This article is part of a series of four pieces in El Salvador. You can find the previous shipping, a story in Bitcoin Berlín, Here.
The city of Bitcoin is like a modern El Dorado – a dream -dreamed Enclave in the jungle, a 21st century utopia.
El Salvador President Nayib Buklele said in 2021 that metropolis should be raised at the base of the Conchagua Volcano. Project renderings from May 2022 show a circular shape, such as the Bitcoin logo, and a structure painted in gold.
Visiting El Salvador this month, I was curious to see Bitcoin City for myself, or at least try to see the signs of construction.
This is a four-and-a-half-hour drive from San Salvador to Conchagua. The volcano sits on the widest part of the country, on the coast, through the Gulf of Forseca. You can see Nicaragua and Honduras from its top, as well as small islands such as Tiger Island, Conchagüita and Meanguera Island. It is a good place, but very humid, and hot. It was 35 degree Celsius (95 ° F) when I arrived at noon at late-January.
Bitcoin City is facing south -east according to plans shared by Buklele, which means it should look at the water. But Google Maps does not show the roads on the volcanic side, only the Conchagua Forest and Virgin Beaches like Playa El Flor (Flower Beach). So I boarded the small village of Conchagua, northern.
What i found in conchagua
Conchagua is a small village, and lovely. My immediate impression was that I had fallen in time, as in Portugal in the 1950s, perhaps. Children’s school drugs in white uniforms rushed to the streets, returning home for lunch after collapsed by colorful buses.
As in most Latin American cities, the central square showed the town’s name in bright block-letter: Conchagua. There is a white spring behind, and Christmas decorations are still despite the festivals long.
The opposite from the square stands by a gorgeous, white colonial church. Its saint’s patron is James Apóstol; The villagers also refer to the parish of that name. It is difficult to say when the construction began, but it ended in 1693, making it the oldest church in El Salvador, and a prized tourist attraction.
Be like it may, there seems to be no other aliens when I come, and my presence has drawn some gaze. It is a quiet town; The outsiders are standing. It’s hard to say how many people live there – the mayor’s office has no access to the census taken in 2023 by the Salvadoran Central Bank – but I would be surprised if more than a thousand thousand.
Wikipedia said 37,400, based on a 2007 survey, yet that figure was for the entire municipality of Conchagua, which lasts in a half -dozen other villages around the volcano, and even then, it feels like an overwhelming caution.
At the mayor’s office, Margarito García, who worked for the office for 15 years, greeted me politely. When I asked about Buklele’s plans to build Bitcoin City in the volcano, García shook his head.
“It’s just words,” he said.
There were no signs of construction nearby, he added, nor did government officials find. I am not the first person to ask. Tourists – French and Slovak, he remembered – came looking for Bitcoin City for the last few months. But he saw the attention brought to Conchagua as a positive for the local economy.
García noted that an airport was built near Loma Lara, about 30 minutes south -western Conchagua. He refers to “Pacific Airport,” an initiative proposed by Buklele until 2019 to boost tourism in the eastern region of El Salvador and relieve the existing international airport of some of its congestion.
The legislative assembly approved airport construction in 2022. The project costs $ 328 million and initially services between 300,000 and 500,000 passengers per year. Construction is expected to begin in 2025.
Plans for Bitcoin City
The project is noteworthy because Buklele’s plans for Bitcoin City include airports, as well as a port, train service, commercial and residential zones, restaurants, and recreation areas. Can the Pacific airport be a first step in developing metropolis?
Possibly.
“In Bitcoin City, we will have mining, agriculture, culture and sports. When we are gone, it will endure, and everyone will see the city,” Buklele Says Back in 2021, when he announced the project.
“We have no income tax, forever. There is no income tax. No tax tax, no tax tax, zero municipal tax and zero CO2 leaks. The only tax that you will have in Bitcoin City is VAT, half of it will be used to compensate for municipal bonds and the rest for public infrastructure and maintenance of the city, “he added.
Conchagua Volcano’s geothermal energy is considered as the main source of Bitcoin City power, a good environmental touch that considers the reputation to the Bitcoin mining industry.
Bukele said the construction of Bitcoin City will be funded by a $ 1 billion Bitcoin supported by tokenized bond, called Volcano Bond, originally scheduled for release in 2022. The Bond received The regulation approved in December 2023 and should be launched in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Bitcoin office of El Salvador. But the Salvadoran government has remained silent on the matter.
“I don’t know when we’ll have news about it,” Stacy Herbert, director of the Bitcoin Office (acting as a government marketing arm for all crypto -related objects) updates to bitcoin City and the volcanic bond. “But the foundation is laid out for everyone.”
Volcanic driving
I was a little determined to climb the volcano and keep my eyes on the Gulf of Fsececa. I want to get a sense of perspective that Bitcoin City residents can enjoy in the future.
The villagers don’t seem to think my car hire will do it. It is all tracks of dirt; I’ll need a four -wheel drive, they said, or I need to take a shuttle there.
I still tried. Slowly passing through a stunning road, I rode the east, preventing the volcano, to another village called Amapalin. On either side of the track are fields and forests. Every time I see the northern part of the volcano that breaks into the leaves.
Soon before the road was too steep for comfort. I turned around and returned to the village. I could have tried another road, which was running on the western volcano, but the sun continued, and I wanted to reach El Zonte, four hours away, before night.
It is thought that the Pacific Airport begins to form in 2025 (which is likely) it will be six years since Buklele first mentioned the airport and the construction of the moment began.
The city of Bitcoin, which is a huge larger business, can take longer than that. There is no guarantee that the initiative will ever come to everyone. Other planned cities – such as the Neom in Saudi Arabia – face a greater delay.
Who knows? El Salvador surprised the world more than once under Bukle. I will not bet against it.
