Antiguo Cuscatlan: Our "home town"

 It was just days after our arrival to El Salvador that my husband and I started to explore our surroundings.  Our car wouldn't arrive for a while, so our ventures were limited to what we could do via what my Dad would've referred to as "ankle express" or what could be seen through the windows of friends' cars on trips to the grocery store.  We became instantly intrigued by the small-town-within-the-big-city that is Antiguo Cuscatlan, and have since come to consider it our home town. It's an easy five minute drive from our neighborhood, or back then, a not-so-easy 35 minute walk including a substantial hill.  It was still worth it. 

While doubtless most of our embassy colleagues know Antiguo Cuscatlan, I wonder how many have actually parked the car and combed the grid of streets to see just how much we have so close by.  I'd like to show you what you can find in the hopes that you'll do a bit of a wandering yourself to get to know the town and the people running the huge variety of small businesses.  

For ease of description, I'm going to refer to the two main one-way streets as the lower road (the one heading from east to west with the volcano on your right), and the upper road (from west to east, volcano on your left), and everything else will be referred to as a side street.  The place isn't that big; I have faith you can follow along. 

Let's start with something to eat.

What are you in the mood for? Feel like going traditional? Then you have to start with pupusas or tamales.  You can't possibly miss the dozen pupuserias on the lower road or the few dotting the side streets.  At any of these spots you can fill yer' belly for less than $5 with the usual selection of pupusas de queso, de frijoles, de chicharron, revueltos etc.  There's one spot towards the end of the lower road on the right that also sells empanadas and my absolute favorite is the empanada de platano con leche.  Not the crusty, flaky Argentine type of empanada stuffed with meat or cheese, these are made of platano and filled with a how-do-they-do-that milky custard.  Perfect for dessert or even breakfast.  

We may have over-ordered on pupusas. Rookie mistake.

Want Korean? Yes, really!  Go just a bit towards the western outskirts of town on Calle Las Rosas and you'll find Seoul Garden owned by a Korean family offering a variety of Korean standards to wash down with a little bottle of soju. Not cheap, but well worth it for the authenticity. 

We may have over-ordered here, too. Veteran non-mistake.

Mexican? Got it, lower road on the corner of a side street is a bopping Mexican spot that always has both musica and the grill going, and you'll find lots of smaller spots offering tacos. 

Turkey sandwiches?  (That's pretty specific, eh?)  I recommend Panes Coyo that specializes in panes de pavo aka turkey sandwiches on big, puffy rolls with hot au jus and veggie fixins' on top.  They also have turkey salads and other combos, and when I stopped in today for my share, it was the spot to be for The Real Abuelas of Antiguo Cuscatlan - The Ladies Who Lunch edition.  

The Ladies That Lunch crowd at Panes Coyo. 

I hadn't yet added the sauce.

Just a few doors down and in the same strip of businesses on the upper road as Panes Coyo, you'll find Papalandia and can dig into a variety of stuffed baked potatoes or burgers.  Or, if you're with a group who would like a variety of options, try Plaza Tonatiuh, a cute outdoor-seating food court with Peruvian, seafood, burgers aptly named "comida gorda" and others. 

Looking to pick up dessert or bringing something to a special occasion? The classic bakery Teclena has an incredible assortment of Salvadoran pastries and gorgeous cakes.  Or, give a smaller business some love and try the darling Shakes shop on the corner of the lower road for fruit smoothies, licuados and healthier-options of cookies and cakes (per their "Un toque saludable" claim on the door - a healthy touch).  The woman who owns the shop is very friendly and I like the color and variety of little things in her store. 

Warning: Do NOT enter while hungry. 

Shakes is more than, well, shakes. 

It's also homemade cookies and small gifts.

But Antiguo Cuscatlan is more than eating out, and this is where simply hitting the streets will prove fruitful.  In just a ten minute walk today, I passed three shoe and luggage repair locales, two florists, about a dozen pharmacies, a party and school supply store, fruit and veg stands, butchers, a large car mechanic shop, a basket-and-spices shop and a closet full of clothing and shoe stores.  Take a look:

I've bought two pairs of sandals in Antiguo Cuscatlan (so far...).

