This is the route we traveled. The first thing you should know is that Google Maps lies when it pretends to know how long a drive should take. The second is that you should not try to cross eleven (count them, 11) border patrol stations in two weeks unless you really hate yourself.
So Wednesday, we head out to San Salvador. Google Maps says this should take about 8 hours. What Google does not account for is the mechanic who puts water in the radiator instead of coolant and the layover on the side of a mountain road with no cell signal due to said radiator overheating. This means we get to the border at dusk, and the Honduran Migración office is not where Lonely Planet says it is. Thankfully, it moved to the actual border, instead of a town a few miles away. Honduras says "Sure, we'll let you out." El Salvador says "No, you can't come in." Uh, what?
Picture Break!
This one is for you, Pam
I like to think you can see Guatemala in this picture.
And we're back.
So I believe I've written about this before. The CA-4 treaty/pact thingy between the 4 countries, the reason we had to go all the way to Costa Rica. Well, someone down the line isn't doing their job properly, which means El Salvador does not recognize extensions given by Honduras past the first 90 days. This is why several friends got turned away at the border on the way to the Convention last year. We were within our first 90 days, thanks to the trip to California in December. However- Honduras apparently forgot to stamp us out of the country then, and the US didn't stamp us at all. So it looked like we seriously exceeded our visa, and El Salvador was having none of that. Awesome. Thankfully, I rarely delete my email trash, so by some miracle I still had our boarding passes from that trip in there. Even after that, we got the third degree from them, but were *finally* allowed into the country. Little did we know, that was going to be one of the easier crossings. If this were a book, that would be called "foreshadowing".
San Salvador is a difficult place to navigate in the dark when you don't know where you are going. However, right down the street from our hotel was McDonald's and Denny's, so it's all good. (That's one thing I'll never get used to, in the States I really don't like fast food, but here we get so excited about it.)
Off to Soyapango to meet up with friends from Pioneer School!
Beautiful pictures. so the coca cola sign was just up in the hills to taunt me? Strange place for a big sign like that. And I suppose with all the vehicle troubles you were having it was too difficult to get it in the truck and bring it back for me so I will forgive you this time.
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