Good travel writing

I love it when a good travel writer describes some of what El Salvador has to offer the visitor, and it seems to be happening more often these days. Here is an excerpt from an article titled El Salvador: Somewhere over the rainbow, which appeared recently:

I'm walking through nature's mini-bar, though taking a cocktail in this heat would be suicide. My guide, or barman as I'm tempted to address him, stops again as we heave ourselves through the viscous floors of the ascending forest. He plucks a spindly white plant out of the ground.

Pressing it against my nose I'm taken away from the forests of the remote far west of El Salvador and transported to the veranda of one of the bars nestled miles away on the country's Pacific coastline. The aroma of lime is so accurate, so utterly there in its sweet acidity that it only needed a straw and a beaming barmaid in order for it to become the perfect caipirinha. "This is called the Arrayn Silvestre," says the guide. "But it is not the best smelling – there is plenty better in El Imposible."

He was right. As we walked through the forest, the sensation of browsing through a mixologist's fridge was only enhanced. There was the sapuyulo flower, which has the redolence of fizzy orange, the wonderfully named Aramon del Amanecer (meaning "smell of the sun rising") which gives off bananas and toffee. And then, just to prove that even the best cocktail mixer can have an off day, there's Izote, a weepy pale flower that smells of raw chicken meat.

Read the rest of the article here.