For our second day in El Salvador, we opted to visit the country’s famed archeological sites, including the UNESCO World Heritage Site Joya de Ceren (“Jewels of Ceren”) also known as “the Pompeii of El Salvador” (other sites on our itinerary, including the pyramids of Tazumal, are “Tentative World Heritage Sites” under investigation by UNESCO). I originally wanted to visit Copán in Honduras (one of the few sites safe for tourists in the country and a relatively unknown but incredible series of step pyramids known for their distinctive carvings), but it was a 16+ hour journey and given our limited time, didn’t feel as worth it. Fortunately, San Andres (the final site on our archeological tour), was founded by the son of one of the Copán kings as an outpost, so we got a (very) small sample of that culture.

We headed out bright and early, so much so that we asked our guide if I could have 5 minutes to grab a cup of coffee and, in my sleep deprived haze, I forgot to actually bring said coffee with me from the hotel lobby to the bus when it arrived. Lacking caffeine but excited for our trip, we headed for Joya de Ceren. Of course, we enjoyed the traffic views on the ~45 minute drive from San Salvador to the site (located to the northwest of the city), including many trucks transporting decorations for Christmas! We actually got lucky with traffic – apparently this was a much faster trip than expected. The fiancé of the Salvadoreño woman said that the last time he visited, there was a sign in Spanish saying something to the effect of “This is what your tax dollars can do when they aren’t stolen” – definitely a compelling message!

We began with the museum, which includes a variety of interesting artifacts from ~550 CE that were preserved by ash when a nearby volcano erupted (unlike Pompeii, however, the residents fled before they themselves were covered, with archeologists speculating that a 4.0+ earthquake before the eruption gave residents time to flee the area; either way, the cloud of volcanic ash from the explosion was so large that it reached Europe, causing panic and premonitions of something bad to come… and, as fate would have it, the Plague of Justinian hit shortly thereafter).

Joya de Ceren was a Mayan farming village of ~200 people, with a couple notable features that contribute to its UNESCO World Heritage status. These include the first recorded instance of yucca cultivation as well as the preservation of a near-complete Temazcal, a type of sauna still used throughout Latin America today for a variety of healing ceremonies and relaxation (I considered visiting one when we were in Oaxaca and wish I had, since I likely would have skipped the food poisoning!).

From the museum itself, I loved a couple artifacts:

• Ancient Maya fencing, preserved in ash!
• A mortar and pestle used for crushing maíz and other products to prepare food
• Preserved corn and corn husks – corn has changed a lot in ~1500 years!
• Beautiful pottery depicting Maya themes, including worship of Monkey Gods
• The UNESCO World Heritage certificate – I’ve been to many UNESCO World Heritage Sites but never actually seen what the designation document looks like!
• Our guide was very proud to show that they had inclusive descriptions throughout the museum and the site, including a Braille explainer (the languages in the written descriptions are English, Spanish and French, as the French government is responsible for the roof that covers the entire archeological site – this is a huge deal, as otherwise archeological preservation would be near impossible given the tropical conditions)

The archeological ruins themselves are also very interesting (and, apparently, if you’re the Head of State for a country, you’re welcome to walk among them on a guided tour by a local archeologist as Barack and Michelle Obama did during his Presidency!). These included a communal housing structure and storage for dry goods / supplies / equipment (the Maya didn’t have a conception of ‘privacy’ so all goods, rooms, etc. were shared, often among several families), several kitchens (staple crops included maíz and the first recorded yucca, as well as consumption of local turkeys, deer, and other small animals), and the Temazcal (top middle and right). You can see the World Heritage yucca cultivation site in the bottom photo (the somehow still ‘rolling’ fields). The famed Temazcal (right top and center) is essentially a ‘wet’ (steam) sauna, where healers would have used eucalyptus and other plants to enhance the restorative experience. In this town, it would have had the traditional domed ceiling made of compressed mud and stones, covered with a thatched roof intended to prevent rain or other elements from impacting the underlying structure.

