El Imposible Park

Getting There

Our main motivation for renting a car in El Salvador was to visit El Imposible National Park. In the North of El Salvador, near the border with Guatemala, it requires your own transportation to reach. We rented a small car and even that could barely get us there.

There are very few major highways in El Salvador. The big yellow roads on a map are often paved two lane roads. The smaller roads depicted with white lines are often allies with huge rocks. Only a jeep or a pedestrian should be going down these roads. Coming from Barra De Santiago, google maps instructed us to take such a rocky road that it took us 2 hours to cover 13 kilometers. We later found out that there was a paved road leading from Ahuachapan to Tacuba.

Where to Stay

Tacuba is the entry town for El Imposible National Park. We stayed at Hostal de Mama Y Papa which is a small family run business. The private rooms were luxurious with each room having its own balcony and hammock. We got to know the entire family while we stayed here. The son that lives in Switzerland gave us chocolate. The mother gave us recommendations for our travels and the father offered us a refreshing beer after our long hike. I’d definitely recommend staying at Mama Y Papa when in Tacuba. We were also able to coordinate our hike through the hostel.

The Hike

Getting to El Imposible was hard and the hike was $35 which we thought was quite expensive. Had we known that, we wouldn’t have gone. Once we were there, we decided to make the most of it and enjoyed ourselves. The hike included Jeep transport to the park, our entrance fee, a local guide and lunch. Since it was low season and only two of us went, it was $35. If the hostel was full we could have gone for $20.

Not too researched on all of the hikes we simply told our hosts that we wanted the longest and hardest hike available. They hesitantly asked our ages and how fit we were before agreeing to take us on the El Camino hike. This hike took 8 hours and I’d call it moderately difficult. The first half of it was down hill and through the bush. The hardest part was stepping over fallen logs and ducking over tree limps. Our guide cleared the path with his machete. We made it to a two tier waterfall where we had a swim. Finally we went up hill for the last two hours until we reached the lookout point. The ten mile hike was enjoyable and a great workout. Our guide found fruit for us from the trees and explained plant medicine. However, the views and the waterfall weren’t life changing and probably could be skipped for $35.

El Imposible is a beautiful park if you’re craving nature and remoteness. The owners of Mama Y Papa and our trek guide were amazing and I’m grateful to have met them. However, El Camino ranks low on my list of memorable hikes.