If you’re short on time and looking for great ceramics to take home from El Salvador, there’s no better place to stop and look around than Ilobasco. Some of the finest ceramics in all of El Salvador can be found here and you can view them in the main cultural gallery, making shopping a lot easier. The pottery includes miniatures, which are small representations of daily scenes as lived by Salvadorians, no bigger than 2" tall. One version of the miniatures are the "surprises", which are basically a scene covered with another piece of clay shaped and painted in the form of a fruit, an egg or a house, among other things. The cover can then be removed and the scene inside becomes visible. Erotic versions of these are crafted and, even though the local priest condemns the practice, they are very popular.

Getting there
Ilobasco is in the Cabañas department of El Salvador. To reach it you can catch a bus from Cojutepeque, San Rafael, San Miguel, San Salvador, San Vicente and Sesuntepeque.