You can also faintly make out the details that would have been carved into the residence below, thought to house the operators of the Temazcal.

Interestingly, they’ve also determined that this town had a female Cháman (shaman – something extremely uncommon for the Maya people, as most would have been male elders), who was important enough to have her own residence (again, this would have otherwise been a communally living society). Right next door to her home was a building assumed to be her ‘healing space’. Below you can see her ‘home’ with original details and decoration still preserved.

Fortunately, the site had a replica Temazcal available for tourist exploration, so we ventured in! I was surprised with how spacious it was – while the entry itself was extremely narrow, the inside was large enough for someone about ~5’5″ to crouch comfortably and could fit about ~8-10 adults (depending on how close you wanted to sit together). I’m strongly considering seeing if I can experience a modern day one during our upcoming time in Mexico, as one of the Mexican travelers in the group explained they’re still very popular (although he prefers a modern one ‘with a door’ – understandable!).

From there, we headed to the nearby San Andres site, which includes several Mayan pyramids and is the outpost previously mentioned as being settled by one of the sons of the king of Copán as part of a border village with the neighboring kingdoms (take this with a grain of salt – I tend to believe locals, but I haven’t found corroborating evidence other than it had ‘strong ties to’ the Copán site). From our guide, this settlement would have had ~5,000 inhabitants and largely relied on indigo production as a primary trade. Apparently, once colonized, the Conquistadors wouldn’t allow them to trade with other European kingdoms, severely impacting their ability to flourish economically. As with Joya de Ceren, the site was largely covered with volcanic ash sometime in the mid-1650s, leaving it undiscovered (except, you know, by the Maya people who have continued to use it for ceremonial purposes) until the 1990s. From what we saw, there must be at least 2-3 additional pyramids that haven’t been excavated – and that’s not even including what’s still under heavy jungle growth just outside the official ‘site’ area.

It too has a museum, which had many similar artifacts to those we’ve seen throughout Mexico and Central America from the Conquistador period. However, it did include a few interesting and unique pieces: a key, symbolizing the change from communal to private property upon European arrival; statues showing the types of propaganda used to convert indigenous people to Christianity; fancy Conquistador-era footholds for a saddle. The tactics used to convert indigenous people to Christianity were especially interesting, although I’m not sure I caught all of the examples given. They included:

• Painting the skin of the Jesus statues darker, showing that he could have looked like an indigenous person (and, in reality, the historic figure probably did!)
• Using the evocative storytelling indigenous groups were used to in order to share the Christian story – for example, instead of making multiple human sacrifices to the gods in order to secure good harvest, weather, salvation, etc., why not believe that Jesus made one, ultimate human sacrifice
• I’m not sure I fully caught the connection (it may have just been a conveniently contemporaneous timing to show the ‘power’ of the Christian god), but the Mexican story of the Virgin of Guadalupe seems to have also been instrumental (and we saw several shrines to the Virgin of Guadalupe in various Cathedrals). The Virgin of Guadalupe refers to a sixteenth century miracle in which the Virgin Mary “revealed herself” to the community of Guadalupe, Mexico by appearing on a cloth (and, apparently, subsequent testing has shown that this isn’t simply a nice paint job)

In addition, it included one fascinating item – a knife that would have been used for the ritual sacrifice. In this area (as the stories / limited primary sources go), they sacrificed young women and it was considered a privilege to be chosen for sacrifice. Supposedly, the ‘volunteering’ women would have taken a drug to knock them out, then the knife below would have been used to cut open their chest to remove their still-beating heart. Our group included a (very sweet!) large Mexican family, who provided some additional context (given Mexico’s shared heritage of the Olmec and especially Maya and Mexica / Aztec people): local families did consider it a privilege to have a relative sacrificed, similar to how the ‘winning’ team in Juego de Pelota would have been killed upon their victory; however, it’s also possible that the ‘privilege’ was being spared a life of slavery. They also mentioned, quite casually, that the family of priests would have had an extremely hard life, often performing body modifications (such as the elongated heads we saw in the Anthropology Museum in CDMX or the widened skulls we saw in Oaxaca, both of which would be accompanied by excruciating pain and almost certain disfigurement of various kinds).

