Curious if anyone has been recently to El Salvador with new travel warnings after break of truce between MS 13 and 18th street gangs? I have traveled to Central America many times and felt safe renting a car and exploring the coastline. Although never traveled to El Salvador. Always heard great things and am regular footed. Any advice or recent travel stories are appreciated? Thanks for taking time to read this.
I used to work with some Salvadorians. From the storeis they told I may never go there, which is a shame because i heard the surf is great. In short, indescriminate killimgs and lawlessness. However, this was about 15 years ago.
Mitchell, skegleg and I went several years ago and the surf was incredible. I never felt threatened although, other than surfing I never left the compound. Mitchell and Skegleg walked down to the village one day and I hid out refusing to step outside the gates. They made it back fine. Also met up with some other guys from OC whohappened to be there at the same time. They had been driving the coast looking for waves and got home unharmed. Personally I dont think Ill ever go back, i still dream of that perfect surf but everywhere seems more dangerous now and im just not into it. I would say go, get picked up from the airport and surf one or two close breaks from where your staying, its an awesome place and the people that are not trying to kill you are really nice.
Any of those Central American countries have a percentage of inhabitants that want to kill Americans. You can see the anger in their eyes and body language. But most are friendly. You can see it in PR as well. But they are not the ones normally at the beach--they are the "independistas" living mostly in the interior towns. About 10-15% of PR would fall into that category.
I've never felt threatened in my 4 trips down to PR but I could see some areas being pretty bad. Rincon usually seems chill but just outside of it has some rough looking areas.
Neither have I. But then again, I am fluent in Spanish. But there is a degree of animosity, albeit small percentage. Those that are, are not against individual americans, per se, but rather, American government "colonialist" policies. There are a great number of highly intelligent natives who want to be independent of the USA; I believe they should be. They can make it work.
It's like anywhere else I suppose, just stay out of the ghettos and don't start nothing and won't be nothing. I don't know how things would be if they were totally independent though, I can see it getting worse, they get a lot of benefits by being part of the US. But I can see why some would want that separation.
Yes, the benefits are good, from OUR point of view, DSUP. But it is those very benefits that many of their "intelligentsia" feel are what is holding back further development of the island. At the moment, the government is $75 billion in debt via bonds, etc. Under USA law, they have no right to file for bankruptcy protection as other states are allowed to do- they are forced to pay it back. Many feel that is "unfair" and want, therefore, to break free. Time will tell. I can see a day in the near future when they are on their own. I will still go there, whether a territory or an independent state. BTW, Jet blue is now flying from Ft Lauderdale to Aguadilla, I am told, but a midnight flight only.
I visited El Salvador several years ago and didn't have any problems. We surfed El Tunco and some other spots i don't remember. But that was over 6 years ago.
They have been flying out of Orlando into Aguadilla for a while now, that's where I normally fly out of, it's an easy flight there and back. I just hate the airport. All of em.
I went last August. Stayed about 20 miles north of La Libetad. It was totally safe and pretty chill where I was. The Sunzal area to be specific. There were a ton of federales; however, they were there to keep us safe it felt like. We were walking back from D'Rocas (a bar on the point of Punta Roca) around 2am and were followed by 2 federales the entire way back, seems as though we had personal escorts (was about a mile walk). As soon as we got outside of La Libertad, everything seemed pretty laid back. It seems as long as you're not in La Libertad or San Salvador, you shouldn't have too much to worry about. Just make sure you set up transfers from the airport to where ever you are going. Don't get into a taxi! Once you get where you are going the surf is amazing! Surfed 5 straight days of double overhead perfection and the waves a pretty easy to manage too. Not a ton currents or a ton of people. Have fun and safe travels.
It's mainly concentrated in the cities. The horror stories you hear about the things unrelated to gang violence are from the civil war, communist **** that ended 20 years ago at this point. It's a very very poor country. With that in mind I wouldn't run around acting like a flashy asshole. But unless you are in the cities, I wouldn't sweat it. You have to remember, geographically you are surfing in the sticks. It's like not going to surf Cape May because of the gang violence in Camden.
Thanks for the responses for those of you who have been to El Salvador. Sounds like it might not be the best idea to drive there from your input. I was hoping to stay part of the time near La Libertad around El Tunco and also travel to the more eastern beaches near El Cuco. Never had real trouble in Central America in the past. From my experience Peru has been the most frustrating. As for Puerto Rico, I am not sure how that came up, but if you have issues there then surf travel may not be for you.
You need to worry more about the pollution and contracting raging diarreah than crime in El Salvador. Been there twice. Score is El Salvador 2, my intestinal tract 0.
Traveled through es by bus three times never a problem. The political situation is getting much worse there but I don't think that is affecting travelers
