Volcán Conchagua

Self Guided! We woke up prior to la madrugada and I drove myself and Asaka to the Area Natural Protegida Complejo Conchagua, a short drive up the road from the pueblita of Amapalita. The last mile of the road was challenging in my two wheel drive clunker rental van, but after a few false starts I finally made it to the closed gate. 4 wheel drive vehicles are able to drive up the road, but it's not clear to me if they have to pay or not. We started hiking the upper portion of the cobblestone road a little after 7am. We were in the shade and temperature was as cool as it gets for El Salvador. Asaka and I were a little sick, but we made pretty good time climbing over 1.6kft in less than an hour. Once atop the ridge, I decided to visit the bonus peak first. We entered a protected area, unlocking a closed gate in the process. We tried to sneak through unnoticed but someone stopped us. Foreigners are asked to spend $6 each, so we paid our tax and continued up the road. The road turned to trail and we followed this to el Torre de Vigilancia Contra Incendios. When will peakbagger publish the El Salvador fire lookout list? The wobbly tower stood above the canopy and had views of the Golfo de Fonseca and all its islands. Asaka was too scared to climb to the very top, and she missed out because the views were spectacular. This p300 is marked as Volcán Conchagua on the topo map, while the higher peak to the west is unnamed. We then continued on a lesser used trail to a point a few meters to the north that might have a slightly higher natural summit. This area was not very welcoming with a run down shack and we quickly made our way past the structure and returned to the road via a trail. At the saddle we checked out the visitor center but the outdoor view point stole the show. We exited the protected area and continued up the cobblestone road towards the Ribu. we took a right at the fork in the road and proceeded to the antenna array. We visited one point alongside the fence, but a guard told us the highest peak was behind a small house on the southern side of the antenna array. We walked to the end of the road and hiked up a use trail, and there stood a rock next to a little shed outside the fence line. There appeared to be some higher rocks a couple feet inside the fence, however these look to have been artificially piled up. We continued along the perimeter and connected with a road that took us towards another point with the same number of contour lines. While there were no signs permitting passage, there was a military guard dummy behind a sand bag barrier that clearly was meant to dissuade hikers. At the top I found a military base staffed with several soldiers. They did not let me enter the complex, but they let me walk around to the south side with views of the ocean. There was a mound of dirt with a cement platform inside the fence line that appeared to be two feet higher than where I stood, so I climbed the fence such that my feet were higher than said point. It was quite silly, and I'm sure the military personnel thought I was quite a peculiar individual. I'm just glad they didn't shoot me.

Now for all the high point autists; one thing is clear, the southern point on the main peak is clearly higher than the spot point 1225 on the map (7 meters according to my GPS). My theory is that the original survey was conducted and the north point was originally higher. Then when they built the antenna array they flattened the summit area, hence making the southern point higher. The southern point contains a smaller antenna that clearly serves some military purpose, however you cannot stand on the very top (yes I tried paying them). However, my head was above this lump of dirt when standing outside the fence, just one yard away. Now this summit is also artificial, as they needed to plow and flatten dirt to create the summit structure, so similar to dealing with cornices on summits, one must decide for themselves what is good enough. It was pretty nervy of me to go as far as I did, and the one thing that allowed me to do so is that the military personnel clearly thought I was some kind of nut, and they seemed curious as to what I was trying to do. In any case, it was good enough for me to claim the high point guilt free.

We then visited El Espiritu de la Montana. I was shocked to learn that we had to pay $5 each to enter, and since this was a privately owned business it was separate from the earlier area where I spent $6. Visitors will quickly learn that El Salvador is not cheap! Their official currencies are USD and Bitcoin, both of which are relatively strong at the moment. At the end of the day, the $5 was completely worth it. There was an amazing deck here with a spectacular view of all the islands. We ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, watching the vultures catch the thermals and soar overhead. There was shade with a nice breeze and Asaka even got cold. I would have liked to stay for longer but Asaka wanted to get back to see the kids. We quickly descended the cobblestone road and were back to the car in an hour.

After the hike we drove to San Miguel and bought groceries at Super Selectos. Fresh veggies and good quality meat! Then we made it back to La Ventana around 1pm. It was a GREAT day!