last day and entry

Until the next roadtrip, Ciao for now.

Panama City day 2

Panama City with open arms

Panama City

Do you know the way from San Jose????

We left San Jose or at least tried to leave San Jose before the morning rush. We didn't succeed. We left at 7am to retrieve the car from a place down the street where we had parked in an underground garage. The ramp in and out of the garage is very steep and the parking is very tight. There is only room for 3 cars and maybe a bicycle or two. The people that owned the house picked up all their laundry of the lines in the basement so I could turn the car around. After about 10-15 pull up then back up we were facing the ramp and ready to give the old transmission the biggest test of the trip. Max stood out on the street to stop traffic and I got a run of a full 2 feet at the ramp and made it out on the second try. Once out of the garage we were in heavy traffic. We just started to follow the flow of traffic since we didn't really know which way to head. We knew the way we came in and headed in that direction looking for signs for Cartaga (sp?) which was the general direction we wanted. After about an hour we asked a guy stuck in traffic with us which way to Cartaga? He motioned that we had to turn left at the light we were at. We raced ahead of most of the people in line to get over into the left lane to flip a U-turn and head up the street he pointed out. It wasn't too difficult since they had a returno just a block of two down the street. The best way to find your way somewhere is to follow the flow of traffic in the general direction you are headed. We did this and used a little roshambo and we were finally on our way out of the city.
Directional signs are few and far between so you need to devise other ways to make it to where you want to go. I know that most of you think we should just ask for directions and we do that but we need to ask 4-5 people until we hear the same direction and even then sometimes its of no help to us since they send us downtown or someplace we have already been.
The drive to the Costa Rica border is a beautiful drive through the mountains that surround San Jose. The road is step and twisty and only two lanes. We lucked out that Monday morning that we didn't see any large semi´s going our direction. The traffic was light and only a few small delivery type trucks that needed to be passed on the blind corners or hills. Hello parents, we normally follow the saying of ¨safety first¨ and we would never pass on a corner but we also have found that when driving in a foreign country to follow the other saying of ¨When in Rome¨.
We made it to the Costa Rica-Panama border just before noon. The border had the normal guys trying to help but we have learned to mostly ignore them and only use the free advice when they point to a new building for the next step. Checking into panama was more difficult then expected. They tried to get us to purchase our exit ticket for $25. After haggling with them and getting nowhere I mentioned that the $50 was all we had for gas for our car. This was the key statement, they then said we didn't need the exit card and needed to go over to a different window for the car permit. By this time we had a helper who was doing all the talking to the guys behind the counter. We have no idea what was said but we knew they were having issues with out car registration. We showed them that it has worked at every other country in Central America and then gave him the paperwork from El Salvador so that he had all the questions he needed in Spanish. Total cost for exiting Costa Rica and entering Panama was $11. $5 each for a Panama tourist visa and $1 for fumigation into Panama. Max also tipped the guy helping us $5 which is well worth it as long as they don't try to take us into the backrooms to get additional crap that you don't really need. Plus one additional benefit to this border is that Max was able to see a couple dogs knotting in front of him so it was like a live episode of Animal Planet.
It was now 1:30 and we were across our last border. It felt good knowing that we wouldn't have to go through the hassles again. The road leading away from the border station was a dream come through. It was 4 lanes of new concrete with 100 kph speed limit and little traffic. We were celebrating our perceived American influence and thinking that we were going to make really good time and may even make it close to the canal. Our hopes were dashed about 15 miles down the road.
The road turned back into a 2 lane piece of crap and we started looking at our map for the next big town that may have rooms. We found that David was not to far away and tried to reach that town to find lodging.
We drove into David around 4 pm and while it's a good sized town we were unable to find any lodging. The only signage said they had hotel near the airport but that was 20-30 km out of the way so we decided to push forward and check for lodging somewhere down the road. Many towns came and many towns passed and we couldn't find a room. It was starting to get dark and we were about to arrive in San Felix. We drove through San Felix which was a fair sized town but could not find a hotel. We drove back to the highway to check on an establishment that we saw when we first turned off the hwy.
Once back to the highway we noticed some signs for hotels towards the beach of Las Lajas so we went down that road.
The road was mostly paved but we had to sit upright to look for pot holes and other hazards. The lights on the car are not very bright and it´s so dark that we could barley see. We arrived in the town of Las Lajas which was about 10 km off the hwy. There were no rooms in town so we headed to the beach which was another 10 km. Once near the beach we saw a sign for rooms. We pulled in and they had rooms for $10 each. We took them since it was now almost 9 pm and we were tired. We had two separate rooms that each had a fan for cooling. I don't remember the name of the place but it's the first place when you arrive and the sign said something about an Italian restaurant and something about a happy hour between 4 and 7pm where you get 3 beers for $1.25. With this writing on the sign you would think it's a pretty nice place and that English is spoken since happy hour was legible to us. The place is very sparse. They have a large round thatch carport that serves as the bar, reception desk, and restaurant. The rooms were inside a raised module that had 4 rooms 30 feet behind the restaurant. The bathroom and shower were next to the restaurant so it was only about 30 feet away. After checking in we went to the restaurant and had dinner and a 2 beers each. The cost was $8. I thought it was low and when doing the math I realized I had only payed $.50 for each beer or he forgot that we had 2 each. Either way we liked it and headed to the beach.
We couldn't see squat. We just followed the noise of water and saw another restaurant with its lights on so we went over there and had another beer and they cost $1 each. We walked out in front of the restaurant which was right on the beach. It was total darkness that can only be compared to the Amazon. We saw shooting stars and the Milky Way and were unable to see the North Star or the moon. It was amazing. The only light came from the restaurant. We then headed back to our place for a night cap beer for only $.50 and off to bed. It was hot and we were hoping the fans would keep us cool enough and the ants that were crawling all over the beds didn't bite too hard.
 

