La Puerta del Diablo

OVERVIEW

A cleft between two rock promontories on Cerro El Chulo above Panchimalco, south of San Salvador, with views to the Pacific and the volcanoes. The historian Jorge Lardé y Larín records that the hill was undermined by an intense rainstorm in early October 1762 and a great mass of it fell into the ravine, leaving the two towers. The name 'Puerta del Diablo' was coined by the poet Raúl Contreras; the hill was called El Chulo before that.

HISTORY

A viewpoint and climbing spot since the mid-twentieth century, with a small park at the base.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The legend, told in Panchimalco and printed in the Salvadoran press: María de la Paz, daughter of the Renderos family of Los Planes, was courted by the devil, who carried her into the caves of the hill; her father — or in another version the priest and the whole town — drove him out, and in his flight he struck the rock and split it. Before the name existed the hill already had a reputation as a place of apparitions that people avoided after dark. Diario El Salvador's 2020s account calls it a three-century legend with a tourist's spirit; nothing in it is documented beyond the storm.

VISITING

Open park; a steep path and stairs to the summits, best in the morning. Guides available at the base.