Field NotesEl Zonte
The rainy season nobody photographs
Nine days of afternoon storms in El Zonte, an empty point break, and the argument for visiting El Salvador in the months the brochures skip.
The journal
Dispatches from El Salvador.
Long-form pieces from wherever we happen to be that month. The practical answers live in the guides; this is the rest of it.
SurfLa Libertad
Punta Roca, at six in the morning
The best wave in El Salvador belongs to the people who grew up on it. A morning at the point in La Libertad, and the etiquette of paddling out somewhere you have not earned.
FoodOlocuilta
The pupusa argument, settled on the airport road
Olocuilta makes rice-flour pupusas and has done since before anyone was counting. A morning at the highway stalls, and why corn is the wrong answer.
GuidesSanta Ana
The 11am rule on Santa Ana
You cannot hike Santa Ana volcano alone, the group leaves at eleven, and arriving at 11.15 costs you the day. What the hike is actually like.
LivingSanta Tecla
Six months of paperwork, in order
What the rentista residency process actually involved — the apostilles, the translations, the two rejected documents, and the month it all sat waiting.
Field NotesSuchitoto
A week in Suchitoto, in July
The colonial town everyone visits in February, seen in the middle of the rainy season, when the lake fills and the tourists do not come.