Trying to get on the map

El Salvador is relatively new to the travel scene. Recent wars and dangerous drug and gang problems kept it a place of media bullying for some time.
Having progressed to a "second world" country (I find this term odd), more security in place and a stable economy, El Salvador is trying, desperately, to make its way into the guidebooks as a tourist destination.
Before leaving on this adventure, my mom went searching for a book. There wasn't one. The small section in Lonely Planet does a good job reiterating what ES tourism is touting, but that's just not a lot. It was quite strange trying to get around after the ease of its much poorer neighbor, Guatemala.
In any case, explore we did. After El Tunco, we spent a night in the capital, sick as dogs from something we ate, and finally headed up north to the small colonial art town of Suchitoto. We liked it so much we stayed two nights and ended up traveling for five days with just one change of clothes. This was remarkably easy, and quite nice to be so unencumbered. We roamed the cobblestone streets and cute little shops -and spent quite a bit of time at our hotel pool, overlooking a lovely lake that wraps itself around the city. Also included in this journey was a visit to the museum of cinematography of Don Allejandro Coto, a Salvadorean icon, as well as my friend Xavier's uncle. In his museum were medals from over 50 countries for his contribution in the arts, as well as gifts from world famous artists, including a painting by Diego Rivera. We also ate our only pupusas in El Salvador there, cooked by the wife of "the" Gringo, Robert, from San Francisco, ca.
From Suchitoto, we headed to La Ruta de las Flores for their well publicized food festival. We based ourselves in a sweet little hotel/hostel in Juayua and explored the area. Once a shock factor experience with things like iguana and frogs on the menu, the food feria in Juayua is now pretty tame, and we tried a couple new dishes. We also took a short tour of neighboring Ataco, known for its colorful
murals, and a coffee tour. We headed back to the capital for mom's last night, and then I scooted back to El Tunco, where our new friends from Santa Cruz were, to take a 10 hour shuttle from northwest El Salvador, to Leon, Nicaragua. Sure beat chicken bus jumping!
In all, El Salvador was really tranquil. The people were very nice and helpful, and the countryside was pretty. We enjoyed.