Salvador of the Twentieth Century

by Percy F. Martin

Here also some stretches of the famous Balsam Coast are to be met with, the trees being more numerous and even higher, than those in the La Libertad Department.

Acajutla must always serve to bring prosperity to Sonsonate, which, as a department, was created in 1855. Its principal agricultural productions comprise coffee, cocoanuts, sugar, cacao, balsam, tobacco, cereals of almost all kinds, fruits of endless variety, and an immense number of different cabinet woods and fibres. There are a considerable number of factories erected in this same Department, employing many hundreds of hands, and turning out refined sugar, cigars, cotton, cloth, pottery, mats, baskets, distilled liqueurs, and salt. The principal city, Sonsonate, is situated some fifty miles from San Salvador, and stands picturesquely upon the banks of the River Sensunapán. Comparatively speaking, this is but a small stream; nevertheless, from a scenic point of view, it is decidedly worthy of mention. It is crossed by a handsome bridge, and its banks are often used as a pleasant promenade and bathing-place by the inhabitants of this agreeable town.

At Sonsonate, which, with Santa Ana, is one of the several towns in Salvador on the route of the itinerant theatrical companies, there is a small wooden-built room, which forms part of the Hotel Blanco y Negro, kept by a very courteous and obliging Spaniard, one Señor Arturo de Soto, who, with the profits derived from the cantina adjoining, finds in this undertaking the investment of his capital to be fairly profitable. The stage of the unambitious little playhouse is exactly 18 feet wide by 9 feet deep, so that the precise limit of the mounting of dramatic representations presented thereon may be fairly accurately gauged.

The climate of Sonsonate is decidedly warm for the greater part of the year, and not at all unpleasant in the dry season, except for the fearful wind-storms to which it is at times subjected. Upon these occasions the whole town is temporarily hidden in the clouds of gritty dust, which, moreover, penetrate every crack and crevice of the tightly-closed house shutters, cover the merchants' goods exposed for sale in the shops with a thick layer of dirt, and render life generally, for the time being, something of a burden. So strong is the wind that it whirls around in a sort of wild maëlstrom every stray piece of paper, stick, or any loose rubbish which it can gather, and then deposits them impartially in the patios and upon the roofs of the houses, at the same time making complete havoc of gardens and parks.

The market at Sonsonate, an important weekly function, is held on Sundays. The building, completely roofed over, as are all similar constructions in Latin-America, is crowded to excess with sellers, the numbers of buyers, however, being considerably fewer. Every kind of article is exposed for sale, from stuffed and roasted monkeys to the cheapest kind of Manchester cotton goods and cheaper German imitations. The stalls are separated into sections, and practically all of them are presided over by women. It cannot be said that the majority of the edibles look very tempting from a European point of view, being for the most part covered with grease or floating in a thick and sticky compound of fat of a bilious-yellow colour. To the local taste these articles of diet no doubt appeal strongly, since a brisk trade is a carried on in them. Cheap and tawdry fancy goods, highly-coloured and cheaply-framed religious pictures, toys, flimsy dress material, tinselly embroideries, parrots, pencils, pastry, and other curiously diverse articles, are to be found displayed in immediate proximity to dried fish—emitting a powerful and pungent odour—live iguanas (a large species of edible lizard), squawking fowls, and repulsive-looking chunks of bleeding, freshly-killed beef. Altogether an active, if not exactly an attractive, market-place, and one which offers a continually shifting scene of life and colour, enduring from sunrise to sunset.

In regard to hotel accommodation, Sonsonate is decidedly better off than many towns outside the Capital. There are at least three houses from among which the traveller may make his choice.

The Grand Hotel is situated immediately facing the railway-station, and although far from attractive externally, it is quite comfortable and clean within. The rooms, if small, are fairly well-furnished; the dining-room is kept scrupulously clean, and the domestic service generally is prompt and willing. The baths which are found here are not at all bad, and are likewise kept very clean. A good business is carried on, apparently, by the proprietors, Messrs. Brando y Emeldi, since every train on the Salvador Railway stops at Sonsonate, whether proceeding north or south, or, more strictly speaking, east or west. Before its journey from the port of Acajutla to the capital of San Salvador, the train remains for one hour, and the down-train remains for two hours. Inasmuch as the hotel maintains quite a respectable cellar, and there is plenty of time for the passengers to test its contents, the proprietors find this part of the hotel business a remarkably profitable one.

The hotel in this town of second importance is El Blanco y Negro (Black and White). The situation is decidedly preferable to that of the Grand, being in a side but wide street, out of hearing range of the inevitable noise proceeding at the railway-station, but in other respects it is less attractive to the many.

Department of Ahuachapán.

Cities.—Ahauchapán, Atiquizaya (2).