Under a mottled canopy of thriving trees in Cerro Verde Nature Park ’s thick forest, our ever-smiling hiking guide Kevin stops to show off a particularly healthy-looking Platonia tree. It’s famous around these parts. “It’s said that if you hug it, it takes away all your worries about people, health, finances.
Just not your taxes. It can’t do anything about them,” he explains to an amused audience. Read Next Forget Disney, Orlando has an epic hike, guaranteed sun and high-speed rail As others in the group wrap their arms around it and take pictures, an older El Salvadorian woman looks it up and down and conspires with her relation: “Get a saw, I’m going to chop it down and take it home.
” Soon, the forest opens to a magnificent view of Lake Coatepeque , and verdant volcanoes in the background. As we pause for another photo opportunity, Maria – an El Salvador-born US resident – explains to me that she and her family are here on a big reunion. In their week together, the family has toured volcanic landscapes, horticultured cities and archaeological sites in Latin America’s smallest but most densely populated country, known as “the little thumb of the Americas.
” They are heading towards La Libertad , the country’s surf hub that’s 45 minutes south from the capital, San Salvador. Maria’s partner is planning on taking on La Paz: a slow wave that stretches far across the Pacific coast, making it a beginner’s wave with bragging rights. The older gene.