El Jabalí

What El Jabalí is

El Jabalí is a distinct mountain remnant within the San Salvador volcanic complex, west of the capital. It stands northwest of the Boquerón crater and is one of the recognisable remnants of the older San Salvador volcano.

This is not a separate active cone. Around 40,000 years ago, the older volcanic edifice partly collapsed, leaving El Jabalí and El Picacho as exposed portions of its rim. The younger, mainly andesitic Boquerón volcano subsequently grew inside that collapse depression.

Read the landscape

El Jabalí’s importance is geological: it helps explain why San Salvador volcano is a compound structure rather than a single symmetrical mountain.

• El Jabalí: the lower northwestern rim remnant, about 1,397 metres above sea level.
• El Picacho: the higher eastern rim remnant.
• Boquerón: the younger central volcano and the name associated with the large summit crater.

From a broad viewpoint, look for El Jabalí as part of the broken outer relief rather than expecting a clean, isolated cone. Its relationship to Boquerón and Picacho is the point of the stop.

Visiting context

Treat El Jabalí primarily as a named landform, not as a separately developed visitor attraction. The documented public trails and crater viewpoints in this volcanic complex are concentrated at El Boquerón National Park, around the younger central crater; they are not a route description for El Jabalí itself.

Use detailed mapping and local access information before attempting any approach to the peak. Do not assume that roads, cultivated slopes, or tracks on the northwestern side provide public passage. Keep private land, closures, and any marked boundaries out of your itinerary.

Volcanic setting and caution

The wider complex has erupted from its central crater and from flank fissures over the past 70,000 years. Its last confirmed eruption was in 1917. Historic activity has been concentrated on the northwestern flank, while heavy rain and earthquakes have also triggered destructive landslides and debris flows on the volcano.

Important: avoid steep drainage lines and unstable slopes during heavy rain or earthquake-related alerts. For any volcanic advisory, follow official civil-protection instructions rather than relying on normal access patterns.

Best way to use this stop

El Jabalí works best as a geographic reference while exploring the San Salvador volcano landscape: identify the old rim, then compare it with the younger Boquerón cone inside it. That sequence makes the complex’s layered construction legible without confusing El Jabalí with the crater park or with nearby named volcanic features.