Rambling in the Reborn Core: Books, Pedestrians, and a Lot of Walking

The traditional Centro Histórico is about seven kilometers from our hotel at the Barceló. While our own neighborhood in the Zona Rosa has plenty of sleek new buildings, embassies, and rapid modern development, the old city center is going through a massive renewal of its own. After a leisurely breakfast, we called an Uber to skip the morning traffic and had him drop us off as close as possible to the front steps of the new National Library (BINAES).

Calling this place just a library hardly does it justice. It looks more like a glowing open book crossed with a modern spaceship, and it stays open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Inside, the regular books seem almost secondary to entire floors filled with manga, digital spaces, robotics, 3D printers, and gaming setups, all kept cool by ferocious air conditioning. Jay and I rode the elevator straight to the sixth floor simply to get a look at the area. The view from the top terrace was well worth the ride, giving us a wide look over the red tile rooftops, the open plazas, and the massive San Salvador Volcano looming over the skyline in the background.

With our aerial recon sorted, we headed back down to hit the pavement. The city has turned a huge part of the center into pedestrian-only streets, which made walking around surprisingly easy and civilized compared to what this area used to be like years ago. We spent the morning wandering from one plaza to the next.

First was the Metropolitan Cathedral facing Plaza Barrios, with its stark white front and the crypt downstairs where Archbishop Óscar Romero is buried. Across the square sits the sprawling National Palace. It has a grand European look on the outside. We didn't bother going inside today, though we knew all about its large open courtyards filled with tall palm trees and dozens of old government rooms.

From there, we drifted into the surrounding commercial streets and made our way into the Mercado Hula Hula. It is a large, multi-story modern market built to give former street vendors a permanent roof over their heads. We enjoyed wandering through the stalls, taking in the busy atmosphere and checking out the endless rows of clothes, shoes, small electronics, and household goods.

By early afternoon, our stomachs reminded us it was time to eat. We skipped anything aimed at tourists and ducked into a simple, cafeteria-style lunch spot packed with locals on their midday break. We grabbed trays, loaded up on solid local food, and added a couple of cold cans of Sprite. The whole bill came to about $7.90 CAD ($5.75 USD), proving once again that you get the best value where the locals eat.

After lunch, we crossed over toward Plaza Libertad. It was full of life, with people gathered under the shady trees listening to loud cumbia music and vendors selling sliced fruit. On the east side of the square is El Rosario Church, which looks on the outside like a rather grim, arched concrete hangar. We were keen to go inside to see the light pouring through all the colored glass embedded in the walls, but our timing was off. Even though a sign clearly promised it would reopen at 2:00 PM, the doors stayed firmly locked. We had to settle for a look at the exterior before moving along.

You have to give the city full credit for turning what used to be a notoriously rough area into a relaxed, walkable public space, but civic improvements do not grant amnesty to old knee joints. Having traded churches and city views for our daily quota of steps, we happily summoned an Uber to escape the afternoon heat and head back to the air-conditioned Barceló for a thoroughly earned nap.  He spent nearly as much time navigating to our pick-up spot as the ride back took!