El Salvador

The border crossing to El Salvador went reasonably smoothly, for the people all crossings are reasonably smooth provided the paperwork and passports are in order. The car is always a bit different, but it has been customs and permits in all countries together with insurance in some of them on entry. The only new item to enter El Salvador was an application using the internet on the phone. This took some considerable time, and in the end the registration didn't get to the central register and the process was done by the agent the old-fashioned way. Fun with technology...

Our first stop was Santa Ana. This is a big city, but as we arrived late on a Sunday afternoon nothing much was open. It was a joy to go to the central park and see the locals being out listening to a live band and dancing. It is not that long ago that criminality in El Salvador was so high that ordinary people didn't go out. The locals told us that now they can do what they want when they want within normal society rules.

Next we drove towards Costa Azul, a place a local woman recommended when we met her at the hotel in Antigua. It turned out that it is not always good to listen to locals! There was nothing to find and the beach was rather average. We ended up staying in Acajutla, a few kilometers south. The beach was ok, but there was strong rips making it dangerous to swim.

On route from Santa Ana to Playa Azul we went to Cerro Verde, a beautiful area of the mountain with several volcanoes on view. Below are photos of 1) how it looks 364 days of the year, and 2) how it looked the day we were there. We bought some local coffee beans and had a very nice cappuccino.

Leaving Acajutla, we set out to go to San Salvador. We went the coastal route which took us to the good beaches. The one we liked the most was Mizata, and had we known about that one we would have gone there right from the start. But we have seen more this way!

There was a great look-out at Parque Balboa Los Planes de Renderos where we saw San Salvador in the valley not far from actually entering the city. Then there was Abbi Pupuseria. We ate some of the favorite El Salvadorean food, the pupusa. This is everyone's favourite, the only conversation is about whether they prefer them made from corn or rice.

Arriving in San Salvador was fine, the roads are good. There is a lot of construction work going on and way too many cars, but it feels very safe.