Waking up in the Barceló San Salvador, we availed ourselves of an excellent hotel breakfast buffet, feeling surprisingly well-rested despite crossing an hour back from our usual Pacific time zone. Today was deliberately earmarked as a low-intensity buffer to recover from transit and acclimate to the capital before tomorrow’s full-day expedition through the regional Mayan ruins.
El Salvador operates fully on the US dollar, sparing us currency exchanges but inflicting the inevitable mental gymnastics of converting every menu and fare into Canadian funds: a reflex hardwired into any traveling Canuck. We bypassed a comprehensive sweep of the historic core for a targeted first taste. Transportation proved remarkably painless: an Uber from the gleaming towers and diplomatic calm of the Zona Rosa down into the Centro Histórico set us back between $4.15 and $5.50 CAD ($3 to $4 USD) for a twenty-minute crawl.
Our primary destination was the sprawling Mercado Central. Both Jay and I possess an enduring weakness for the dense, chaotic, unvarnished markets of the developing world. Had we closed our eyes to the Spanish chatter, the sensory barrage of pungent aromatics, maze-like corridors, and strict demarcations between raw butchery, towering produce, and household sundries could easily have dropped us into urban pocket bazaars in Phnom Penh, Bangkok, Suva, or Mumbai. It was authentic, vibrant, and delightfully unfiltered.
A subsequent Uber ride carried us a similar distance to Metrocentro. The contrast was immediate and glaring: swapping sensory bazaar life for the air-conditioned, familiar banality of international fast-food brands vying for attention.
Returning to the hotel, any smug morning confidence regarding total jetlag recovery evaporated into a protracted, heavy afternoon nap. With our step count lingering at a modest 4.6 kilometers, the evening agenda calls for a low-key dinner reconnaissance on foot around the Zona Rosa, keeping in mind that the morning buffet must be thoroughly settled well before our 08:30 departure tomorrow.
