Crossing the border into El Salvador

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We had a few options for crossing into El Salvador from Guatemala but most involved returning to Antigua and were subsequently more expensive. The cheap option was to do what the locals do and take a lancha through the Mangroves to Avellana. We opted for this, it was cheaper and somewhat more comfortable than the tourist shuttle we could have taken from Antigua.



At Avellana we were met by a local bus which took us halfway to Taxisco where we changed buses, we eventually arrived at the border after about two hours or so of travelling. The boat journey was fine and quite picturesque although at that time of the day there was little shelter from the sun. The buses on the other hand were quite another story.



The local buses throughout Central America are affectionately known as ‘chicken buses’ by the travelling community. Most of them are de-commissioned US school buses but I actually think they’re more spacious and comfortable than the tourist shuttles and an absolute bargain compared to what us gringos are charged. The only benefit of the tourist shuttle, if you can call it that, is that you get to travel with other gringos. I quite like the locals, I also like saving money and I don’t mind chickens either so it’s local buses for me from here on. That’s not to say that the ‘chicken buses’ don’t come with their own little quirks. They can get hot; a little overcrowded and are certainly bumpy. They’re noisy too; most come complete with their own sound system and poor taste in 90’s euro pop, I haven’t seen a chicken on one yet though.



We took two buses to get to the border which took little over two hours. A moment’s walk from where the bus dropped us off was the Guatemalan border guard, our exit visas were stamped quickly and without fuss. All good we thought until we had walk half a mile across the border between hundreds of haulage trucks that were stood still waiting for the all clear to cross. Some of the drivers had even taken the initiative and hung hammocks under their trailers to get some sleep and shade. It was getting close to noon by now and it was very very hot, carrying our rucksacks down a dusty track for 25 minutes in 30 degrees was not much fun. We did eventually get to the El Salvadorian side and entered the country with no problems.



From the Salvadorian side we took two more buses to the small mountain town of Juayau (why-you-wa). Juayau is a nice little hamlet where little happens except for at the weekend when the food festival comes to town. You guessed it, this was Helen’s preference. She does love food does our Helen! Although not quite the gastronomic extravaganza we were expecting it was still pretty good and fairly good value. A five dollar plate of food was more than sufficient for us to share. On the Saturday we went for a chicken and prawn mixed grill and on the Sunday we had kebabs which were both delicious.



As I said Juayau is quite a sleepy place but we still managed to fill three days there. We visited the waterfalls where the locals have built pools to swim in, watched a local 3^rd division derby at the football ground and visited the reptile ‘zoo’ where Helen was accosted by a chameleon. All in all a pretty good introduction to El Salvador.

Next stop is the not so sleepy capital, San Salvador.

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Photos

Feria gastronomica
They also sold whole cooked frogs but we stuck with the prawns and chicken.