February 6, 2025

It’s one thing to have to be at the bus station – within a relatively easy walking distance – for the bus to Cerro Verde at 7:30 am, but another to find myself not sleeping very much during the night, a combination of having drunk too much coffee the day before and the poor quality mattress which, at my age, no longer provides for a very welcoming experience. A handful of foreigners are seated placidly in the Sala de Espera y Abordaje “La Vencedora”, but closer to the allotted departure time, hordes of young western backpackers appear, a mix of Europeans and North Americans, and judging by their appearances, probably not a very interesting crowd, following the usual checklist of places to enumerate. But who am I to say …

The bus is not quite full when it leaves the bus station in Santa Ana, then takes the lesser, eastern highway towards San Salvador, crossing over the larger highway to pass into El Congo, pick up many more passengers, including a number of Europeans, then continue along the western side of the lake (the bus yesterday took the eastern road to the lake). While the road climbs and remains high above the rim of the lake, the trip is far more scenic, offering fantastic views of the lake through the screen of vegetation, flowering plants, modest wood-planked terraces erected next to private homes. There are scattered eateries selling their views to visitors, but no hotel complexes; with no possibility of accessing the lakefront, there are also no larger establishments blocking access to the lake, either.

We continue climbing, the road undulating gently along the lakeside, the body of water gradually receding from view, and then suddenly we stop at what seems to be the entrance to an official-looking park: this must be it! But there seems to be confusion as to whether people should get off or not, and that due to the fact that there are two different volcanoes visitors can hike up – Santa Ana, which is more scenic and easier, accessible from this stop, and Itzalco, which offers a longer, more difficult, and less scenic hike. Predictably, I opt for the latter; which one I choose doesn’t make much difference to me, since I hadn’t been aware of the choice beforehand, although it will soon become obvious that Itzalco will be a trying choice.

I wait for the appointed guide with a French couple on a longer trip through Central America, and as time pass, particularly the man seems to get increasingly tense and frustrated. Our guide does eventually appear with a local couple, and following a quick preamble, we are off, weaving along a well-defined descent that amounts to a steep, packed mud trail sculpted into a sequence of large steps, navigating in zig-zag fashion through the deep forest setting of heavy oaks often covered in trailing vines and decorated with the delicate tendrils of orchids.

The trail changes dramatically from the bottom of the seemingly endless zig-zag staircase of Cerro Verde, having to walk to the lip of each step, then gingerly step down, due the relative height of each step. It doesn’t help that the daypack with water bottles and camera equipment represents just enough weight that it throws my balance off ever so slightly, hence also slowing me down. From the descent on Cerro Verde, due to the thick forest of mature oaks and cedars, very few views are offered of the surrounding countryside, and only occasional snippets of Itzalco, the volcano we will be climbing subsequently.

As always, I breeze into the experience of hiking Izalco with a surfeit of misplaced optimism. It turns out that we have to descend the entirely of the Cerro Verde to get to the base of Izalco, then climb to the top of Izalco, descend Izalco again, and return to the top of Cerro Verde. Beyond the simple challenges of ascent and descent, there is the configuration of the trails and the almost exclusive steep pitch to take into consideration.

Cerro Verde’s path weaves in zig-zag fashion down the mountain, its large steps blocked by raw or planed wood segments, and given their size, too large to descend in a single, organic movement for each step; due to having to make several steps for each step of the path, the descent becomes exhausting. On the other hand, given the relentless pitch of the staircase path, by the time we return to the peak of Cerro Verde, we are utterly exhausted, and proceed at a snail’s pace.

Climbing Itzalco is relatively benign, as there graduations to the trail, and not all of it consists of loose rockfall, but the descent is particularly stressful, given the effort involved in trying to place each foot so as to minimize or eliminate the risk of slippage – and in this terrain, slippage pretty much guarantees a serious injury.

Being irrepressibly inappropriate in my commentary to people here, I always make fun of Salvadoreans’ corpulence with reference to their love for pupusas. Today, walking downhill with my companions, I keep my some not-so-funny commentary to myself, as I can see the two locals struggling, particularly the man, who is heavily overweight, and this kind of movement is simply far too much for him. At the base of the hill, when we clear the forest and emerge into the lava rubble that joins Cerro Verde with Izalco, he decides to turn back. Despite politely being advised by the guide that we need to understand what is involved in the hike and to be sufficiently prepared with water, with little physical training, it is difficult to grasp how challenging the endeavourmay get.

Across barren lava roll, we begin our ascent up Itzalco, something I expect to be terrible, but that actually turns out to be the easiest part of the entire hike. While the path is littered with loose rock and gravel – the entire hillside in fact utterly barren from relatively recent lava flows – it is far easier to establish secure footing on the ground when climbing up as opposed to descending. My cohort is slower than I am on ascent, but I stop too frequently to take pictures for it to be an issue; the trail happily doesn’t go straight up, but maintains a reasonable overall pitch featuring relatively shallow traversals. Also, the overall elevation isn’t that high to limit oxygen intake.

