Cerro El Pital is a mountain in

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, on the border of

El Salvador 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 S ...

and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

. It is located from the town of

La Palma La Palma (, ), also known as ''La isla bonita'' () and historically San Miguel de La Palma, is the most northwesterly island of the Canary Islands, a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the North Atlantic Ocean. La Pa ...

at a height of above sea level, and is the highest point in Salvadoran territory and the third from Honduras. Cerro El Pital is in the middle of a

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

that has an average annual temperature of . It is one of the most popular tourist draws in El Salvador, with great biodiversity in a wide altitudinal range containing many endangered species of flora and fauna. The cloud forest has some of the rarest plants and animals in the country, including

quetzal Quetzals () are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family. They are found in forests, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus ''Pharomachrus'' being exclusively Neotropical, while a single species, the eared quet ...

s and other endangered species. From November to February the temperature ranges between and (lowest recorded, in January 1956) and in the rest of the year the temperature ranges between and . It is the coldest place in

. On 13 April 2004, much of the mountain was blanketed by an accumulation of hail during a storm, an unusual event that caused a commotion among the local community. Pital nevada

References

{{Highest points of North America El Pital Mountains of Honduras El Salvador–Honduras border International mountains of North America Chalatenango Department Ocotepeque Department Highest points of countries North American 2000 m summits