El Imposible

Declared in 1989, it protects the largest surviving remnant of tropical forest on the Pacific slope of El Salvador, one of the countries with the least remaining forest cover in the whole of Central America after decades of agricultural expansion for coffee and cotton. Its name commemorates an old and extremely dangerous mountain pass, over which numerous pack mules fell to their deaths across generations while carrying goods between the highlands and the coast, until a metal bridge built in the early 20th century — still visible inside the park today — put an end to the original route.