WILD EL SALVADOR with Nigel Marven
In November 2021, I had the great pleasure of hosting renowned wildlife TV presenter Nigel Marven on his first in-depth visit to El Salvador. With the invaluable support of Morena Valdez, El Salvador’s Minister of Tourism, we spent around seven days traveling across the country, exploring many of its stunning ecosystems.
Nigel had the opportunity to encounter a wide range of our incredible birdlife—several species were even lifers for him. He was so captivated by El Salvador’s natural beauty, biodiversity, and welcoming people that he began exploring the possibility of filming one of his documentaries here.
That unforgettable trip became the inspiration for the documentary that Nigel Marven Productions filmed in El Salvador between February and December 2022. With full support from the Ministry of the Environment, the production explored the country’s most astonishing landscapes and showcased the incredible richness of its wildlife—from sea turtles to pumas, from highland hummingbirds to double-striped thick-knees. The documentary shines a spotlight on El Salvador’s natural wonders and its growing potential as a destination for wildlife enthusiasts around the world.
Around February 2022 we prepared the script. Once we had clear what we wanted to include in the documentary, I, as the location manager, started preparing all the logistics for the different stages of production that were going to happen along that year. We were going to film during the dry season, during the rainy season and finally close to the whale watching season to include that in the film.
I had the support of Victor Cuchilla a member of the staff of the Ministry to start doing the scouting of locations and doing the preparation visits to the places we had in mind that could work for every single story we had thought to include in the film. During the different visits we had the amazing support of the real heroes of conservation in El Salvador: the local rangers.
Describe your image
Describe your image
In April 2022 we had the dry season production stage and we went around the country filming spider monkeys, double striped thick-knees , cascabel snakes, turquoise-browed motmots, mountain pit-vipers, mexican caecilians, crocodiles and yellow-naped parrots. As for the rainy season production stage, this one happened at the end of August. Just in time to film the Balls of Fire Festival as well as Sea Turtles, Pumas, El Pital Salamanders and Mountain Hummingbirds. On a third and last stage of production we managed to shoot the opening of the shot at Izalco Volcano as well the whales in Los Cobanos Reserve and the end of the film under the waters of the active caldera of Ilopango.
The post-production process was happening at the same time we were filming the last stage in situ. The finished filmed was ready by the end of January 2023 and it was premiered in YouTube by the Ministry of the Environment of El Salvador who kept he rights of transmision in Central American and on the Magellan TV platform for the rest of the world.
I am really honored to have been part of the production as for me is about making people, from all over the world but mainly from El Salvador, fall in love with our beautiful ecosystems, fauna and culture. But more importantly to take care of the beauties that we have and we MUST protect. Enjoy the film!
WATCH THE TRAILER
WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY
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