they use the dollar. And bitcoin too. Although outside the capital (San Salvador) we didn’t see many signs of bitcoin’s use or acceptance.
There's much I could write about our trip to El Salvador. It rose to prominence in the last 2-3 years because the young President realized that homicides in the capital were approaching the levels of New York City and tourists and investors were choosing to spend their money in neighboring countries instead. He ordered police to jail hundreds, if not thousands, of gang members from the bad neighborhoods to send a message that he wasn't tolerating thuggery any more. And it worked! Tourists are flocking there and crime was virtually eradicted.
While there are a lot of Israeli backpackers at the coast and many frum business people that pass through, it's still not yet enough to support a Chabad House or kosher restaurant. Nonetheless, despite only being here for 5 days we still bumped into a large number of frum families on our travels - some on our climb up the extinct volcano in Cerro Verde National Park.
If you're looking to meet the local Jews, you basically have 2 options. The first shul/community is about 40 minutes by cab or rental from the airport in the sprawling capital city, San Salvador, where about a quarter of the population live, but where IMHO there's not much for tourists to see or do apart from a small Art Museum and a Botanical Garden. Our friends stayed there for Shabbos last year after finding a great deal at the Crown Plaza (about $65/night) which is just a 15 minute walk from the Sefardi shul. We needed 8 rooms and I ended up booking a non brand hotel which worked out cheaper and was much closer to the Shul. The local community lives very spread out in the city, but since they move into dorm rooms in the Shul every Shabbos, they don’t have to walk anywhere. 🙂
If you drive another 40 minutes West you’ll arrive at the humble town of Armenia, which I'll dub the Jewish capital of El Salvador. There's only 1 hotel in town, a short walk from the Shul but it only has 3 or 4 rooms so it didn’t make sense to stay there for Shabbos or any part of this trip given that there were more than 20 of us in our group. When I come back in Yeshiva week Iy”H with just my kids, we plan to stay in Armenia.
Both kehillos get basics like grape juice and Israeli/kosher snacks via neighboring Guatemala (a 5-6 hour drive away). Know that they're among the poorest Jews in the Americas and if you eat their food - and even if you don't - they'll deeply appreciate a donation, and perhaps your offer to bring something from the US for them. We brought a case of bamba, a couple of bottles of Bartenura, multiple packs of Paskesz candy, and tuna fish! Next time we would probably ask them what Judaica items they need. Bli neder on our next trip we plan to fundraise to donate a pair of tefillin (currently, most people share these), and maybe a mezuzah or 2.
Not far from Armenia is the volcano I mentioned earlier and the beautiful Lago de Coatepeque, a lake formed from the caldera of another volcano. We enjoyed an early morning jet-ski on the lake for around $20 before going swimming in the water. Apparently, the very wealthy Salvadorians have vacation homes around this lake.
El Tunco is the beach that Israelis and others flock to. It’s known as one of Central America’s best beaches to surf and it’s only about $25/hour to take lessons at one of the schools in the area. Most hostels have surfboards you can rent even if you’re not staying there. Be sure to watch sunrise and especially sunset along this beach as it is exceptional. At the Eastern end of the beach (about 10-15 minutes from the short central thoroughfare with most of the hotels and hostels), you’ll find some caves. Be sure to look up low tide times as that’s the perfect time to access them. Wear closed toe shoes, string your phone around your neck in a waterproof pouch, and wear a headlamp. It’s a cool free activity.
From there we drove to Cascadas de Tamanique, the waterfalls of Tamanique. This was a really great workout that reminded me of Nachal Avitan in the Golan. Except there were even more waterfalls of varying heights and plenty of places to jump into the pools from. Leave yourself at least 3 or 4 hours before it starts to get dark and just show up in Tamanique. Within about 10 seconds, someone will come over offering to be your guide. Our guide looked like he was still a teenager, but he clearly had done this about 100 times and knew all the best stops to take a photograph. We paid him the going rate of $5 per person although we later relaized that if you come as a large group you can probably negotiate a cheaper rate. You can’t do this without a guide and he definitely earned the payment.
On our last morning we headed back to the airport with a stop along the way for a couple of hours at Walter Thilo Deininger National Park where we had one final set of adventures including ziplining, rock climbing with a harness (harder than it looked from the bottom), and rappelling. We were pretty exhausted by the time we boarded our flight, having enjoyed several action packed days in a beautiful country.