THE best mask selection and my go-to for the past two years. 

Pinata anyone?

Cute gifts and artisan shop, but doesn't open until late afternoons. 

Get yer' anime t-shirts!

Self-explanatory, and thank you for the translation. 

Iglesia de Los Santos Ninos Inocentes

Antique store offerings

After all, "Antiguo" is their first name. 

Buy a basket and...

...fill it with spices or local wine.  I bought a jar of cardamom which isn't easily available elsewhere.

Next to the cemetery on the lower road you'll find a good florist. 

Take advantage of repairing or reupholstering furniture here where the price will be a fraction of that in the US - and support a local business. 

Mens haircuts for under $5

Fun new spot for fruit smoothies and licuados.  I had green apple, mango and basil. 

As for timing, try visiting at different times of day or evening and you'll find what feel like completely different towns.  Visiting mid-day, you'll see many businesses shuttered and wonder why, but come in the late afternoon or evening and the town springs to life with busy streets and restaurants hitting their peak hours. Surrounding the town square park are table-top vendors for all sorts of tchotchkes, caldrons of ponche for sale by the cup (a hot concoction of spices and alchohol - or not - of your choice), and ice cream and churro shops for after dinner.  You're in the real El Salvador - grab a sorbet and a spot on a park bench and enjoy the people watching.  

Don't ask what exactly is in the caldron - just try it. 

A beautiful smile for a stranger and some meat on the grill - that's El Salvador!

Churros!  (They just look like someone's lower intestine.)

Pick out a few crafts from the street salesmen. We got a deer and a bowl. 

Squirrel!

Beyond the town changing from day to evening, there are also certain times of the year not to miss.  The central park and plaza are transformed each Christmas into a holiday light show featuring a four story tree towering over a nativity scene.  Just days after Christmas are the fiestas patronales (patron saints' day) for the Catholic parish Los Santos Ninos Inocentes featuring the procession from the church and winding through the hilly streets of town. 

Christmas 2021 

Our purview from the top balcony of a tipicos restaurant.  This view and a pupusa dinner for about $5 each.  What a monetary oddity - anything for 5 bucks!

Procession of the devout at the patron saint festival of Los Santos Ninos Inocentes. 

Finally, instead of beating the well-trodden path to the shinier Super Selectos for your groceries, try La Despensa de Don Juan at the Atlacatl roundabout on the western edge of town. They've recently given the produce section a facelift and while you're not going to find Udon noodles, tahini or a bottle of wine you might actually enjoy drinking - there is certain charm to this supermarket that keeps me coming back. With wider aisles, faster check-outs, a large lower parking lot and my favorite feature - you don't have to weigh your produce first! - I really prefer shopping here.  The produce is just as good as the fancier chain stores and I still find leeks, Portobello mushrooms and boxes of blueberries.  What more do you need?

If you're part of the embassy community, come see what our town has to offer.  For those of you just armchair traveling - l hope this gives you a glimpse into typical Salvadoran life, vibrant with color, warmed by kind, smiling faces and just a touch of grittiness to keep things real.  C'mon down!

A Day in the Life of Three Salvadoran Towns: An Afternoon in Panchimalco

Some places attract visitors due to their historic significance, some for natural beauty, others for cultural preservation or a dedication to the arts. And some keep you coming back simply for their vibe, a tangible, self-perpetuating positive energy that differentiates them from other places.  Panchimalco is all of the above, but primarily the latter.

We found the little town in the way we often do - we stumbled upon it. Tucked into a deep valley only 30 minutes' drive from our house, it sits just 7 kilometers downhill from popular Planes de Renderos, a ridgetop town with panoramic views and restaurants with big patios to take advantage of those views.  The kind of place where families gather on Saturdays for lunch and fresh air.  Just a few minutes from Planes de Renderos, Panchimalco is also overlooked by a spot often visited by folks just before they settle down to stacks of pupusas: La Puerta del Diablo. With a distinctly ominous history as first a Mayan Pipil sacrificial site, a practice sadly modernized during the Salvadoran civil war as an execution and body dump site, the two rocky peaks of La Puerta del Diablo tower high above the valley and serve as both visual and historic backdrop to the town. 

