Suchitoto - photos 3

Suchitoto:

We went to visit the village and the mountains of Cinquera just 45 min from Suchitoto. The small village is full of testimony of the Civil War all well is its mountain. A little of history...the economy of the village was based on the production of natural indigo for dying but at the end of the 19th Century the first artificial dyes appeared and the village moved on the salvage cultivation of other crops, ravaging the close forest. The extreme poverty of the inhabitants led in 1970 to an open protest against the rich land owners. From here and then in the 1980's started the Civil War (please see previous post for more details). Many people were killed in the neighborhood villages of Guadalupe and Copapayo and people left the village. Cinquera was deserted then at the end of the War they returned to the village and the crop fields were fully recovered by a luxury vegetation and they decided to protect this forest.

- The church of Cinquera was destroyed during the Civil War at 75%. Only the facade and the belfry exist from the original structure built between 1844 and 1846. We can distinguish the face of the Archbishop Romero on the left,
- Painted walls can be found all around the village as testimony of the past. The drawings represent scenes of the Civil War or like this one, show peace messages,
- An other testimony of the Civil War, this half destroyed plane and the guns is displayed in the main plaza in front of the church,
- In the Cinquera mountains, there are also testimonies of the past War as the forest provided refuge during the war. In the picture, we can see the remain of a Vietnamese stove (the 2 dark holes), a clever strategy to cook without smoke to remain undetected,
- In this area, this was a canteen. The 2 hrs we spent in this forest were quite emotional as we were surrounded by vestiges of the war. A very nice experience and walk in a beautiful nature.