San Andrés is a small Maya site just off the Panamerican Highway (CA-1). It has been excavated several times and the main acropolis is cleared. FUNDAR has been managing both San Andrés and Joya de Cerén since May, 2005, and we hope to shortly have the Campana, a pyramid on a tall platform which gave the site its former name of Campana San Andrés and the Great Plaza cleared of high grass and trees for visitors to see.

The Campana structure is still covered with trees and brush. But not for long!

With the new brush clearing equipment the Great Plaza will soon be ready for visitors.

San Andrés has a site museum with a small café and modern restrooms. Picnic tables are also available.

Entrance fee: Salvadorans 91¢ Foreigners $2.86

Parking: Cars $1.14 Buses $2.29 The parking lot is between the entrance kiosk (where you pay the entrance and parking fees) and the site museum. The area is fenced and reasonably safe.

To visit San Andrés:

By car: Take the Carretera Panamericana (CA-1) west towards Santa Ana (within San Salvador part of this highway is called the Avenida Roosevelt) , passing through Santa Tecla . The turnoff to San Andrés is on the right at kilometer 32. There is a sign about 200 m before the turnoff. Be very careful with the traffic, especially when reentering the highway. You can also take the Calle Nueva (the new ring road) but it is best to get instructions how to do that locally.

By bus: From the Terminal Occidental (Bulevard Venezuela...any taxi driver will know where it is and the urban bus 7-C lets you off at the terminal. Urban bus 44 stops about 2 blocks from it...just ask the cobradorwhere to get off and which way to walk. Get on the 201 Santa Ana bus. Ask the cobrador if they will stop and let you off at the Ruinas de San Andrés (they will, but you need to ask in advance and they will let you know when you are getting close) and you will be at the entrance. Just walk down the path by the road into the site. The bus fare is about 70 ¢, but may be getting higher soon because of the rise in gasoline prices.

Karen Olsen Bruhns, Director of the Cihuatán Project for FUNDAR and Arq. Irma Flores, Director of Historic Sites and Monument, CONCULTURA, get a close look at a preserved structure

This little village was preserved by a volcanic eruption, just like Pompeii. Also like Pompeii it has told us a lot about the lives of ordinary people, Maya in this case. The excavations are roofed and screened to protect them and you must enter the ruins area with a guide.

Joya de Cerén has a site museum, modern restrooms, picnic facilities and a small café. Entrance fee: Salvadorans 61¢ Foreigners $2.86

Parking Cars $1.14 Buses $2.29 The parking lot is just as you enter the fenced and guarded site area. It is shaded.

To visit Joya de Cerén:

By car: Take Carretera Panamericana (CA-1) west just as you would for San Andrés (the two sites are quite close together and a visit to both is easily combined). Pass through Santa Tecla. Just before km. 29 take the right exit marked “Este Panamericana CA-1A” Follow the signs to Joya de Cerén, coming to a traffic stop and carefully going straight through. You will now be on the road to San Juan Opico, a charming little town. Joya de Cerén is 6 km. down from the turnoff ( a few kilometers short of Opico). The site is located at km. 35 on the left side of the road.

By bus: From the Terminal del Occidente get on the 201 Santa Ana bus. You will be getting off at the “desvio de Opico” which is a quick stop for the bus, so make sure to ask the cobrador when you are getting close. Once off the bus at the desvio, start walking east past the pupusa stands and comedores . The stop for the 108 San Juan Opico bus is about 500m down the way. Joya de Cerén is about a 10 minute ride, ask for the Joya de Cerén stop. The fare is now approximately 50¢ on the 201 Santa Ana and 20¢ on the 108 San Juan Opico, again, however, bus fares are sure to go up as gasoline increases in price.

Tazumal was one of the first major Salvadoran sites to be scientifically excavated, by Stanley H. Boggs, who started the first of several field seasons in 1943 (Boggs also excavated at San Andrés and Cihuatán). The site is surrounded by the modern city of Chalchuapa and, unfortunately, not much of the site was purchased for the archaeological park. What you see today is the large pyramid, with its many remodelings and additions, and the ball court, badly damaged by its many years as part of the city cemetery. The Tazumal park also contains the large Olmec rock carving from finca Las Victorias.

The Tazumal pyramid from the entrance to the park.

The Las Victorias rock carving shows a visiting Olmec dignitary from Mexico. It dates to the 1st milennium B.C.