Regardless of the veracity of the victim’s willingness, the human sacrifices did happen and knives like the below were used – in an interesting anecdote, one Salvadoreño on our trip had her DNA tested to determine her ancestry, as she suspected she had quite a bit of European DNA given her light skin; she discovered that not only was she 55% Pipil (the indigenous Salvadoreño group), but her DNA results were largely informed by remains of those sacrificed and later found at archeological burial sites!

As we entered the San Andres site, I noticed a plaque proclaiming that it was a sacred spiritual site (this would be important later!) and we walked by a black balsam tree. The balsam is known for its medicinal properties and featured (and still features) heavily in traditional herbal remedies. As the story goes, one especially terrible Conquistador got stabbed in the leg and one of his (forcibly attained) indigenous companions suggested they look for the tree, as they knew of its healing properties from their homeland in Mexico. Unfortunately for everyone, they were indeed able to find such a tree in El Salvador and created a salve, enabling him not only to prevent gangrene but save his leg from certain amputation (and… therefore save him from death, only to cause rampant death to everyone else around him).

As we entered the site, we were lucky to stumble upon the reason for the sacred ceremonial site plaque: a group of Ajq’ijab’ Mayas de El Salvador were performing their winter solstice ceremony at the base of the ruined pyramid (according to their Facebook page, it’s more specifically called Cihuatán, rather than San Andres). If you told a Maya priest 2000 years ago his people would be accessible via Facebook… well, that would be a sequel to The Road to El Dorado I’d gladly watch! Also, happily, this explains why the local rum is called Cihuatán (we couldn’t really figure out a connection before doing this research!).

They invited us to watch their ceremony, which is still set in the plaza around which the pyramids stand (and it’s clear there is SO much more to excavate in the area, but unfortunately the government has paused all investigation since COVID). It was somewhat haunting hearing the ceremonial flute, horn, a crackling fire (especially as various items were added to it) given these are sounds this place would have experienced for nearly two thousand years during its heyday – and continues to enjoy today.

We didn’t get too much information about the site itself (it seems much is still yet to be uncovered here!), but they were beautiful pyramids to look at. One thing we did learn is that, when the pyramids were excavated initially in the 1920s by archeologist Stanley Boggs, cement was used to preserve the site (you can also see this in some photos from Tazumal, where part of the pyramids were preserved using this method).

Sadly, one additional thing COVID robbed us of was the opportunity to actually venture into the pyramid via the tunnel entrance – I can only imagine what an incredible experience that would have been!

From there, we took a small break for snacks (although lunch was the next stop). We tried the local soda, Kolashanpan, and started to get to know some of the other people in the group. The soda tastes very similar to Colombiana, the national soda of Colombia (according to its website, it tastes like “kola champagne flavor with hints of cream soda and bubblegum” which is… kind of helpful? Think Coke but with a little rootbeer and maybe a splash of cream soda and some kind of orange-y undertone.)

About half the group were part of a large family from Mexico, including a set of grandparents, parents, and three teenage children (when we dropped them off at the hotel, we discovered they had several younger kids as well!). The other participants were a couple from Seattle (worked for Amazon, of course!), one of whom is Salvadoreño and figured her fiance should see some of the sights while visiting family for Christmas. The Mexican family made sure we were well fed, offering us a variety of plantain chips (including some with a nice spicy salsa!).

While chatting, we made our way to our lunch stop, taking winding roads past a variety of little boutiques on the way to the lake-side restaurant Casa 1800.

