Ahuachapán travel guide

A quiet town with low and simple houses, 35 km from Santa Ana. Coffee is the main product. The main local attraction is the geothermal field of Los Ausoles, 3 km road from Ahuachapan and marked on the road out of town to Apaneca as ‘Planta Geotérmica’. You can’t go into the plant, but when you arrive take the road to the right where, just a little way up the hill on the left, you come to a little house, geysers of boiling mud with plumes of steam and strong whiffs of sulphur. The ausoles are used for generating 30% of the country’s electricity. If you want a more professional tour, with an explanation on the thermal activity including a trip through the geothermal plant, contact Tours Universales in the city .

Taking the northern road from Ahuachapán, 9 km west of town near the village of Los Toles are the Tehuasilla Falls, where the Río El Molino falls 60 m (bus No 293 from Ahuachapán to Los Toles, then walk 1 km). The road continues northwest through the treeless Llano del Espino, with its small lake, and across the Río Paz into Guatemala.