I woke with a slight headache, but feeling unusually well rested… A local bus got me to the terminal from which the international buses leave, and I was soon on a bus heading for the El Salvador border.
El Salvador is has been in a state of civil war for many years, and although the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) has apparently been pushed away from the main cities and highways, I’d been made aware that entry to the country isn’t always guaranteed for “visa-less” tourists. I tried to call the El Salvador consulate to get the latest while I was in Antigua, but wasn’t able to get through to anyone.
Arriving at the border, passengers had to get off the bus and walk across the bridge over the Rio Paz, after passing the Guatemalan border post. As I walked over the bridge, looking at the heavy military presence at the other end, I became increasingly nervous about being sent back across the bridge by the Salvadorian border police.
But in the end there was no problem – they stamped my passport and shortly after, I was back on the road south with all the other passengers, and heading for San Salvador where, a few hours later, I checked into the very run down Hotel Bruno near the centre. The few eating places all looked a little untrustworthy and in the end I opted for a burger from MacDonald’s!
Prices in El Salvador seem even lower than Guatemala. In a nearby market, for $5, I got a new little “essentials” backpack that would better fit in the top of my main pack, plus a T shirt, so that even if I did nothing else in El Salvador, at least people would know I’d been there!
In the morning, breakfast consisted of my current emergency bag of peanuts, since there was nothing useful near the hotel. Three friendly soldiers directed me to the Oriente terminal and thus on to a bus for San Miguel – the largest city in the south. The bus wound through poor rural areas, where most of the villages looked “fortified” with soldiers eyeing the bus suspiciously as it rattled past. At one point the bus slowed to walking pace to cross a river on a narrow temporary bridge – it seemed that the normal bridge had been partly destroyed by a bomb.
San Miguel yielded a clean hotel for 25 Colones, with a bathroom, but without reliable electricity… which had duly failed by the time I got back from getting a bite to eat.
In the morning (26th November) I decided to head for a new country, checked out, and went to find a bus for Honduras, but not before snapping a view of the San Miguel Volcano on the south west side of town.
After a seemingly unnecessary delay in the hill town of Santa Rosa (which may have been due to military / security – there was a heavy presence in the area), the bus reached the border and we all piled off. Cross border buses are clearly not a “thing” in Central America… I walked across the bridge with the rest of the passengers – feeling a little sorry for those who had lots of luggage – and was duly stamped into Honduras.
que coraje de tu parte cruzar éstos países!!!!
Serious question. Was it really called MacDonald’s? Or is that your British way of saying McDonald’s? Or a near copyright infringement of the American McDonald’s?
Good question. I believe it was genuine, but wrote it as “MacDonnalds” in my diary. I don’t think I’d ever been to a McDonalds before San Salvador, so I guess I didn’t know how to spell it!!