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Heading off from the Plaza de las Americas, the Interamericana runs through the southwest quarters of the city and out to western El Salvador. About 2km along this road is the Mercado des Artesanias , with a wide selection of handicrafts from all over the country. Good buys here include hammocks, painted wooden items from La Palma and bright hand-towels woven with Llort's naif-style paintings; prepare to bargain, although prices are around fifty percent higher than in the villages of origin. Turn into Av la Revolucion, just past the market, and a couple of hundred metres up is the Museo Nacional de Antropologia "Dr David J. Guzman" , a rather grand project, named after an eminent Salvadorean biologist, which when it opens will contain the nation's largest collection of cultural artefacts and anthropological displays, plus exhibits of modern Salvadorean life and science. Opposite the museum, the Feria Internacional is the site of regular, and very popular, international trade fairs and also has an open-air music venue which hosts a range of Latin music stars. Av la Revolucion continues uphill for another kilometre or so, into the heart of the leafy Col San Benito, ending in front of the Monumento de la Revolucion , a vast, curved slab of concrete bearing a mosaic of a naked Goliath with head thrown back and arms uplifted. Built to commemorate the revolutionary movement of 1948, the monument's location in one of the wealthiest areas of the city and overlooking one of its best hotels, the Marriott , is supremely ironic. East of the monument stretches the Zona Rosa entertainment district, with expensive restaurants, nightclubs and boutiques. The district's main drag, Blvd del Hipodromo curves uphill for 400m from the monument to the Corsatur (Corporacion Salvadorena de Turismo) office. Heading further out along the Carretera Interamericana, on the left, is the elegant white mansion and lush gardens housing the Foreign Ministry and, where the road meets the Autopista del Sur, what is possibly the most beautiful church in San Salvador, the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe . Built after World War II and consecrated in 1953, the basilica is dedicated to the Virgen Morena, or Black Virgin, patroness of the Americas. Inside are beautiful stained-glass windows and a 1950s mural of the Virgin and angels over the altar. Stretching behind the basilica is the campus of the Universidad de Centro America ("La UCA"; also known as the Jesuit University), pleasantly laid out amid shady grounds. The extremely moving Centro Monsenor Romero (Mon-Fri 8am-noon & 2-5pm; free) at La UCA commemorates both the assassinated Archbishop Romero and the six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, who were murdered here by the security forces in November 1989. Volunteer students act as guides to the small museum, which houses clothing, photographs and personal effects of Romero and the priests, along with those of other human-rights workers killed during the years of conflict. There are diagrams and explanations of the campus massacre, as well as eyewitness descriptions of other low points during the war, such as the massacres at Rio Sumpul (May 1980) and El Mozote (December 1981). Outside, a small rose garden has been planted in tribute; the circle of six bushes is for the six priests, the white rose the in the centre is for Monsenor Romero. A short distance south of the university, the tranquil Jardin Botanico la Laguna (Tues-Sun 9am-5.30pm) sits incongruously at the edge of an industrial park and at the foot of old volcanic cliffs. The gardens contain plants from all over the world, set among shady trees and small streams, and are a good place to escape the city for an hour or two. Bus #101D or #44 will drop you off about five minutes' walk from the entrance.
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