Overview
Take a trip to San Salvador on your El Salvador Vacation
Located in the Boquerón Volcano Valley, San Salvador is the capital of the Republic of El Salvador and serves as the country’s most populated municipality, a good starting point for an El Salvador vacation.
San Salvador, nestled in the Salvadorian highlands and surrounded by volcanoes, was the home of the Pipil people before Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century establishing the city in 1525. During the 19th century, it was in San Salvador that Father José Matías Delgado called for Central American independence and the city went on to be the capital of El Salvador when independence was granted in 1839. Despite being the site of much fighting during El Salvador’s civil war late in the 20th century, the city has managed to grow into a cosmopolitan centre and an important financial hub within Central America.
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Festival de Los Farolitos is an annual nighttime festival held every September in the town of Ataco, where the streets, houses, and plazas are illuminated with thousands of handmade lanterns (farolitos). Families craft them using colored paper, wood, calabash gourds, or jars, each with a candle inside. Although it's tied to the eve of the Virgin Mary’s birthday, it has evolved into a cultural celebration of community, light, creativity, and town pride.
The people and culture will make you fall in love with El Salvador. What I love most about it is how close it is to everything. You can visit several places in a very short amount of time. The beaches are stunning, and travellers looking for great surfing will find that this is the ideal country to visit.
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