View of Lake Ilopango from Planes de Renderos

Volcano of San Salvador

Nahuat-speaking man of Pipil heritage met at La Puerta del Diablo

Nov 2020 - This family said this was their first time out of their house since March lockdowns started.  Puerta del Diablo peak. 

High above even the ever-present soaring vultures. 

Even today, as many Salvadoran towns experience, in the hills and hamlets nearby, MS-13 lets its presence be known. 

Lest we forget...

It was just about lunchtime when we pulled into Panchimalco the first time.  We found the main street blocked off by canopies shading rows and rows of tables and a gathering of (mostly) men in red vests.  The crowd and their animated conversation kept us at bay for a bit, but we soon figured out from the initials on caps, vests and banners (FMLN) that we'd come upon a political party assembly and the stump speeches and negotiations we were witnessing were to select the party's candidates in upcoming elections.  Our presence went completely unnoticed given their focus to the task at hand and we easily slipped around the tents and into the heart of downtown.  

Political party gathering

The main street was lined with pastel-colored storefronts, bakeries, a few tiny restaurants, and stands selling home goods and clothing. The town center was marked by a small shady plaza with occupied benches, the Mayor's office (Alcaldia), and the entrance to the market building, full of stalls. And just around the curve, we could see the backside of the imposing colonial church.  Even beyond the political activities, the main and side streets were humming with people just going about their days: selling, buying, gossiping, carrying loads, doing street repairs - the pleasant buzz of day-to-day life. Not the stresful or frenetic activity of a city, just life moving along and minding its own business. I was tempted to order a cone of tamarind sorbet from the guy with the push cart and take a spot on a bench to simply watch it all go by. But instead, we saw the sign indicating an outdoor sculpture garden just off the hillside from the plaza. 

City hall with the rocky peaks of La Puerta del Diablo in the backdrop

Sporting a sign of the times

Never miss an opportunity to be colorful. 

Necessity is the mother of invention.

And the grandmother.

Let me step back and give an excruciatingly brief bit of Panchimalco history, which will explain some of what we saw and felt there.  First, the town is known for maintaining and celebrating its native heritage in a country with surprisingly few remaining pockets of indigenous populations. Originally occupied in pre-Columbian times by the Toltec, it has been considered a place of refuge. An example of this occurred during the 16th century when the indigenous Pipil fled there during the Spanish takeover of the city of San Salvador.  

The Spanish soon caught up and settled the town, building the central church, "Iglesia de la Santa Cruz de Roma" sometime in either the 1600s or early 1700s, depending on which iteration one considers the original as it faced many an earthquake and flood over the centuries.  It's now the oldest colonial structure still standing in El Salvador.  This mixed indigenous and Catholic history is the background for Panchimalco's festival each May, La Feria Cultural de las Flores y Palmas in which the women show off their colorful woven headscarves and the patron saint parade full of flowers and worshippers fill the streets. 

In more modern times, I've read some about the town being a hideout for guerilleros during the Salvadoran Civil War (1979-1992), some remnants of which could account for the current popularity of the leftist FMLN (Farabunco Marti National Liberatin Front) party we saw upon arriving.  

The side of the Mercado Municipal building was painted with a two-story mural featuring Saint Oscar Romero, the archibishop of San Salvador who was assasinated during the civil war in 1980 and canonized in 2018.  The text to the left reads, "Even if the assasin's bullet kills me, I will be resurrected in the people" and given his overwhelming popularity, it seems he has fulfilled his promise.  However, seeing said assasin's bullet painted blue, white and red, my husband and I paused, and began anxiously whispering to each other. "Why are they blaming the French for Romero's assasination? Were the French involved in the civil war? Oh dear - are they blaming the U.S.? But wouldn't that would be red, white and blue? Who are they blaming?" Flushed with a sudden caught-behind-enemy-lines feel, I started considering other nationalities we might pull off, say Canadian or Australian, should we be surrounded by the folks at the political rally. But those fears were never realized and what we wouldn't learn until days later is that the colors being blamed in this mural for Romero's death represented the flag of ARENA, the right wing political party and opposition to FMLN, not the French and not the U.S. 

