El Salvador

It's hard to understand a place like El Salvador before you go. All you see are the shifting grounds: the gangs, the long war, the refugees. You don't see the broad valleys, the sudden volcanoes, the black-sand beaches, the stories told with a laugh, the people who tell them. Like a colonial church, bright blue, battered by earthquakes, El Salvador is still standing.Parque Nacional Montecristo-El Trifinio or the moonscape on top of Volcan San Miguel. Maybe you'll learn to surf on the best waves in Central America, at Punta Roca in La Libertad or catch a funk band at a boho bar in San Salvador!Or perhaps you'll go hiking in  Perqum with a guerrilla.