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Published: February 22nd 2010
On Saturday, John and Johnette visited Carmen’s home - see our last blog - and met Carmen’s parents Valentine and Maria and several of their other children. They have 13. One of Carmen’s fellow students, Edwardo, met them and served as an interpreter for the day. John and Johnette had a pleasant visit and got an interesting glimpse into home life here in El Salvador. They took lots of pictures which they shared with us
As I mentioned in our previous blog, Hotel El Pacifico has an on site water park. It was very busy all weekend with families renting rooms for half and full days to entertain their extended families and children. We enjoyed lots of great people watching there and on the beach where hundreds of locals gathered to enjoy the sun, surf and seaside restaurants. The guy from Arkansas we mentioned in our previous blog returned with a rented bus and 40 relatives. We also visited with Raul from Dallas. After several years, he had retired as a Delta aircraft mechanic to open his own aircraft maintenance business. He told us that for him, by car, San Salvador is only a four day drive from Dallas.
We left our comfortable location at Hotel El Pacifico on Monday. We were there for a week and by the time we left we had become quite friendly with most of the staff. Several came by to say adios. The restaurant manager hugged me several times and conveyed that I had somehow become more than just an amiga (friend) to her. I am very flattered and hopeful that it will work out that we can stop there again on our way north.
Because we have different interests, the four of us agreed to split up for a few days. Ray and I wanted to head north to Honduras’s Caribbean coast whereas John and Johnette preferred to spend more time along the Pacific. Edwardo, John and Johnette’s interpreter, met us a few miles from our campground and lead us thru the city of San Salvador to where we could pick up CA-4 north and they could pick up CA-1 south.
The terrain north from San Salvador was mountainous but mostly scrubby somewhat like the canyons around Los Angeles that catch fire every year. Our border crossing into Honduras was interesting. First of all, we arrived at the El Salvador
exit at 1:00 p.m. We were told that the only person who could sign our exit document was at lunch. Come back in one hour. Apparently all we needed was a stamp and our papers were ready at 2:00 p.m.
We then proceeded to the Honduran immigration station where our personal immigration was handled very efficiently for $3.00 each but for some reason our vehicle documentation took an interminable amount of time even though we were the only immigrants going thru. Our vehicle permit cost 635 lempiras (about $35.00).
Ray was not allowed to exchange money at the on site bank. He was told that he must exchange his money with one of the vultures (money exchangers) on the street where naturally, he got less than the official exchange rate. What a racket!
Somehow, with all of this aggravation, we forgot about Furgie’s immigration until I opened the truck’s door in order to give her some ventilation. We were then directed to bring the gato (cat) back up the road to their animal inspection station. We were there for over an hour. It is impossible to explain the comically insane situation where four guys were pouring over
Furgie’s paperwork and double checking a manual and looking on a computer screen to insure that she was healthy enough to enter their country. Even though our USDA certificate stated that her rabies vaccination was current, we had to produce her original stamped rabies certificate. Then I was told that she needed another shot that was not listed on either form. At this point, I went ballistic shouting that our form proved that we had gone thru the U.S. Dept of Agriculture to ensure that we met all of each Central American country’s requirements and that furthermore there was no way that I would allow my purebred cat any contact with their filthy flee infested mutts and that we would turn right around and return to California without spending any money in their country. Like the gates of heaven or hell the gates to Honduras suddenly opened. For 500 lempiras ($25.00) Furgie could enter their country. Before we left the livestock inspection station, the guy who seemed to be the supervisor got out his digital camera and took several pictures of Furgie, presumably to show his family the pretty kitty who’d visited his office that day. Furgie dozed contentedly in
their air conditioned office all the time this was going on. Furgie has consistently been a hit with the local policia all along the roads. They call their co-workers over. We are usually asked her name and how much she cost.
This would be a good time to tell all of you contemplating bringing a pet to Central America, go to www.pettravel.com for their free info but don’t waste your money on their forms. All the info you’ll need is provided by the USDA web site. The only form you will need, APHIS Form 7001, can be obtained from a USDA certified veterinarian. Adventure Caravans, the only company that leads groups to Central America does not accept pets for this tour. We can understand that they may have very good reasons for this restriction because electrical power is not always available and their tours do include a few hotel stays but they told me their reason for not accepting pets is that they may be confiscated. Of course, we're not done yet but that seems unlikely.
All together, exiting El Salvador and entering Honduras took four hours. At immigration we met Lucas and Lucrecia from Belgium who are
touring the world in a mid size class C motor home. Lucas says that Jules Verne went around the world in 80 days. They will travel the world in 80 months. We followed them into a balneario (spa) where Lucas negotiated with the manager to accommodate us for just $10 U.S. per rig. We ordered dinner and the four of us enjoyed a fine chicken dinner for another $5 each.
Lucas speaks at least five European languages plus English. He described how they have managed to travel the U.S., the Middle East, Asia, and Africa and we can’t remember where else. Except in Latin America, English is the common language. They are headed to South America after they finish touring Central America. So far, India was Lucrecia's favorite country. We can’t remember if Lucas had one. Lucas confirmed what Josef, from Germany, whom we’d met at Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan had told us. Europeans are well liked around the world. Americans are not.
Apparently Honduras has recently embarked on an effort to build excellent roads but like California, they failed to fund repairs. We could drive for a few miles over excellent roads only to encounter crater size pot
holes. Certainly that kept Ray on his toes. Fortunately traffic was light and other drivers were used to weaving around the pot holes too. Topes are back. Unlike Mexico’s asphalt speed bumps, these are shiny steel bumps called tumulos imbedded in the asphalt. They are well marked. Other villages slow traffic by creating an obstacle course using orange construction cones.
After we got through the dense fog at the top of the mountain range, except for the occasional palm and banana trees, the view reminded us of the area around Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The weather was cool.
The people here seem to be lighter skinned than most Latin Americans, maybe it is because of the cooler weather people are not as inclined to be outside in summer clothes. Cowboy hats are popular with men. We see a lot of boys and men wearing a hodge podge of English language t-shirts that they would be unlikely to have unless these garments are collected and shipped to them by a church group or something. People are friendly and wave. Rural homes look much more comfortable than those we’ve seen in the other Central American countries. Instead of the preponderance of
shacks with tin roofs, most rural homes are brick, freshly painted stucco or well built sod.
We have not yet had an opportunity to spend much time in cities. The only city we’ve passed thru was San Pedro Sula. It is a beautiful modern city with many American businesses and all of the familiar American fast food restaurants except we didn’t see any Taco Bells. We thought we’d missed our turn and pulled into a gas station to ask directions. Another customer asked me in perfect English if we needed help. He told me that he had learned his English while serving in the U.S. Army. He had returned to Honduras after he retired. Our new amigo led us to where we were on a direct route out of town and waved goodbye.
Because it was nearly dark when we arrived at the coast we were stuck with staying in a fancy hotel because otherwise they would not allow us to park on their grounds and it was too dark to look for other cheap accommodations. We enjoyed the unlimited hot showers, American cable TV broadcast from Denver, and a nice buffet dinner. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much
sleep in their very soft beds because Furgie was restless in that big room and we were afraid her cries would be heard in the hallway. Her main complaint was that she wanted to drink out of the bathroom sink like she does at home but we were afraid to allow her to drink tap water as there was bottled water provided in the room. Even though this was a top notch hotel, a sign on the wall instructed guests not to flush used toilet paper.
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