That said I can speak complimentary about my crossing into El Salvador.  Even though I had to completely unload my car and allow the inspector to open every single container that I carried.  The inspector that assisted me at the El Salvador border was a young, nice looking and professional man.  A guy really.  He spoke English and he endeavored to assist me through the process in everyway possible.  But the process was grueling. With the inspection of the car it took almost 4 hours to pass through the border.  The El Salvadorians were very procedural.  The quickly discovered that I did not have a proper exit stamp from my departure from Mexico several days earlier. Since I was entering from Guatemala this should not have been a concern to them but it was and it caused them to allow me only a transit visa lasting 48 hours. El Salvador is a small country and I had no real sight-seeing plans so I did not protest this solution. I was grateful that it was resolved quickly.

The  problem was getting the permit to import the car.  I had too much stuff.  The fellow who was assisting me advised me that he could only issue a transit permit for the car as well. Otherwise I would have to pay import duties on the things I was bringing  in.  The transit permit only allows 24 hours to cross the country and exit. And you are only allowed to follow a prescribed route.  I could live with that.  The proscribed route is essentially the only route through the country anyway and I could easily make the crossing in 24 hours.  He offered me many tips about the trip in terms of which roads to watch for and about the helper people who populate all the border crossing trying to scam helpless immigrants out of their money.  I thanked him for his work and made off toward San Salvador.  El Salvador is a highly Americanized country. Their currency is the US dollar.  Their people are attractive with generally lighter brown skin and nice American style clothing.  But the general character of poverty still pervades the country as it does everywhere in Central America.  Most people have no means of transportation.  So they walk.

It was New Years Day, the primary day of celebration for Central Americans as opposed to new years eve as the time of celebration in the us. So there were many groups of people going places for celebrations.  For motor transport they use anything available.  They often cram as many as 10 or 15 people into the back of a pickup truck.  They also use dump trucks as a people conveyance.  I have seen families of as many as 4 on motorbikes and boys on bicycles with their girls sitting side saddle on the cross bar in front of them.  

Commercial transportation includes three wheel golf cart type scooters, small super compact sized autos with constantly tweeting horns of various pitch and lots of made over yellow school buses as well as a few standard van style transports.

I got into San Salvador around 4 pm and quickly became disoriented.  

The Garmin GPS continues to be largely useless and often times deceiving.  I had been instructed to take the eastern loop around San Salvador but I could not find it.  I asked many, many people for directions and got many conflicting suggestions.  Central Americans don’t generally tend to admit to not knowing something. They almost invariably want to figure it out. Often I will get two or three persons gather around my map or my notes caucusing on the directions to give me.  Of course when I see them debating and arguing about the route, often times pointing in entirely opposite directions my confidence falls considerably and I am left with the decision of whether to try their advice, whatever of it I may have actually been able to understand, or to rely on my own best guess.  Not exactly good alternatives in either case. 

After going through this routine several times over the course of a couple  of hours in San Salvador I happened to stop at an Esso station to ask yet again for directions.  As I walked across the lot to where the attendant was pumping gas announcing that I no hablo Espanio the gentleman getting gas volunteered that he spoke English.  He asked me carefully about where I was going and then volunteered that he was going in that direction to San Miguel and that I could follow him if I wished.  I breathed a sigh of relief and graciously yes, of course, I would love to have that assistance.  So we set off south out of San Salvador finally, he in his gold Altima with his wife and me in my Pathfinder following closely behind.

I thought  that San Miguel was just on the outskirts of town and expect my escort to last perhaps 15 or 20 minutes but we kept going and going and going.  I followed the little gold Altima like a baby duck for nearly two hours.  He stopped once after about 45 minutes and I thought he was done with the escort and ready to wave me on but no, he had only caught a stick onto his hood and stopped to dislodge it.  We quickly took off again. Finally, after about an hour and half he stopped again behind another car loaded with children.  The gentleman in the first car with the children got out and the two met as I got out and walked forward to meet them.  My escort introduced the other man as his brother in law and said that they would continue on to San Miguel another hour or so and could direct me to a hotel there if I wished to continue following. I said yes, of course I would however I probably needed to get gas as I was down to about a quarter of a tank.  The said no problem, I should return to the gas station that we had just passed and they would gladly wait for me. 

I quickly drove off and filled my tank and returned and we set off for the final leg of the trip to San Miguel.  I reflected on my good fortune to have gotten such a gracious personal escort  across almost the entire country of El Salvador.  The only detriment was that we had traveled so much of the country by night that I did not get to see as much of the land as I would have liked. But on this trip survival and progress must come first.

We arrived in San Miquel at the hotel as they had promised. It was an attractive little hotel about a half a block off one of the main streets in town. The proprietor was cousin of my new friend and they had apparently called ahead as the proprietor walked and met us as soon as we pulled up.  He advised me that the cost of the room was $25 and I was embarrassed to tell him that   I had not gotten any cash yet in El Salvador and would need to locate an ATM.  We went round and round about the best way to address my situation, whether to allow me to stay and get cash in the morning to get cash first before checking in. The proprietor  opted to get cash first and volunteered to ride with me to show me the location of an ATM.  