The site has a museum, modern restrooms, and a few picnic tables, but no fenced parking. We suggest that you visit one of the many local restaurants. The take away restaurant (and curio shop) of Elena Martir is close to the site (about 3 doors from the entrance... recognize it by its color and murals). Sra. Martir makes fantastic yuca con chicharrón (manioc with pork and salad). Another pleasant restaurant is “Las Brisas”, run by Liviana Pacheco and her family, located on the 7a (séptimo) Avenida Norte, number 9b, Barrio Las Animas. The 7a Avenida Norte is also known as the “Calle a El Trapiche” and the restaurant is the third house on the right from the corner of this street with the old main road to Santa Ana, known as the Callejón Santa Ana. Liviana and her family (her mother cooks, her daughters help in the restaurant) make wonderful traditional specialties like sopa de pata (soup made with the boney extremities of the cow’s legs), gallina en alguaihste (chicken in a savory squash seed sauce...Salvadoran food is not hot and full of chiles) and jute en alguaihste (river snails in the same sauce). The restroom is very clean (it is the family’s too, the restaurant is the front of the house, as is common in family businesses) and street parking is easy and safe.

Elena Martir and Karen Bruhns in front of her shop.

Yuca con chicharrón, Elena Martir's speciality.

Liviana Pacheco's Comedor Las Brisas is well worth the short walk from the pyramid.

On the right a plate of jute en alguiahste, local river snails in a squash seed sauce. A true pre-columbian delicacy.

One of Chalchuapa's many curio shops.

Tazumal is also known for ceramic replicas of Maya vases and figurines. The shops selling these cluster around the site entrance too. This is a good place to buy souvenirs, but do remember that buying antiquities is against Salvadoran law and bringing Salvadoran antiquities into the United States is against U.S. law and is also prohibited by most European and western Asian countries.

Structure One at Casa Blanca is partly restored.

The museum at Casa Blanca is very charming.

Stirring the dark blue indigo dye in the museum's workshop and store.

Casa Blanca is on the northern outskirts of Chalchuapa. It is what is left of a very large Preclassic and Classic period Maya site. Several pyramids have been excavated and partly restored by Japanese archaeologists under the direction of Kuniaki Ohi. It is a pleasant stroll through the trees to see the structures although , unfortunately, a rural slum was allowed to be built right up against one side of the rather small park.

Casa Blanca has a charming colonial style site museum with nice restrooms and a parking area. There are no picnicking facilities nor food available. The museum, however, does house a workshop producing indigo dye and a small museum shop with indigo blue dyed t-shirts and place mats and similar small items for sale.

Entrance fees for Tazumal and Casa Blanca : Salvadorans 69¢ Foreigners $2.86 The fee includes the museums and there are nicely made paths at both sites.

Tazumal is located next to the town cemetery, a nice place to see if you are a fan of historic cemeteries.

One of the elaborate older tombs in the Chalchuapa cemetery.

The Tazumal pyramid as viewed from a section of more humble burials.

Parking for Tazumal is on the streets around the site area. Be sure to lock your car securely. Parking for Casa Blanca is in the shaded area just inside the gate and in front of the museum entrance. Fee $1.14

To visit Casa Blanca and Tazumal

By car: Take the Carretera Panamericana (CA-1) west from San Salvador towards Santa Ana. Continue past (but do not take) the exit to Santa Ana for a few kilometers to the turnoff leading to the Frontera Las Chinamas, Ahuachapán, and Chalchuapa. Take this exit. This road will lead you directly to Chalchuapa town. When you see the first sign indicating that you are entering Chalchuapa keep an eye out for the first road to the left leading off the highway and take it to a small Texaco gas station, at which a left turn will lead you straight to Tazumal. For Casa Blanca, stay on the highway and within a few hundred meters a sign will signal the right turn into the park.

By bus: At the Terminal del Occidente get on the 202 Ahuachapán bus. If you wish to visit both sites, ask the cobrador (with due lead time) to let you off by the Ruinas de Casa Blanca and, after visiting there, you will have to walk about 10 blocks south to Tazumal. If you choose only to visit Tazumal, ask the cobrador to let you off at the Gasolinera Texaco cerca del Tazumal, from which you walk about 5 blocks straight down a street ending at the site. Bus fare is 80¢ (there is a faster “preferencial” bus which makes fewer stops and charges $1.40)

Alternatively you can take the 201 Santa Ana bus, also at the Western Terminal, and go to Santa Ana, El Salvador's second largest city with a pleasant colonial core. In Santa Ana switch to the 218 Chalchuapa bus, asking the cobrador to let you off at the ruins. You can either stay on the bus and get off at Casa Blanca (it is an easily walkable distance between Tazumal and Casa Blanca) or ask to be notified when to descend for Tazumal. The cost for both busses is about $1.50.