We pulled up next to the restaurant and could immediately tell there’d be an issue – there was no way that the bus would be able to make the sharp left-hand turn needed to enter the driveway. So, we continued down winding roads, ultimately backtracking once we reached lake-level. We approached a second entrance, which appeared to be a ~15% incline uphill with very little clearance should we need to adjust trajectory. Fortunately, our driver was extremely competent and we made it – with much applause at the top (the matriarch of the Mexican family proclaimed “Passate su prueba” – “You passed the test”)! It was worth it for the views of Lago de Coatepeque, which is settled into the crater of a former volcano.

As we got settled for lunch, we continued chatting with the Mexican mother and teenage daughters, covering everything from recommendations for our upcoming trip to Mexico to the state of politics in both countries to a mini college prep seminar for one of the teenage girls (she was considering studying abroad in the United States and sadly had to ask, “Do you think I’ll experience a school shooting?” and she ultimately declared me “Cybersecurity Barbie” after hearing my career path, which was cute). In happier news, we were amused by the menus – I was handed the “gringo” version of the menu, which not only didn’t include photos (a seemingly odd choice) but did include a couple very “crunchy white person” coded items, including a very sad chickpea bowl.

However, we tried a couple local specialties and had no complaints – other than the heat! We had the Gallina de Rosita, one of El Salvador’s national dishes (basically delicious chicken soup served with a plate of lightly cooked veggies, roasted chicken, rice, pico de gallo, housemade cheese, and avocado – we also got a side of Salvadoreño chorizo, which was delicious!) and the seafood ceviche, which was served with crispy plantain chips.

From there, we were on our way to our final stop – the beautiful Tazumal ruins! While not as impressive as some we’ve seen in Mexico, they date back to the Olmec people and include interesting architecture from both the Maya and Mexica / Aztec peoples, which I haven’t seen together before (in the photo below, you can see the Maya pyramid in the background and the Mexica pyramid in the immediate foreground). This area would have been in use from ~200 CE to 1200 CE and likely had ~5,000+ inhabitants.

Of particular interest at the site is a large rock, which at first glance doesn’t appear to have much of interest on display. However, upon further examination, you can see four Olmec warriors (one painted on each side), which would have served as a visual representation to enemies that no matter which direction you came from, the Olmec were prepared to defend their territory.

We also had the opportunity to summit part of the ruins and saw the “stands” for a Juego de Pelota court – interestingly, unlike the Maya in Mexico, this group believed that anyone who survived the game won, rather than the ‘winning’ team from a score perspective. Since the conditions are so brutal (immense heat, playing for 8+ hours, fasting, etc.), many players would simply die of dehydration, overexertion, etc. and the ‘winners’ lived on as perceived favorites of the gods. As you can see from the ruins, these were also the product of Stanley Boggs and his concrete preservation methods – yet, somehow, they’ve still been incredibly worn (or maybe concrete is just exemplary at showing original texture!).

One other item I found interesting was the incorporation of Christianity in this site as well – as you can see to the LHS of the part entrance sign, they have a cross showing the introduction of Christianity to the site.

After Tazumal, we continued on to Santa Ana (see my Santa Ana blog!) for some additional city sights. I have to say, this was a special trip through and through – our guide, Julio, was fantastic and incredibly knowledgeable (he grew up exploring the ruins and remembers being able to climb them all as a child before UNESCO became involved). Our travel companions were also fantastic – this is one of the few tours where I’ve exchanged numbers with more than one tour member, and the Mexican family gave kisses (the grandmother) and hugs (everyone else) as they departed the bus and joined the rest of their family at the hotel.

For anyone planning a trip, I highly recommend: https://www.getyourguide.com/san-salvador-l1495/archeological-route-full-day-tour-from-san-salvador-t19955/ (ask for Julio!). You can also book a driver to take you to the sights, but unlike Copán and some others in the region, they don’t readily offer local guides upon arrival, so be sure to book a separate guide if you’d like to understand more about the sites’ history.