El Tunco & The Surf City Project

El Tunco is one of several coastal cities in El Salvador that is part of the country’s Surf City initiative. “Surf City” was launched in 2019 by the administration of Nayib Bukele, the country’s 81st and current president since 2019 (who is worth reading about elsewhere for a variety of reasons) with the goal of making El Salvador a world-class surfing destination. They designated a 21-km stretch of land along the country’s Pacific Coast as the Surf City National Tourism Zone. In addition to the branding, the country is upgrading the infrastructure in this zone and they have hosted several surfing competitions over the past few years to drive growth.

The Surf City project is now in its second phase. All throughout El Tunco and the nearby towns that are also in the designated zone, you can see signs that say, “Surf City Under Construction.” You can also see the construction everywhere. In El Tunco, they were rebuilding the beachfront boardwalk and on our way out of the town back to San Salvador we got stuck in a traffic jam because the main road in and out of the town was under construction. On my plane from Miami to San Salvador I overheard a bunch of guys talking about going surfing. A week later I saw one of them in El Tunco. So, I guess based on my small sample-sized experience, the project seems to be working.

There are many ways to say "pig" in Spanish: Cerdo(a), puerco(a), chancho(a), cochino(a), marrano(a), and finally, in some central American countries, tunco(a). El Tunco has its name because in the water just after the surf is a rock formation that apparently, if you turn it upside-down, looks like a pig.

When you walk around the town, you can see the quaint, colorful character that gives this town its funky, laid-back vibes.