07/29/2026
Topics: Travel

Mi Viaje a El Salvador

About a month ago I got back from a week-long trip in El Salvador with my parents, my sister, my mom’s brother and his wife, my mom’s cousin who is from El Salvador but lives in the US (I’ll call him JC), his fiancée, and their baby. This is my second time going to this country, with the first being in December of 2024. Both times we have come here for a very important reason: to connect with family. My grandmother (mother’s mother) immigrated from El Salvador to the United States sometime in the 60s or 70s and basically never contacted her family again. My family has never lived in communities with large latine populations and my grandmother didn’t pass down speaking Spanish to my mother or uncle, so these trips, even when I can barely understand anyone and stick out because of my light skin, help to remind me that I am latino. My family - these people I have never met and can barely speak to – always treat me and everyone else so kindly and were very excited to see us both times.

Day 1.
This is the day we arrived from the plane. The plane ride was okay but some of the employees at the airports kind of tainted my day. First thing was the TSA for our first flight. Every time I go through, they pull me aside because I’m far enough in my transition that they push the boy button for me but I still haven’t had top surgery, so my tits always read as bombs or whatever on their scanner. Normally they just do a swipe below my collarbone, but this time the TSA agent firmly ran his hands up and down by chest. Almost a month later it still disgusts me to think about how it felt. We had a layover in Atlanta and naturally after getting off a plane you have to piss. I walked into the men’s bathroom when a janitor stopped me and said “Excuse me!” I turned around and said “What?” in my most annoyed voice I could even though inside I was panicking. We stared at each other for too long before said “You’re good,” like he was granting me his approval to use the restroom. I went into a stall but I was so freaked out that I couldn’t even piss. After that I was feeling extremely dysphoric about my chest all day so fuck those two guys.

Around noon we landed in El Salvador. Before driving to our rental house, we went to a tourist-y beach called El Tunco, which means ‘pig’ in El Salvador, named so because there’s a rock that kind of looks like a pig on its back. The rental house we stayed in was in the same gated community we were in last time we came, except now it was right on the beach.

Day 2.
Since we were so busy the previous day with flying in and driving quite a ways from the capital to our rental, we chose to not do any major outings this day. The one thing we did do was go to a nearby beach and have a cookout with my extended family. They made a really awesome spread of food but I did get the shit bitten out of my feet by ants.

Day 3.
One of the things that I wanted to do on our last visit but did not have time for was climb up Santa Ana volcano. This time around we set aside a day for it and the hike was rewarding but tiring, especially since we had to get up at 5:00 AM to get to the park on time.

One reason I wanted to do this hike was for the birding opportunities, because of the dramatic cascade of habitat a mountain produces (from tropical lowland forest at the base to scrub at the top), but I could tell the guide was getting really irritated with me wanting to stop and look for them. The birds got more frustrating to find the more altitude you gained because as the vegetation thinned out the more secretive they got. Sometimes these birds sounded like they were literally right in front of your face but you still wouldn’t be able to see them. At the top of the mountain you can only stay for 20 minutes because of all the sulfur it produces. I don’t know what I was expecting to be at the center, but it was not a boiling pool of mint green sulfuric acid.

Day 4.
On this day I was personally fine but tragedy struck my party. My mom, dad, and aunt all became extremely ill with a bad case of traveler’s diarrhea. If they weren’t intimidated by the language barrier or have a (probably unfairly biased) distrust of the local health services, I think that they would have gone to the ER, but they toughed it out. We were supposed to go see La Ruta de las Flores (a route featuring towns with larger indigenous populations) but pushed it to the next day since people were feeling so bad. Instead, my sister and I went to see the Tazumal Mayan ruins with JC, his fiancée, and their baby. This was the second favorite thing I did after hiking up the volcano because this day really touched me emotionally.

I was not expecting the ruins to be in the middle of a busy city center; when I picture ancient Mayan ruins, they are out in the middle of the jungle. The structure was inside a nice little park area, and admission rates were different for citizens, people from other Central American countries, and other foreigners. JC told the woman at the entrance that my sisters and I’s grandmother was Salvadoran, and she said that’s as good as being from El Salvador. When we got inside, my sister and I said to each other: “Somos salvadoreños.” You could climb up on some of the structures, and it was cool to think about how I was literally walking in the steps of a people who built this immense structure almost thousands of years before they ever came into contact with Europeans. Directly across the street from the ruins was a restaurant that made pupusas, which are basically the national dish of El Salvador. Now, most are made on a flat-top grill, but these were prepared the traditional way on terra cotta. Of course, they were very good!

When we got back in the evening there was a black witch moth stuck inside the house that had landed on the door to my parents’ room. I looked it up the next day and it is popular folklore in many Central and South American countries that a black witch moth flying inside the house in an omen of death. I started thinking about it too much, especially how it had been on my parent’s door, and then realized that I forgot to take my anxiety medication.

Day 5.
This day we traveled to a few towns on La Ruta de las Flores. Since the people who were sick were still not feeling good they had to miss out, unfortunately. JC’s sister and their mother joined us on this trip. I really like them. In contrast to yesterday, this day reminded me about how I’m still just a white American tourist who can barely talk to my own family let alone strangers. Our first stop was the town of Nauhizalco and it had a very large market that sold just about every type of produce and meat the area could provide. I didn’t really enjoy being here because there were so many people and it was so loud that I was beginning to become overwhelmed. Being hardcore stared at by people because I had some of the lightest skin there didn’t help. The next town we went to was Juayúa, and this place is known for its coffee. It was much more quiet here and we got a good lunch, so I had a better time here than in Nauhizalco. The last town we went to was Ataco. We couldn’t stay here as long because it was getting late and I could also tell that some people were beginning to get tired and irritated with each other. There were lots of shops here, and I was hoping to buy a hammock to bring back home because El Salvador is known for their hammocks, but I couldn’t find one to my liking. Instead I got a large blanket, and that was the end of my El Salvador trip. The next day we flew back home.