18 Fun & Interesting Facts About El Salvador

1. In 2002, El Salvador was the premiere location for the Central American and Caribbean sports games. Roughly 2 million tickets were sold to this world event.

2. El Salvador first introduced its flag in 1909. He meaning of the flag stands for blue which is unity, and the whit area represents peace.

3. Famous for her tennis ability, Rosie Casals has ancestral roots buried in El Salvador

4. Unusual for a third world country el Salvador is one of the only democracies in the world and is considered one of the best.

5. The first time the el Salvadoran soccer team qualified for the FIFA world championship was in 1982, they beat out Mexico for the qualifiers.

6. El Salvador holds one of the Unesco World heritage sites. It is known as Joya de Ceren it was originally declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in the early 1990’s. It is a one of the worlds most distinct pieces of Latin American history.

7. El Salvador is also known for its beautiful woman. None other than miss El Salvador 1955 Maria Isabel Arrieta Galvez. She Is considered one of the most beautiful miss El Salvadors of all time coming in 1st runner up in the miss universe pageant in that same year. She went on to become miss amity and continues to be a huge success across Latin America

8. America super model Christy Turlington was originally from El Salvador

9. Salvadoran cyclist Maureen Vergara was one of the world championship cyclist in the early and late 1970’s. She became a Latin American Icon for woman.

10. The capitol of El Salvador has been the host of the Miss Universe competition only 2 times since its inception. First time was in 1975, the last time was in 1999. The winner of the first miss universe was, unfortunately, not miss El Salvador

11. Prior to his illness, one of the most frequented locations that Pope john Paul II frequented was El Salvador

12. El Salvador has a rich history of famous people including Claribel Alegria a great writer of fiction. Alvaro Torres who shocked the world with his singing ability. Osca Arnulfo Romero Who fought against the establishment for the people. Paulinea Galvez who won the miss international competition in 1999. There are many more famous people from El Salvador that have made a mark in the world for this small country

13. El Salvador has some of the world’s most active volcanoes. The Santa Anna Volcano is El Salvador most active Volcano.

14. As of 2009, El Salvador’s population was over 7,000,000 with 3% of them daily making the dangerous trek to the United States for their families.

15. El Salvador’s main Religion is Catholic which makes up about 85% of the population

16. El Salvador is one of the only countries to go to war with Honduras over a soccer game.

17. El Salvador’s civil war killed over 75000 people that have been accounted for there are still over 2500 missing in action.

18. El Salvador is one of the richest surfing destinations in the world. It regularly host world surfing competitions because of the surfing riptides that regularly explore the coast.