El Salvador

El Salvador caught me off guard — I went in knowing almost nothing, and came out thinking it might be the most underrated country in Central America. The colonial towns alone are worth the trip: Suchitoto sitting up on a hill with its terracotta roofs and church towers framed by mountains, Ataco with cobblestone lanes and coloured umbrella canopies overhead. The light in the afternoon has this thick, golden quality that makes every yellow wall glow.

The volcanoes are what really got me. Standing on the rocky ridge of Santa Ana, looking across at the perfect cone of Izalco rising out of the green valley, the whole landscape felt raw and geological in a way that Nepal never quite prepared me for. And the crater lake at the top — that unnatural acid-green colour sitting in all that grey stone — I kept staring at it trying to make sense of the colour.

The food, the coffee, the pace of it — El Salvador moves slowly in the best way. Sitting inside Casa de la Abuela in Suchitoto with a layered coffee and a colourful tablecloth, rain just starting outside, I could have stayed the whole afternoon. The Pacific coast was the last stop — palm trees, a red-roofed villa, waves rolling in loud and constant. I left wanting more time.