Monterrico to El Salvador (11/18/10)

The morning boat ride

my teenage pilot with the thumbs-up

leaving the Monterrico dock

I decided the heck with it and drove down to the boat dock on the laguna side of Monterrico. A 20+ minute boat ride saves miles of redundant driving. Umberto, an older gent with the metal boat is there but his boat is not. Deducing that no one would want to jeopardize their boat for one fare, I take the first boat available, one built to handle two cars but I pay the full 150Q so I get it to myself, and the three other guys who hop on for the ride. I don't think I really breathed until back on dry land but now that I think about it, it was no big deal.

El Salvador

border river between Guat. and El Sal. from the
Guat. side

Another 2-1/2 hours to drive up into the hills and over to the border. At first it's flat with lots of ranching, but then I climb into dryer, cooler country. The two lane road is very potholed with occasional washouts leading to more 20mph driving until the last stretch which is relatively flat and straight. A couple of teenage boys try to run alongside my car as I pull into the Guatemala side to help and to exchange money for me but I press on (El Salvador uses US dollars as its' currency and I have those). A woman checks over my paperwork, stamps my vehicle papers that I'm leaving and takes the vehicle sticker. A man at the next window stamps my passport, also as leaving. That's it, no charge. 

goodbye Guatemala, hello El Salvador

I drive over a bridge and I'm in El Salvador. A man waves me to the side and asks for all my paperwork. After several minutes I understand that I'm to go over to a food stand to have copies made of the following: driver's license, front page of my passport, the page stamped exit by Guatemala, the Guatemala vehicle page with stamp, and my vehicle title. Five copies for 25 cents. That will be the total cost of this border crossing.

guy with copy machine is
behind the green front

After I make the copies the same man gives me a paper I have to fill out detailing myself and the car. Most of this form is words I don't know and as I'm standing there in the hot sun wondering what the hell to do, maybe grab my dictionary, another guy takes pity on me and helps me fill it out. No one speaks English and my feeble Spanish is once again exhausting me. I'm now sent across the street to the Aduana (customs), but I end up in the Immigration office where a guy says my passport looks fine and I don't need a stamp for El Salvador because of the CA-4 agreement between Guat., El Sal., Nic. and Hond. This makes crossing between these four countries easier and, in theory, for no cost. I now head over to the Aduana where a woman takes all those copies I made and she types up a new paper that gives me driving rights in El Salvador. Don't I need to have my passport stamped? I ask her. She doesn't know so sends me back to Immigration where the same guy assures me a stamp is no longer required. Back to the Aduana to let the woman know, but she gets another guy involve who makes a phone call and then sends me back to Immigration. They are pretty tired of me by now, but another man who speaks just enough English (the first one to do so in 75 minutes), slowly tells me the exit stamp from Guatemala in my passport is all I need as long as I'm in CA-4 territory. My stubborness cost me at least a 1/2 hour, but I feel a little ripped off since I thought one of the prizes for traveling was more stamps in the passport. Now that I think about it, I may not ever get one from Honduras, either.


Guatemala border-to-border...the drive south
(Apaneca, El Sal. in bottom corner)
click for larger view

 So that sucks, but I'm safely into El Salvador in the mountain community of Apaneca, smaller than I imagined, but very pretty. El Salvador, the country that CNN International just described to me the other night as "the murder capital of Central America". Thanks for planting that in my brain. Onward!