Phew. 

Political message not so hidden. 

Politics aside, Panchimalco's dedication to preserving its heritage is seen today in the town's advocacy for arts.  By this, I don't mean they have one or two nice galleries to visit, but I mean a whole-town support for the value of the arts. 

Which brings me back to us finding the sculpture garden...

Set down off the central plaza under a shading canopy of trees, the sculpture garden with its murals depicting the town's history, pathways curving through the sculpture installations and the gentle splash of a small waterfall provided refuge from the day's busy-ness.  A secluded spot for romance, too, it seems, as evidenced by a few couples nestled together on benches and a sign warning people not to engage in amoral behavior in the park.  At the back of the park we found a small cafe with a wide balcony overlooking the mountains and rooftops and stopped for a lemonade and a bite. 

Revisionist history of indigenous warrior?

History of the country in relief mural. 

The large tree to the left is still standing and is as impressive a structure as the church itself. 

Sculptural sense of humor.

Cafe balcony off the sculpture garden.  I recommend the pollo encebollado. 

Leaving the cafe and scultpure garden, we walked back up to the main street and continued down a few blocks to the church. Finding it unfortunately locked up, I stuck my head into a tiny bar/cafe next door where two men were seated with a pot of coffee and conversation between them. I asked if they knew when the church might be open to visit.  Perhaps it was the novelty of talking to foreigners or perhaps just the coffee, but 20 minutes and centuries of condensed colonial history later, we parted company on the sidewalk with promises to continue the conversation another time.  

Funky cafe with chatty and informative owner on the left. 

Although we were out of luck that day, in later trips to Panchilmalco we have been able to explore the church and take in the delicately carved wooden ceiling beams, the meter-thick walls, and despite the soaring ceiling and unobstructed, airy interior the building has kept its musty smell - like finding a wooden trunk in the attic that hasn't been opened for decades. 

Iglesia de la Santa Cruz de Roma

Directly across from the church, set down off the street level, is La Casa del Artista with its banner boasting the municipality's connection with Xi'an, China.  Local press reported the town mayor's desire to establish a sister-city relationship with the Chinese city famous for its terracotta warriors given their shared dedication to preserving their cultural patrimony.  We found a group of teens in modern t-shirts and jeans practicing traditional dances in a small plaza surrounded by walls of murals, their bright colors blurred by the encroaching moss. 

Headed back through town, we came upon the Casa de la Cultura. With it's tie-dyed exterior paint job, it's impossible to miss. It houses a gallery of local art, a small museum of dusty artifacts and historic photographs of artisans alongside the current day artisans themselves, weaving vividly-striped cloth on looms in a large interior courtyard.  We bought some woven face masks from an elderly weaver which were just as colorful and musty as the Casa itself.  

Woman waiting outside the Casa de la Cultura.

Artifact on display at the Casa de la Cultura. 

And finally, if all this weren't enough, directly across from the Casa de la Cultura on the high side of the road we made one final stop at the Fundacion Miguel Angel Ramirez, an art institute and gallery occupying an equisitely renovated old stucco house. The property expands up the hillside in a series of patios, gardens with water features, decks, lookout perches and hidden rooms- each area dedicated to a different art medium.  We arrived as a group of local kids was finishing their day-long art class, gathering their pencils and sketchbooks and tidying up their little stools and benches.  The director stopped to chat with us and give us a tour, explaining the foundation's purpose: an apolitical, non-religious NGO dedicated to promoting and recognizing the potential in young people through art and culture. Their slogan is "Colors for Humanity," which after multiple afternoons spent in Panchimalco, I believe doesn't stop at the foundation's doors, but is embraced throughout the entire town.  

Arbors framing the view from one of many patios and balconies at Fundacion Miguel Angel Ramirez.

Wrapping up the day's class. 

We've now visited this little town tucked into a valley many times and I have yet to change my mind about it. There are places that just have a good vibe: welcome, warm, bright, and positive despite the violence of their past or even their present. It's evident that Panchimalco hasn't let its daisy be stepped on and continues to bloom with each generation. 

Next: A Day in the Life of Three Salvadoran Towns: Nightfall in Suchitoto