The first location that we tried was not in my financial network and so it was no good.  We turned around and headed off in the opposite direction and soon arrived at a Scotiabank where I was able to get money.  We returned to the hotel and i paid my room fee with an extra $5 for the assistance with locating the ATM.

My escort in getting to San Miguel was Wilson Penado, a truck driver there in El Salvador.  I never did figure out how it was that a truck driver would have such good English language skills. His brother in law was Edwardo and he actually lived in New York on Long Island and was there visiting his family for the holidays.  They had all gone to the large water park in San Salvador for the day.

The hotel was nice and had wireless internet.  Other than lacking hot water it met all of my needs.  Having access to wireless internet from my room was  a luxury.  I woke shortly before five and was able to catch up on my mapping but most importantly, I had the time to investigate internet phone service possibilities. I went to the Magic Jack site and it did appear that my Majic Jack device would work for phone calls.  I looked at the phone there in the room and saw that it had the correct type of jack so i got setup and started making calls. 

First I called my mom and gave her the latest updates and the chance to hear my voice and know that I was doing ok. I don’t think she had yet seen the post about my tour as a security guard at Glacie’s hotel. I don’t think she will be very pleased about that but at least I was able to phone the next day after that and so she knows that I am safe and have left that spot.

As soon as I could I began trying to reach my kids.  I am dying to connect with them so that they can hear my voice and talk with me. I am very concerned about becoming disconnect from them. I haven’t talked with them since Christmas Day. Its been way too long.  Unfortunately I could not reach them so I had to resort to leaving them a long voice mail. I hope they got it. I will try again as soon as possible to reach them.

I packed up and headed out from San Miguel about 9 am and arrived at the Honduras border by 10:30. I had not realized until I was routing my trip before leaving Guatemala that I would still be entering Honduras. The only way into Niagara is through Honduras.  If I had realized that before I may have gone a more easternly route and skipped El Salvador altogether but I am glad I didn’t as I would not have met Glacie and had the pleasure of two days stay with her at her hotel.  The only negative about El Salvador was the excruciating search of my car in the heat of the day.

El Salvadore and Honduras are separated by Rio Goascoran,

Crossing into Honduras was difficult.  I did not depart until  after 2 pm so the crossing took almost 4 hours.  The first problem was that I arrived at the border sooner than expected and once again did not have cash.  I went ahead and exited El Salvador  hoping that I could use my debit card to payment of the fees for crossing into Honduras.  I drove the 4 or 5 kilometers from the El Salvador crossing to the Honduras entry point and of course found that I had to have cash.  The one good thing I can say about Mexico is that I was able to pay almost everything with my card.  All of the toll roads fees were able to be paid with credit card as were all of the border fees.  However this far south that is no longer the case.

So, now I was in a sort of man without a country situation. I had exited Honduras meaning that my visa and car permits had been cancelled, yet I could not enter El Salvador due to lack of cash. So I turned around and headed back the Honduras border to see what could be done.  In actuality, the first time back the fix was pretty simple.  The border crossing officer advised me that there was an ATM in Santa Clarita and agreed to just hold my passport while I traveled back to get cash.  Of course I had no idea where Santa Clarita was but I headed off, assuming I could find it. There was an Esso station just a few kilometers down the road and there was an ATM, it was restricted to national bank services only, no international bank services available.  So I figured this  was not Santa Clarita and I continued on down the road a little further.  I made my way further away from the border into the next town and stopped again. 

The girl at the next stop gestured to me that they did not have an ATM and when I asked where Santa Clara was she pointed back toward the direction from which I  had come.  Ok I thought, maybe I missed a turn that would take me to Santa Clarita and allow me to get cash and get back on my way.  So I turned back, passed the Esso station with the domestic only ATM and ended up back at the Honduras border.  The border control office was clearly angry and he would not allow me to go back in again.  I was told that I would have to park the car and get a taxi.  So I did.  There was a roadside vendor there near the crossing and he agreed to take me into the town where there was a Scotiabank where I could make a transaction.  So off we went. The $10 I paid for the taxi was well deserved as  I would have never found the bank on my own.  I was very worried about having left my car but I had no choice.  We located the ATM and I got about $50 and off we went. I got back to my car and all was well and once again I headed off to the border crossing into Honduras.

The Honduran border was chaotic.  There were “helpers” everywhere and they constantly hounded you to give them your papers and they would get you through the border.  I never relinquish my documents but I did follow one of the helpers around trying to find the correct window to obtain what I needed.  I got my visa entry without too much trouble but then one of the helpers showed me a form stating that my car permit would cost $150. I balked and walked away and outside I found a very knowledgeable fellow from Canada who now lives in Panama and has family in El Salvador.  He travels central America continuously and suggested that I wait there with him and a couple of others and speak to the administrator about my permit.  So I did.  I got well acquainted with Hector and have his number in Panama where I think he could be a big help to me if I in fact end up going there instead of Costa Rica. He said that finding work should be easy and that there is a large American community there.

After an hour of so of waiting the Honduran administrator arrived. She was a cute young girl who laughed a lot and was very easy going. Hector explained why I had a transit permit from El Salvador and what I was carrying. He had to leave but he assured me that she was going to take care of me. She got on her computer and motioned me over and brought up  Google translator and we were able to communicate what needed to be communicated with the help of Google.  The process still took about another hour but I got  through it.  The cost was only about $30.