Womens Rights Festival in Suchitoto
Way back in Spanish times, before El Salvador became an independent country, Suchitoto was the administrative centre of this region. It’s often referred to as the first capital of El Salvador, but really El Salvador didn’t have a proper capital until it succeeded from Spain and later again withdrew from the confederacies with their close neighbours. By that stage most people had migrated from Suchitoto to the place which is now called San Salvador, because of its proximity to the sea, availability of flat land, and the transit of the Pan-American Highway through the area.
It was meant to be a quaint town, though its population had more than halved during the civil war, so we organised a private day tour to Suchitoto today. Took us about an hour and a half to get there, and it was certainly out of the way. Passed a billboard on the road coming into town telling us that the largest supermarket in Suchitoto is ‘Super Jehovah Jireh’. Not sure any supermarkets in Australia would be called that.
When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the whole plaza was crowded with people, tents and stalls. There were speeches, which of course we couldn’t understand, but there were also colourful dancers, singers, musicians, and probably other things. Took us a while to work it out, but it was all in aid of promoting an anti-domestic violence message to the women of the town. Whilst I’m sure it was much appreciated and a very important topic, I did muse to myself that there were no men at all anywhere near the square, and perhaps they were a group that needed to hear the message. However, we were reassured by several signs around the square prohibiting the use of hand guns in the square, so the anti-violence message must be getting through.
We walked around the square, which was set out in the typical Spanish style, looked at the shops, and visited the main church. Had a lovely morning tea of coffee and cake in one of the local cafés. They are very proud of their El Salvador coffee and say that it’s exported to all parts of the world, including Australia, though not being a coffee snob I haven’t run across it.
On the itinerary was a visit to the indigo workshop where they manufacture the indigo colour out of natural products, and then apply it to various garments. However, it turned out to be an optional extra for the tour at a great price which was a bit disappointing, so we passed it up, although we did visit the shop to look at the garments.
After that we headed off down towards Lake Suchitlan where we had lunch at a wonderful café on the top of the hill overlooking the lake. It’s a man-made lake formed when they dammed the large river that flows throughout much of the country and out into the sea for the purposes of hydro electricity. We are told that many thousands of people were relocated by the government for the river to be dammed, but I suppose hydro is needed for a clean energy source as a population of a country expands.
From there we headed back into San Salvador, which was a bit of a surprise, as it wasn’t listed on the itinerary. So we got another short tour of many of the places that we had visited yesterday, although we did get entrance into the National Palace in the main square of San Salvador, which has now been converted into a museum. It was the old presidential palace, judicial complex and parliament till they all outgrew the building, and it was good to see the old architecture and local craftsmanship used in the construction of the building, as well as the central garden complex.
Returned to our accommodation late afternoon.
Morning Tea
Lunch Overlooking Lake Suchitlan
The Palace
Inside the National Palace, San Salvador