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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

El Salvador: Cerro de Guazapa

The ex-presidential house that the guerrillas occupied during the war
The ex-presidential house that the guerrillas occupied during the war

We really enjoyed teaming up with Pamela and Matteo for our visit to Suchitoto. They were great company and easy travelling companions, and for us, they opened up whole new doors of exploration, because Pamela really wanted to go on a civil war hike in the hills around town, and unlike us, she had the Spanish skills to make it happen. I'm not sure we'd have persevered quite so hard on our own, but thanks to our Italian friends, we were lucky enough to enjoy one of the highlights of our trip to El Salvador.

Millet fields
Millet fields
Bullet holes sprayed across the walls of the ex-presidential house
Bullet holes sprayed across the walls of the ex-presidential house

The Civil War

Cerro de Guazapa
Cerro de Guazapa

That evening, I sat down in our hotel and read up about the civil war in El Salvador. I already knew that it had been a serious humanitarian crisis and an utterly terrible war, but I wasn't prepared for the scale of the war's brutality and the sheer senselessness of the whole thing. There has been plenty written on the subject of the war and I'm not going to try to add to it, but it helps to have a litte bit of context when you're talking about what happened in the hills around Suchitoto.

Transport for farm workers on the hill
Transport for farm workers on the hill
Nelson preparing sugar cane for us
Nelson preparing sugar cane for us
The remains of a bombed church
The remains of a bombed church
A wooden cross by the bombed church
A wooden cross by the bombed church
Nelsito pointing to a hole that locals used to shelter from the bombs
Nelsito pointing to a hole that locals used to shelter from the bombs

Cerro de Guazapa

The remains of a bombed school
The remains of a bombed school

Back in Suchitoto, the man from the cooperative turned up at the main plaza the following morning and introduced himself as Nelson, and we were soon bouncing along in the back of his rusty, bald-tyred car, heading out of town towards the dry hills to the west. We pulled into a dirt track and walked past fields to an abandoned building in the middle of millet and maize fields, and that's when the tour really started, because on closer inspection it turned out that the building's roof was missing and there were bullet holes sprayed liberally over the outside plasterwork.

The trench that surrounded the hill
The trench that surrounded the hill
Graves on the hilltop
Graves on the hilltop
A silk floss tree (Ceibas speciosa) anongst the bamboo
A silk floss tree (Ceibas speciosa) anongst the bamboo
Nelsito playing in the washbasin from his father's old home
Nelsito playing in the washbasin from his father's old home
Nelson and son sitting in the remains of Nelson's family home
Nelson and son sitting in the remains of Nelson's family home
Nelson in the waterfall where the women and children hid
Nelson in the waterfall where the women and children hid
The remains of Nelson's home
The remains of Nelson's home
Nelson and Nelsito at a water hole on the way down the hill
Nelson and Nelsito at a water hole on the way down the hill
Views on the way back down
Views on the way back down