Shore Excursion from Acajutla: Tazumal Maya Ruins, Casablanca and Santa Ana

The ruins were so interesting. Unfortunately our guide was getting backhanders so took us to certain places. We went our own way for food and avoided the shopping.

Overall, this was a good tour. We are interested in ancient ruins in Central America, and though El Salvador didn't have many ruins near our port, we were glad we got to see the ones we did. We learned a lot about the history and culture of the Maya. The Casablanca site had a good museum attached to it with informative displays (with English translation) on the culture of the ancient Maya. The Tazumal ruins had been altered due to the good intentions of archeologists from the 1940's -- they tried to preserve the structure with cement so the locals would not continue to remove stones to use for their own homes. The city of Santa Ana was not impressive, particularly compared to other Central American cities -- but it is difficult to maintain good colonial buildings when earthquakes continually destroyed them. (Our tour guide knew his history and gave us lots of background on El Salvador -- unfortunately, from time to time he had difficulty expressing what he wanted to say in English). We started out the morning "on the wrong foot" -- we paid for a tour for just the two of us but were joined by a group of six who had paid for a tour for just the six of them. They were just as surprised to have us join their tour as we were to have them join our tour. It is our understanding Viator will reimburse us, so that we will be charged at the same rate the other group paid per person.