And despite the imposing height as seen from a distance, the volcano isn’t that high. Toward the top, small fumaroles appear, the nearby ground hot but not excessively so, and then the slopes are also graced by welcome breezes, another aspect that makes the hike quite pleasant. Finally we broach the crest of the caldera; the interior is utterly dormant, and can be crossed on foot.

Many of the larger rocks are graffitied, although happily, you see very little litter on the ground, probably a result of hikers having to be accompanied by park wardens, and the fact that the park performs a monthly cleaning. Admirable, to say the least! Swallows and peregrine falcons abound, and due to the usual vagaries of nature, I can’t seem to manage to capture any of the latter in a decent photo. Spectacular views of the surrounding countryside are offered from the rim of the caldera – from the far side, you can supposedly see the Pacific Ocean, although due to the haze, it is obscured.

While Itzalco itself it relatively barren, covered in broken-up lava flow, past the outer limits of the lava flows is rich, verdant and untrammeled forest. Development here is forbidden, something that Salvadoreans also adhere to, for the simple reason that irrespective of what the government mandates, the volcano itself is unpredictable, and the consequences of coming too close in the context of an eruption are unthinkable.

El Salvador is well-ensconced in the ring of fire, has hundreds of volcanoes, most of which are extinct, but a significant proportion are at risk of activity, of those many actually relatively active, and of those, a substantial number of ones that are not just active, but potentially quite violent. For example, Lago Coatepeque is the crater of a volcano, and is at risk of exploding, the consequences of which would be horrific, given its size.

Our guide tells us that there are few animals here, certainly no monkeys or deer. The problem for animals is that there is no source of drinking water. Yes, the lake has ample water, but it would make no sense for the animals to migrate to the lake, then back again. There are toucans, but they are not that visible. Obviously, there are starlings and peregrine falcons, which we saw flying around Itzalco.

She tells us incredible experiences she has had with other hikers, such as a group of young women who were attacked by angry wasps to the extent that their entire bodies became extremely bloated from the wasp bites. Another case was an elderly couple that had a breakdown, the woman ripping her shirt off in a delirious state, and another couple that had to sit down every few steps. People have even gotten heart attacks hiking the trail.

While there used to be a more proximate escape route via a cabin nearby the base of the mountains, a party not sympathetic to the needs of the park bought the property, and no longer allows the associated road to be used for rescue purposes (which seems fairly tragic). The extreme duress trying to hike steep mountains is hardly unfamiliar – you just can’t go from a largely physically passive lifestyle to hiking straight up a volcano, never mind the fact that there are technical aspects to the terrain that can make it far more difficult.

Unbelievable as it seems, we have finally managed to clamber back to the top of Cerro Verde; the further toward the top of the staircase we came, the slower our crawl-like pace. The friend of the woman accompanying me is waiting at the top with a welcoming smile – I am sure he suffered enough getting back up to the top of Cerro Verde without having even come close to Itzalco.

Apparently, there is a parking area with food stands higher up the road where we can catch the bus back to Santa Ana – even on the short walk to the parking area, the views of the land around Cerro Verde and Itzalco are absolutely stunning, especially with the shredded tendrils of clouds draped over the verdant green landscape.

The outlets lining the parking area are certainly very welcome, although I am so exhausted I can’t bring myself to even drink very much; inconveniently, I order what may be one of the vaunted yucca dishes people had been extolling the virtues of that I happily manage to finish before the bus leaves. The yucca is extraordinary – for a root vegetable that is characteristically starchy and bland, with little ways of redeeming itself, it has been prepared in a manner that is utterly succulent, fried to a state of possessing a somewhat crunchy, savory crust, and served in a tangy tomato sauce with the typical shredded spicy cabbage compliment. Even more interesting is that the tomato sauce is peppered with what seems to be fermented or roasted oregano, giving the sauce a very unique character, the cabbage condiment sour and tangy, the entire assemblage stunning to the palate. El Salvador strikes again!

The bus trip is long and arduous due not just to the length of the journey around half of the large lake, but also the trip through El Congo and on to Santa Ana. Much of the time taken is due to the numerous stops to pick up and drop off passengers. The trip may have been comfortable at the outset, but degenerates with the long waits and the crowds of passengers forced to stand; by the time we arrive in the back streets of Santa Ana, almost two hours have passed. And a very good reason not to return to Cerro Verde tomorrow morning to hike the Santa Ana peak, due to the amount of travel time.

Viewing the landscape to my left, the occasional views of the broad round lake below, its crater walls, the screen of vegetation and colourful tropical flowers, the open terraces of the modest eateries with stellar views of the dramatic crater below. Into the side streets of Santa Ana again, slowly progressing through the congested traffic in the narrow alley leading to Plaza Colón, where I disembark and trudge through the dusking streets, the vendors wrapping up the assortments of wares, shuttering their establishments, hopefully having sold at least enough to feed themselves for the day. The final stop will be my last opportunity to visit Ban Ban for an invigorating espresso and cream puff with flake pastry and flan-style filling …