World El Salvador La Libertad

Backroad Explorers.ca Mexico & Central America by Motorcycle 2008/09

Antigua, Guatemala to La Libertad, El Salvador Dec 27, 2008

We were up, packed and finished breakfast by 8:00 AM. It was a sad departure. The owners of the hotel, Mario, Veronique and their daughters had become like family to us. After hugs and goodbyes we hit the road at 8:30 AM.

We have decided to take route CA2 rather than the more popular CA1. We are hoping the border will not be as busy and CA2 follows the coastline which should be scenic.

The road from Antigua south to join CA2 is nearly brand new and a joy to ride. It is smooth, twisty and even has a bit of a shoulder, something we rarely saw in Mexico. CA2 was nearly as new and also had shoulders.

Shortly after leaving Antigua we rounded a corner and found a volcano spewing smoke and ash right in front of us. It looked like it had just started. As we traveled along this route we saw several volcanoes, most of which were also venting smoke.

There was coffee growing along the road at the higher elevations and sugarcane became prominent once we reached the lower elevations along the coast. Over the first 50 km we dropped from over 5,000 ft at Antigua to less than 500 ft.

One final and lasting impression of the Guatemalan people occurred just short of reaching the border. We stopped to have a drink and cool off in front of a tiny store located in the front room of a small house at the side of the road. When I asked for two waters the lady brought out two bags of packaged, purified water (not uncommon here).

The cost was two quetzales. I suddenly realized I had used up all of my small bills leaving a tip at the hotel. I only had a 100 quetzal bill. She did not have change. I said OK and began walking away without the water. She handed me the water and said no charge!

This poor lady is living out in the country with apparently very little to her name and yet here she was giving us, the rich North Americans her packaged water for nothing. I was touched and embarrassed at having nothing to offer in return. She just smiled and said have a safe trip.

At the border we stopped on the Guatemalan side to cancel our bike permit and have our passports stamped out. A little kid immediately latched on to me to guide me through the process. This very common at these borders I have been told.

He was a cute little guy with a big smile so I told ok and made sure we were clear I would be handling the transactions, he would be showing me where the various officials were.

The first thing was to make copies of the documents I would need. Drivers license, registration, passport and the Guatemalan permit. In the end, I could have easily found the officials on my own but the little guy did save me time and trouble by having me get extra copies of everything so I would also have what I needed for the El Salvador side.

Checking out of Guatemala was very straight forward. Rather than canceling the bike permit they gave me a temporary exit stamp good for two months. This means I should not need to get a new permit on the way back.

The kid hitched a ride on a bicycle over to the El Salvador side and had a parking spot ready for us. Then he pointed to a door (which was clearly marked) and told me to take the copies we had made through the door for the bike permits.

Behind this door was a major bottleneck. Upon entering I was directed to sit at the end of a long bench with about a dozen other people. There was a Canadian guy there who was moving to Panama. He said you might as well get comfortable; I have already been sitting here 2 hours.

It turned out there were several officials in the office but everything went through one guy for final processing. He was typing all the information for each vehicle in a computer. This single official was handling every vehicle crossing the border by himself.

The fellow in front of me was bringing in 5 pieces of used equipment from the US including a couple of trucks, trailers and a backhoe. Each piece had to have a form filled out, an inspection and then have all of the detailed information including VIN numbers, make model, year, etc. typed into the computer by this one guy. It was excruciatingly slow.

In reality it was a very straight forward process. Hand in the papers, have a form filled out by hand, have the bike examined to confirm the VIN and plate numbers and then have the information typed into the computer. And it only took 3 ½ hours!

Oh, and did I mention it was very hot and humid, especially in the room with the long bench. Poor Janine was waiting outside watching the bike.

We had expected a long wait so it was not a surprise. What was a bit of a surprise was the kindness of the people we were waiting with. A family from El Salvador was waiting outside where Janine was. They knew how long it would take to get through and had brought a picnic lunch. They came over and gave Janine a big glass of coke when they saw her out there sweating.

In the mean time, the fellow ahead of me with the trucks and backhoe, also from El Salvador, told me to go in front of him since mine was much easier than his to process. He was in no hurry.

Once we had all our paperwork in order I came out and there was the kid, still waiting. (I did realize while waiting that he had several clients on the go at once so I expect he does pretty well with that big smile) I gave him his tip, thanked him and we were off.

The last step as we crossed the border was to pay our fees. The total was $5.00 US with an official, stamped receipt issued. No other taxes or fees or bribes or anything else. Other than slow, this was not a tough border to cross and once again the officials were friendly, helpful and honest.

Route CA2 in El Salvador was also a surprise. I was anticipating a poorly maintained, narrow road lined with poor villages and garbage filled ditches since El Salvador is one of the poorest Central American countries.

The road itself was nearly new pavement with wide shoulders. Granted there were definitely poor people living along the road but nothing like we had seen in some parts of Mexico, in particular south of Acapulco on Mexico 200.

There were some oxcarts and people on horseback but also many old and not so old Toyota pickups. On some stretches of highway there was corn laid out on the shoulder being dried. The countryside was beautiful and the ditches were fairly clean.

When we reached La Libertad we stopped to take a look at the first hotel we came to. Immediately a fellow came out and ushered us into the parking lot to take a look. It was a nice looking place on the beach with a pool and very busy. Since this is the weekend between Christmas and New Years so it is not surprising things are busy.

He showed me a couple of rooms and explained in Spanish that it was $25.00 USD for one night but then he was suddenly up to $50.00 and it sounded like it was not available tomorrow. It was a bit confusing. He spoke very quickly and it did not even sound like spanish to me. I hardly recognized a single word.

We wanted something we could stay in a few days if we liked it so I told him no.

As we were leaving another guy came out and explained in english that the room was $25.00 if we checked out at 8:00 AM. If we wanted to stay until 6:00 PM tomorrow it would be $50.00 USD. The room would be available for additional days if we chose.

We found out later this is common here. These places are listed as restaurant hotels. You can rent a room from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM giving your family access to the room, pool and hotel facilities for the day.

We decided to look further. At the next beach we saw a hotel sign and took the road down to the water front. It turned into sand and ran along the beachfront which was lined with restaurants housed in various lean-tos and shacks with thatched roofs. There were dogs barking and chasing us so I just gassed it until we were able to find a path back to the highway, although we had to cross a section of mud and a small stream to do so.

Next stop was a cobblestone street leading down to the beach. It looked a little more comfortable to ride so we followed it down to the beach. There were small hotels on either side and immediately we had four or five guys swarming us all telling us how their hotel was the best, we should look.

The one we were parked in front of look as good as any so we took a look. It had a similar pricing scheme; half price if you check out before 8:00 AM, full price if you check out at 6:00 PM. I negotiated a price in-between so we could stay until noon. This will give us a chance to look around in the morning for something better/cheaper if we decide to stay longer.

So, we crossed the border and found a place to stay before dark. Mission accomplished. So far, El Salvador looks fairly nice but the people are pretty aggressive and hard to understand. We are not sold on it yet.