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From the El Mayo junction, Highway CA-4 begins its climb up into the mountains of the Cordillera Metapan Alotepeque passing through the small, unexciting town of Tejutla, before making the slow, winding ascent to the Honduran border. The tortuous bus journey is compensated for by the views, with pine-clad mountains falling away to either side, and distant, hazy ranges and volcanoes seeming to stretch on forever (for the best views sit on the left-hand side of the bus on the way to La Palma from Tejutla). LA PALMA , supposedly named after the indigenous custom of building houses out of palms, is a sleepy mountain village founded in 1915 under the name Dulce Nombre de la Palma. Its calm is really only broken during the annual fiesta of Dulce Nombre de Maria , in the third week of February. Today the village is chiefly famous for its artesenias , which are sold all over the country - naif-style wooden and ceramic handicrafts and toys, brightly painted with representations of people, villages and farming life. This cottage industry, instituted by Salvadorean artist Fernando Llort in the 1970s, is now the economic mainstay of the village, with workshops turning out hundreds of pieces a week. Most workshops sell their goods on the spot and are pretty relaxed about visitors turning up to watch the work; prices are somewhat cheaper than in San Salvador. On the main road through the village is the gallery of Salvadorean artist Alfredo Linares (Mon-Sat 9am-noon & 1-4pm), displaying his fine watercolours and pen-and-ink representations of the area and its peoples. Prices for the originals are not particularly low, but postcards and prints are also sold. North of La Palma are several fine hiking trails , including, for the adventurous, El Salvador's highest mountain, Cerro Pital (2730m), 10km away on the border. A rough road branches east just before La Palma to run to Las Pilas on the lower slopes of the mountain; a dirt road also leads up from the village of San Ignacio . Hiking to the summit is an adventure of two or three days, for which you will need to be fully equipped. If you don't mind not reaching the top, the trails provide day hikes of varying lengths - the owners of the Hotel La Palma are a good source of information on walks and guides.
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