Hotel El Ocotal — Hotel in Departamento de Morazán

Cabanas El Ocotel is located several miles south of Perquín (Morazán), El Salvador (a $.25 ride in the back of a Toyota pickup if you are travelling on public transportation). ||||The property is set off the (only) road N-S (San Francisco Gotera-Perquín) and rises at a steep grade. There is a main lodge/outdoor restaurante (which is quite good and is extremely popular with the locals on Sunday morning), and a series of cabanas of varying sizes are scattered around the property behind the lodge. It is set in a pine forest and hiking trails abound. My guess is that it sits at around 4,000 feet altitude and the surrounding mountains to the east & north rising to 9,000 feet are visible from restaurant. ||||The attached photos will give you a good idea of just how exceptional this place is.||||(I usually stay in local "middle-class" type Salvadoran hotels and its significant when I say there is only one other "suitable" hotel that I saw in just south of Perquín and not much else.(I only found El Ocotel with the help of the police officers in Perquín who called around for me).||||I had a private detached cabana with a hot shower (no a/c, cable--naturally, there is a tv on in the restaurant area)--there was a slate covered porch with a hammock & a picnic table for my use in the front. I say this was "excellent" primarily for the incredible setting but warn that the cabanas, while well-constructed of stone & pine log, are not well-insulated so it's a little like indoor camping, bugs and all. It was also chilly (I was there in late March-April) which required a sweater while sleeping. I paid $35 per night.||||The Cabanas draw Salvadorans from the city on the weekend--there was an extended family staying in a larger cabana near my cabin, and Sunday "brunch" drew at least 100+ to the restaurant.||||Morazán Province was the basing area for the revolutionaries during the civil war (1980-92) and sufferred much damage and the whole area lacks basic tourist infrastructure. I spoke with a Peace Corp volunteer who was teaching English to youths at the outdoor restaurant (the only English speaking person I recall in one month in El Salvador on this trip (2011), and she told me that the people, while friendly (like all Salvadorans I have met) are somewhat reticent. ||||While in the area, I engaged a guide through the hotel who met me there in the morning and we wound through a number of villages on foot, by bus, hitching & even in the back of a dump truck--as we visited first El Mozote, site of a notorious massacre of 1,000 civilians by US trained government troops in 1981. It is now a "Sitio Historico" with a memorial, a reflective garden & rebuilt church (the town was razed after the massacre). A woman greeted us and guided us through the sites (a "tip" is really required)--another caveat--both the guide who I spent the day with and the woman at El Mozote only speak Spanish.||||After El Mozote, we continued on to the Rio Sapo Protected Area, a riverine site, and miraculously, a "Bluebird" bus appeared at the river bridge & transported us for a few cents back to the highway below the hotel.( I would have had a fair amount of difficulty finding these sites on my own without the guide, who was a delightful man, full of information).||||(I have written about 2 other attractions, the Museum of the Revolutionaries and the Guerrilla Camp, both in Perquíin, in another review).||||There was not much real choice of hotels in the area--the setting of El Ocotal Cabanas makes them special but again be advised that it is somewhat like indoor camping (with a...

First, the hotel is incredibly beautiful and in a good location. Indeed, the hotel is in the woods.||||The landscape is fabulous. Every morning, we can see the squirrels who have a walk. If you have the opportunity to go there, it is absolutely necessary to have a walk in these kilometers of peaceful forest. ||||The service (cleaning, the general staff) are very professional and attentive.||The rooms are cleaning all the 3 days.||||The swimming pool is maintained well and quite big. There is also a center of fitness and relaxation. ||||If there is just a little problem (if we can call that a "problem"), that's the morning is particularly cool, but with a good pullover, all goes. ||||Finally, if you want to rest (in family or with friends), to see an incredible set with an excellent service, this hotel is...

El Ocotal es una buena opción para hacer turismo en la zona comprendida entre lugares como Perquín y Arambala, departamento de Morazán, que están llenos de atractivos poco conocidos. Sin embargo, el viajero debe saber que el hotel tiene un sistema bastante rudimentario para el registro de reservaciones. Es imposible hacerla por teléfono o, peor, por Internet. Primero, hace falta realizar un depósito del 50% del costo en una cuenta bancaria en alguna ciudad. Luego, la copia del recibo entregado por el banco debe enviarse por email a la dirección electrónica del hotel. Por si eso no fuera suficiente, hay que llevar una copia de este recibo para presentarla en el mostrador del hotel. Sus libros de registro son muy arcaicos.||||El servicio de restaurante es deficiente, y los propietarios no parecen preocupados en mejorar la calidad de la comida, que suele servirse fría, ni la del café, que es un patrimonio cultural salvadoreño, ni la atención de las personas encargadas del servicio.||||Sin embargo, sorpresa, el hotel tiene una alta demanda. Esto se debe, en parte, a que el lugar tiene atractivo, pues las cabañas para alojar a los huéspedes se ubican en medio de un agradable bosque de jóvenes árboles de ocote (una variedad de las pináceas). En parte, porque la oferta hotelera de la zona no es muy alta. El otro único hotel que goza de buena reputación es el Perquín Lenka, que es muy superior en la calidad del servicio que ofrece, y por eso mismo no siempre es posible encontrar un alojamiento.||||Pese a que la zona goza de un creciente interés de parte de centenares de turistas no es posible encontrar un mapa que ubique los lugares claves, como el Museo de la Revolución, el Monumento a las víctimas de El Mozote, la reserva Río Sapo, la belleza escénica de El Bailadero del Diablo, o las cuevas de Corinto, donde se puede apreciar arte rupestre.||||Además, la conexión a internet es muy deficiente. Google maps, Waze y el mismo Tripadvisor fueron incapaces, juntos, para poder dar con las locaciones buscadas. Entonces, el viajero se mueve preguntando, un poco a ciegas. Por suerte, las personas de la zona son sumamente cordiales y en general se respira un clima de seguridad, algo que se aprecia mucho en un país donde hay...