Sunday, July 30, 2006

Looking eye to eye into our fears

Friday, July 28th

The day started early. We are out of the room around 7AM but the car has been blocked around a tight corner of the parking lot. So after moving the car back and forth repeatedly without luck, the hotel receptionist wakes up the owner of the other car and he moves it clear. We are on our way!

Getting out of town we score a whole bunch of bread at a local bakery for under $1 US. We continue on and out of Pana and the next town of Solola. The climate gets cold but the road in great condition so we breeze through to Guatemala City. Then, we park the car in a lot near the Central Plaza. Here we see the old Presidential Palace which is now a museum. There happens to be a free guided tour of this palace which is awesome! The rooms give an impression of royalty and old glamour. Very pretty.

We then go to the Plaza and take pictures. Many people had told us that this City was not worth visiting for the crime and uglyness of it all. However, at least for me, it was a nice old capital with its own groth pains. We went around town looking for a restaurant and found some sort of Argentinan parrillada place (barbeque). Eating our meals was excellent! However, it upsets my stomach just a bit.

If we want to cross the border and make it into San Salvador before the night falls, we need to leave, NOW! So we go back and pick up Rosinante. The landscape changed to vast valleys full of humid air and tropical plants. So far in the trip we really have not felt extreme heat as we had expected but this gets close to it. The road also becomes worse and after a few more hours of uneventful driving we make it to the town of xx for the border crossing into El Salvador.

As all border towns in Latin America go, this place is a dump. Sorry guys.. really, you have to watch your back because its very sketchy. The exit from Guatemala was actually pretty simple but not quick. The guy there thought it was cool to talk about the travels through all countries that had stamped my passport in the past. Some of them he knew, others he did not. He DID recognized the name of MIT! Unless he was just trying to create a bond which would make me drop him 20Q for his `own personal pocket` fee. Some guy from the streets has been bugging us saying that he will help up through the process. We give him $1 and he goes away. We did not have to get an exit stamp from Guatemala.

Now on to El Salvador. The difference in the bureaucracy necessary to enter the country is evident. First, because imigration basically looks at our stamps and says ¨go ahead, you don´t need to do anything for the car or anything else¨. Now, this was too easy right?.. RIGHT!. So we stop the car and go to customs just to check things out. Honestly, these were the nicest customs people that we have encountered. Extremely helpful. It really was not their fault that we had to spend the next hour filling out forms, making photocopies, checking the car, etc.. Some of the forms were hillarious! ¨Car engine series number? Date of Manufacture?..¨ and even ¨What side is the wheel on?¨ I really wander how, who and for what purpose will they analyze this data? The great thing was that this border crossing only cost us $1.50. The single dollar went to the unemployed bum we talked about before and the extra $0.50 for photocopies.

Now we are in Salvadorean territory. This country has been bashed by travellers as well a books everywhere. They say the country is dangerous.. murders, gangs, drugs, theft.. you name it. So far we only have experienced wonderful landscapes so we´ll tell you in the next few days if they were right.

A friend in El Salvador, Emily, had provided hotel information for us. We drive towards this hotel. KFC, Subway, Quiznos on the right.. McDonalds, TGI Fridays and of course, Pollo Campero on the left! This place is really nice!!! We have all the modern conviniences that we have in any city of the US. Now, this is very, very different that what we were expecting. True, this is the Paseo Escalon, posh part of town but still.

The recommended hotel does not have enough beds for us but they suggest a place around the corner. We have success here and negotiate a rate of $59 per night for two double beds. The cool thing is that we have covered parking and free wireless to make skype calls.

Now it was dark. We barely made it in time into San Salvador. After showering we go to dinner at an Italian place that Alexey had scouted. This place sucks.. big time! Alexey stops eating his pasta after the first few spoonfuls and I do the same 3/4 of the way through my deep fried dounut flavored calzone. Better luck tomorrow..

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