The guide books say El Salvador is under rated and they are right. The people are friendly the scenery is new and interesting and the roads are great. Our first day was spent driving from the Guatemala airport to San Salvador. It was a long drive broken up only with a two or three hour stop in Sana Ana. The town has the typical square, the nice church and markets. I was taking a picture when a guy saw me and started giving me the peace sign. He came up to me and told me that he was from the area, but moved to LA 14 years ago. He was back to visit his family. He told us a lot about the local history and pointed us to a good restaurant. He also took us though the Church showing us some local treasures. We stayed there (too long) and so we had to drive in the dark to our place in San Salvador. Next day we got up early and drove west to the volcano area and a set of small towns with cobble stone streets, local markets, churches and squares. We did three different towns and then took a trek down to some waterfalls that were coming out of the side of the cliffs. We then turned our attention to heading south to the ocean to see the beach. Much to our surprise the area where we went is VERY undeveloped in terms of tourism. We were the only foreigners and there was no real beach. The town was a working fishing village with a few bars and a “hotel”. We each had a fish dinner with fries and a beer. The total bill was $14 including the standard10% service charge. (We gave them an additional big tip). All in all we were gone for 12 hours –from 7 to 7. We arrived back in San Salvador and ate a quick meal at Super 7—in the gas station. (We already had a fish meal at 3pm.)
On Thursday morning we left early for Honduras. The idea was that we would not backpedal to Guatemala and circle into Honduras to get to Copan, even though google maps indicated that was the fastest route by at least two hours. Our logic was that we would have to cross the border twice and each crossing would take at least two hours. Also, we wanted to stop in a small town called La Palma that had some nice wall painting. We got there about 10am and wandered around town, buying a few (inexpensive) paintings from the most famous local artist. We also talked to another El Salvadorian couple who were living in LA and Florida—they had been there for at least 10 years and they indicated they had papers so they were legal. (See the photos on La Palma below). It was then off to the border crossing and two hours of paperwork.
From Arizona to Panama Canal 