El Espíritu de la Montaña — Attraction in Departamento de La Unión

If I could leave a 0 star review, I would. My group of 9 was left in absolute torrential pouring rain with ripped, poor quality, and very old tents (10$ for a double, $15 for triple), paid for a mattress ($7), and a sleeping bag each ($3). Our tents didn’t have rain screens so it was as if we were sleeping outside except it was gathering water and basically became a swimming pool. All our belongings were soaked. The mattress we got, soaked. Every single sleeping bag, drenched. After struggling in the rain we gathered our things and ran to the canopy in front of the restaurant for shelter - mind you, at this point it’s windy and really cold. My group as well as one other ended up standing under this canopy for about half and hour with no workers in sight or any advise on where to go. Eventually we tried to open the restaurant door which looked locked and we got in there. About 10 minutes after we got in and couldn’t find a light switch, our tour guide from earlier finally appeared. We asked for mattresses and sleeping bags and told him what happened and we were only given 3 mattresses (group of 9 about to sleep on wet floors of a restaurant with random side doors and windows with no glass which basically created a wind tunnel). When we asked for more for the rest of the group, the tour guide told us we’d have to pay more for the rest (LOL) and that he can’t give us sleeping bags to replace the ones literally dripping water. So we literally slept on 4 mattresses laying side by side, under wet sleeping bags, cuddled up for body heat because there was literally no other option. Once we received the mattresses the tour guide disappeared again. We later found out that all the workers slept in comfort in cabins, while we were told “you just don’t know how to camp” the following morning.

Aside from the absolute terrible preparedness for inevitable rain, we also missed the sunset because the tour guide told us that we’d have to pay another $2 to see some cabins and that this is the trail for sunrise so we asked if we can make that trek in the morning to see sunrise and if we’d be able to see sunset from the deck area. We were told sunset would be best seen from the tent camping ground so we went back and at the very end of the sunset we were told that we were on the sunrise side.

It was also very suspicious and ominous that every single worker we spoke to had worked there for less than a week. There’s also a difference between friendly and just creepy. We were constantly getting approached with people asking “where we’re really from” or just creepily watching us while at the museum. There were two guys at the camp that were smoking, aggressively offering/pushing some drugs on us, making inappropriate comments to us, and touching us. It was really creepy and uncomfortable especially when you know you’re stranded at the top and you can’t get down until the next morning. We went to the “fire show” and they started acting even weirder so we tried to leave but staff kept pushing for us to stay which we didn’t because we felt unsafe in that situation.

All in all, the views are nice but there are much nicer places to go for views. $45 pp to have a horrible night? I think not. Maybe with a different tour group but definitely not this one. Management was even more dismissive and insulting when we explained what...

I couldn’t find any information about visiting “Espiritu de La Montana” with a motorcycle before going, so here’s a report in case it helps anyone. The road up to the lookout from Amapalita (near La Union) is usually described as a 4x4 only road. Be careful that there is a route google shows coming from Cachagua, but it does not exist! Locals told me if I went that way, I’d be going off a cliff. Based on the description of the official route up from the paid entry point at Amapalita, I was expecting a dirt road, probably rutted with big rocks, etc.

However the road after the gate is actually made of huge embedded cobblestones/river rock, so it’s not dirt, and on a motorcycle, not the same as a dirt road would be. I did it on a fully-loaded adventure bike (400lbs), and managed it both up and down. Locals seem to take little bikes with street tires up and down easily, and there are a lot of stickers from Central American moto clubs up top. But it is incredible steep, with several very challenging hairpin turns. The cobblestones bounce you around like crazy, so some ground clearance is needed. The way up took me 25 minutes, down took longer because a few of the turns I basically had to walk the bike in gear to make it. I think most motorcycles could do this road in dry conditions, as long as you are comfortable with very steep, exposed riding with tight turns and an uneven surface. There are also trucks coming both up and down, and they take up the full width of the road. If it’s wet, I would not attempt it as these types of cobblestones turn super slick.

You can camp at the lookout point, which is incredible for sunrise. It’s not quiet or relaxing because people are arriving all night, but definitely worth it for the view! They charged me $1 to enter with the bike, $7 for camping (with my gear), hot chocolate up top is $1. If you want to avoid riding the road yourself, it sounds easy to catch the big shuttle truck up from town instead and...

Absolutely would not recommend this place. We were given really old and worn down tents and it ended up raining on us and basically creating a swimming pool inside the tent, even though they’re supposed to be waterproof. All of our stuff got soaked. We were in a group of 9 and all the others in our group also got soaked. There were no staff in site and we all had to seek shelter under the canopy of the restaurant. After about 30 minutes, we broke into the restaurant. Eventually, one of the staff members finally came to us and agreed to give us mattresses but said he can only offer 3. We ended up spending the night cold and wet, trying to sleep on the floor of the restaurant. When we complained to management the next day, they were so dismissive and told us we should be more prepared for camping. I’ve camped before and ended up experiencing rain, but was fully dry in my waterproof tent. They also said that the staff was supposed to come to us and that “this happens often”.

There were also a couple of junkies who were bothering us all night, making inappropriate jokes, offering drugs, and making everyone just feel uncomfortable. The management did nothing to stop this. They also appeared to have been squatting on the mountain, as they were not in tents and ended up sleeping INDOORS during the rain. Also worth mentioning that all the staff was indoors during the rain, while the campers suffered and were wet and cold all night. Overall,...