Metapan Travel Guide (Metapan, El Salvador)

Leaving Santa Ana, CA-12 heads north through agricultural plains and badly deforested hills, becoming wilder after it passes through the dusty town of Texistepeque . Sixteen kilometres further on, at the hamlet of Desagüe, a dirt road leads 2km or so to serene Lago de Güija , surrounded by low hills; Río Ostúa, flowing through the lake, forms the border with Guatemala. On the Las Figuras arm of land - accessible on foot during the dry season - stretching out on the left side of the lake shore are a number of faint pre-Columbian rock carvings; the area around the lakeshore was populated exclusively by indigenous groups until well into the seventeenth century. You can rent boats from here to the small island of La Tipa in the lake.

Ten kilometres beyond the lake the small, friendly town of METAPÁN is scenically situated on the edge of the mountains of the Cordillera Metapán-Alotepeque, which run east along the border with Honduras. Having survived a number of setbacks, including two devastating fires which nearly destroyed the town, Metapán was one of only four communities which supported Delgado's first call for independence in 1811, when rioting citizens opened the jail and attacked representatives of the Spanish crown. The Iglesia de la Parroquia , completed in 1743, is one of El Salvador's finest colonial churches, with a beautifully preserved facade. Inside, the main altar is flanked by small pieces worked in silver from a local mine while the ornately decorated cupola features paintings of San Gregorio, San Augustín, San Ambrosio and San Jéronimo.