Ruta de las Flores (Flower Route) is a road that runs between the towns of Sonsonate and Ahuachapán in the western highlands of El Salvador. As the name suggests, brightly coloured wildflowers grow along the side of the road from November to February. The road passes through the small colonial towns of Juayúa, Apaneca and Ataco.
We only had enough time to visit Juayúa, a tiny town, that can easily be walked around within an hour and has roughly 10,000 people living there. During the week I can imagine it being very quite, with not a lot going on. However if you do decide to make the stop-off you need to go on a weekend, when people from all over the country come together to experience the feria gastronómica (food festival).
After arriving after dark on a Friday night, we could see the beginnings of all the stalls set up, mainly around the plaza, but also branching off on all the side streets as well. Xave, who is a massive foodie was especially excited to see what the next day would hold. We had dinner at a mexican restaurant, Taquería la Guadalupana, which was pretty cheap ($2-7 US for a meal) and the food was relatively good considering the price.
Bright an early the next day, we heard out our window people moving around on the street, setting up their produce for the day. When we walked around, I was surprised by the things people were selling. It’s not just food but pretty much anything you could want to buy on sale. There were regular market goods; fresh food and vegetables, meat, sweets and dry goods but also second-hand clothes, furniture and shoes, pirate DVDs, local handicrafts, electronics and even a car parts/tools section as well!
Without a doubt, the main attraction though are the rows of BBQs set up on the plaza, each with a tantalising smell of meat coming from them. It is a little bit daunting because you have so many options, but they do try to make it easier for you with sample plates laid out and taste testing at each one. They have all the usual meets, beef, pork, chicken, lamb and chorizo with a couple of exotic ones thrown in as well such as frog, rabbit and guinea pig. Combine this $7-10 US meal with a bucket of beers and you have yourself a pretty good afternoon!
We decided to go to Juayúa because it was a good stop off in between San Salvador and Antigua on the local buses for us. However if you were on a tighter time schedule, I wouldn’t classify it as a must-see destination. If you do manage to get to Juayúa, one or two nights is enough. There are a couple of nice hostels in town, but you will need to pre-book them on the weekends.
San Salvador to Juayúa: From San Salvador’s Terminal de Occidente (Blvd Venezuela, near 49a Ave Sur) we caught a direct, air-conditioned bus (number 205) to Sonsonate for $1.50 US (1.5hrs) but there were chicken buses as well for $0.80. Bus number 249 runs from Sonsonate to Ahuachapán via Juayúa, Apaneca and Ataco. Juayúa takes 45 mins – 1hr and costs $1.
Juayúa to Antigua: We started our day on a 7am chicken bus from Juayúa to Ahuachapán (1-1.5 hrs) which come every 20-30 minutes. From Ahuachapán, we caught a minibus from 8a Calle Poniente (walking distance away from where the first bus dropped us), at the northwest corner of Parque Menéndez to Las Chinamas (40mins – 1hr) on the border of El Salvador and Guatemala. We signed out of El Salvador, walked across the bridge and up a hill to sign into Guatemala and then caught a chicken bus to Guatemala City (3 – 4hrs). We ended up in the middle of a deserted industrial area so took a taxi straight to the Pullman Antigua bus terminal and finished off with a 45min bus journey to Antigua. It was a long day!
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