El Zonte El Zonte | |
---|---|
Municipality | |
Coordinates: 13°29′42″N89°26′24″W / 13.495°N 89.440°W | |
Country | El Salvador |
Department | La Libertad |
• Mayor | (ARENA) |
Population | |
• Urban | 3,000 |
El Zonte is a town in La Libertad Department in El Salvador. A popular tourist destination, El Zonte has been described as a "world surfing mecca". [1] Playa El Zonte (English: El Zonte Beach; nicknamed Bitcoin Beach) became one of the first locales in El Salvador to accept Bitcoin as a payment method, and inspired the country's adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender.
El Zonte is a town with a population of 3,000. According to Reuters in 2021, "El Zonte is visibly poor, with dirt roads and a faulty drainage system.". [2] El Zonte is located 26 mi (42 km) from San Salvador, the national capital. [3] In Summer 2023, the roads in El Zonte were updated from dirt to brick, as well as an improved drainage system.
The local economy is heavily dependent on tourism, particularly surfing. According to France 24 , El Zonte attracts tourists from United States, Canada, Europe, and Brazil looking to surf, with surfing classes costing between $10 and $50 an hour.
In El Zonte, a foreign volunteer-run program called the "Medusas" provide English and art education as well as low-cost surfing instruction. [4] Skateboarding is a popular activity among young residents of El Zonte, and a local community skatepark was established in the town. [5] [6]
When an anonymous American began sending Bitcoin to nonprofits there, nonprofit workers began an initiative to start a local Bitcoin ecosystem. [7] [8] The beach became one of the first places in El Salvador to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment: President Nayib Bukele cited the town as an inspiration for the law recognizing the cryptocurrency as one of El Salvador's two official currencies, alongside the U.S. Dollar. [9]
In 2022, the American network HBO premiered an episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel that reported on the development of Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Zonte and how it has impacted the community. [10]
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. The country's population in 2024 was estimated to be 6 million according to a government census.
The economy of El Salvador has experienced relatively low rates of GDP growth, in comparison to other developing countries. Rates have not risen above the low single digits in nearly two decades – part of a broader environment of macroeconomic instability which the integration of the United States dollar has done little to improve. One problem that the Salvadoran economy faces is the inequality in the distribution of income. In 2011, El Salvador had a Gini coefficient of .485, which although similar to that of the United States, leaves 37.8% of the population below the poverty line, due to lower aggregate income. The richest 10% of the population receives approximately 15 times the income of the poorest 40%.
The history of El Salvador begins with several distinct groups of Mesoamerican people, especially the Pipil, the Lenca and the Maya. In the early 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the territory, incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City. In 1821, El Salvador achieved independence from Spain as part of the First Mexican Empire, only to further secede as part of the Federal Republic of Central America two years later. Upon the republic's independence in 1841, El Salvador became a sovereign state until forming a short-lived union with Honduras and Nicaragua called the Greater Republic of Central America, which lasted from 1895 to 1898.
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Events in the year 2021 in El Salvador.
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Yusef Alí Bukele Ortez is a Salvadoran businessman, politician, and economist. He is a younger brother of and advisor to Nayib Bukele, the current president of El Salvador. Bukele has served as one of Nayib's economic advisors and played a role in the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador.
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