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Heading east from San Salvador, the Carretera Interamericana runs through a succession of dismal slums and dreary suburbs, once independent towns, now incorporated into the city. A couple of kilometres past the domestic airport at Ilopango, a road branches south and winds down to Lago de Ilopango , offering stunning views across the water to the mountains on the other side. The country's largest and deepest crater lake, Ilopango is a contrast of blue waters and dramatic, thickly vegetated cliffs tumbling into the water, surmounted to the east by the peaks of San Vicente volcano. At the weekends, the city crowds pour in, most of them heading for the turicentro (daily 8am-6pm; US$0.90) at the poor, dusty hamlet of APULO , on the northern shore of the lake, where there are small restaurants, a swimming pool, changing rooms and a section of beach, although the water is slightly grimy. A number of small boats tout for custom here (US$10 an hour), and drifting around the Isla de Amor, Isla de los Patos and the Cerros Quemados (created in an 1880 eruption) is a pleasant way to spend an hour or so. From Apulo a road heads round the shore, past the grounds of the private Club Salvadoreno to the hamlets of CORINTO and SAN AGUSTIN ; shortly before Corinto, where it drops closer to the water's edge, there's access to small rocky beaches and cleaner stretches of water. If you're tempted to stay the night, the Hotel Vista del Lago (US$15-25) sits about 2km above the lake, on the access road from the highway. The views are stunning, but the rooms - all with bath and a/c - are run-down.
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