Dream or Drama? I Won’t Know Until I Go

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If a young, innovative president declares that his country is adopting bitcoin as its national currency, that’s a hot story. When word broke that El Salvador would be going live this month with the most audacious fiscal maneuver since Nixon dropped the Gold Standard, well, I booked a flight.

I’ll admit, eyebrows were raised, questions asked. Is this the sort of country we want to present to our readers? Is it safe? Is this really the dream?

True, the mainstream media have done an excellent job shining a dazzling light on isolated pockets of gang violence in El Salvador. It reminds me of how they used to report Colombia—as a terror-stricken hellhole, torn apart by drug wars. Meanwhile, our correspondents living there were looking around themselves at an energetic, safe, civilized, modern country which they felt privileged to call home.

Sensationalized reports of civil strife, insurrection, violence (and the underlying whisper that the world is a scary place, so put your trust in us)—are what networks use to boost ratings and sell advertising.

But what I see in El Salvador is a country that the U.S. Department of State Advisory recently declared to be as safe as Canada. I see a transport network that’s the envy of the region, Maya ruins to rival Mexico’s, colonial towns with scarcely a tourist, and mile upon mile of untouched Pacific coastline with world-class, warm-water waves.

What if we could use the country’s outdated, inaccurate mainstream media image to our advantage? It’s a new, growing expat destination, three hours from Miami, yet it’s forgotten. Maybe your dream is to find a place that’s everything you hoped, say, Costa Rica would be, but that’s undiscovered, affordable, and not overrun with tourism. Imagine getting in early on that!

I’ll tell you what I find…