Friday morning he headed in our bus out of El Salvador thru Guatemala onto Honduras. But before we left El Salvador we were informed that it is the smallest country on the mainland in the Americas.p (Yes, even smaller than Belize). El Salvador also is the country with the densest population in the Americas. It uses the US dollar as its currency and is closely aligned with the US as 25% of its population has relatives who live, legally or illegally, in the US. El Salvador is very important in Central America too as it has the largest US Embassy, the largest airport, the largest shopping mall and the largest soccer stadium in all Central America.
During this trip we had one very interest stop. It was at Joya del Ceren which is a World Heritage Sight of a remarkably preserved Mayan village from about 600 AD. It was preserved so well as it was covered entirely in lava. However, unlike Pompeii, the lava obviously didn't flow all that fast as there were no casualties in these ruins. Also of note is that there were at least 4 different lava covering this village from separate eruptions over the years. The last one was in 1917.
Joya del Ceren was not discovered until 1976. It was discovered accidentally when a bulldozer cleaning the sight hit one of the hut’s walls. Fortunately, the bulldozer operator knew right away the possible significance of the find so work was stopped immediately and experts called upon. Over the years since, excavation has unearthed only a fraction of the village which lays over about a 7 acre site.
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