Going to Costa Rica

Honduras to Nicaragua.

We woke up early and hit the road by 9am to head for the Honduras-Nicaragua border. We wanted to get an early start to try to cross the border before too many people showed up to get past Managua so that we would not have to spend the night in the large city. Our goal was to make it south of Managua to San Juan del Rio which is a beach town near the Costa Rica border. We had 500 Lempiras to get rid of before we crossed the border so were planned to top off our gas tank and pick up some water. We were about 30 kms from the border when fate stepped in and took care of our excess limpiras.
We were stopped by a Honduran police/military road block. We handed over our paperwork for the car and our passports which is pretty standard at these road blocks. But, the officer motioned us further off the road. When going through our car permit he had noticed that our entry date was correct of the 16th was correct but our exit date of the 13th could not be possible. He then said with a smile that he was going to have to seize our car because of this mistake. Max and I were trying to talk our way out of the problem with our dictionary in hand. We tried to tell him that the officials at the border had filled this out but it didn't make any difference to him. The officer was not buying any of it or at least didn't care. He then told us that he wanted to help us out and that he could help us for a small reward of $20 USD. I had 400 Limpiras in my pocket so we said si, si, si, and got back into the car. Once inside the car I gave Max the 400 that he set on the driver side door arm rest and the officer reached down and picked it up and told us we could leave. As we pulled away I took a pen to the car permit and turned the 13th into the 18th in case we got stopped again before the border.
You need to remember something that while all of this sounds pretty easy it's not. We don't speak enough Spanish and they don't speak any English. Our conversation occurred on paper, with hand signs and with us looking words up in the dictionary to find out what he was saying and then when responding we look up words in the dictionary to create our phrases.
After this we arrived at the southern border town of Guasalle around 10:00 am and were chased by 40 people yelling Mister and Spanish words that we dont understand. We understand enough to know what they wanted. We continued to drive on telling them we didn't want their help with crossing the border.
We found the immigration building and went up to the window to have our passports stamped to leave Honduras and the very next window was where we had our passports stamped to enter Nicaragua. We then had to drive to the next building for our car permit. After standing in a few different lines asking where to head I found the turista window in the back of the building near the loading docks where the truckers have to stop. The guy behind the window took our paperwork and proceeded to type up our new car permit for Nicaragua. He started to ask many questions in Spanish about the car and we pulled out our El Salvador car permit which had all of the questions in Spanish so he was able to copy the info he needed. Total cost to cross into Nicaragua was $20 for our entry/tourist visa´s. $6 to get out of Honduras and $14 to get into Nicaragua. The car didn't cost anything for the permit. But we made sure to double check all the paperwork for the entry and exit dates. This was also our quickest border crossing at only about 45 minutes.
*** Tip*** Make a note here to save your paperwork it came in handy since El Salvador asked the most questions about the car. Everything from engine displacement to weight to condition of the car, etc... and we were able to hand the information over and he took what was needed***
The roads in Nicaragua are terrible. CA-2 is the major highway through Nicaragua, and for the most part was in good condition. The roads from Guasalle to CA-2 in Managua were just awful. I imagine if we had taken the northern route out of Honduras, we would have seen better roads on the major highway, but it was a lot farther around, so who knows if we saved time or not going the southern route.
There are some major potholes in Nicaragua. I mean big. Sometimes even the potholes had potholes. There were sections of the road where it went from pavement to gravel roads and back to pavement. At times we were limping along at 10mph, trying not to shake the car into pieces. I lost our second hubcap on one of these large potholes. At least the front two wheels match now. Once we got onto CA-2 in Managua the road conditions improved quite a bit, but anything off this main highway was just terrible. We passed Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua was very impressive. Its as large as some of the Great Lakes, and in the middle there is a big island with two big volcanoes. You can take a ferry out to the island and there is a road that goes around it. We met a couple from California who said they have been coming to Nicaragua for years and the tour of the island was the best thing they have done here. Unfortunately we didn´t have an extra day for that, so we just checked into a hotel at San Juan del Sur and walked around the town looking for dinner.
San Juan del Sur is a small beach town. To our surprise it has been "discovered". There were a lot of gringos all over town. I believe quite a lot of them live there and run some of the local bars and restaurants. There were a lot of fishing boats moored in the little bay, but we had trouble finding a fish dinner, because of all the places catering to Americans. So we just ate pizza. It was good though.
There are a lot of little beaches around San Juan del Sur. I would liked to have spent more time there to explore some of them, and see the good surf spots, etc. I did try the water however and it was cold. I don´t know if the current changes or what, but the water in San Juan was much colder than the water in southern Mexico.
Later that night we went to Ricardos Bar and had a few beers. This place seems to get pretty busy with vacationers. There was another bar that I think was called Casa Rita which also seemed to get pretty busy. They played some dance music, so of course we heard "Gasolina" again.
 

On to Honduras

Guatamala to El Salvador

We left Escuintla early. On the road to El Salvador we hit a dead animal and felt his head bump along our butts. We didn´t hit him when he was alive, but we made sure he was dead. After that we hit a big rock and our hub cap went rolling off. At one point we tried to turn around, but high centered on the shoulder and the engine started to smoke. We thought we were SOL, and popped the hood. To our relief, it was only power steering fluid that had spilt onto the hot engine. So how would power steering fluid get onto the engine? Fairly easily, if the cap is not on. While topping off fluids that morning, the power steering cap was not put back on. Thankfully the cap was still under the hood, so we just put it back and were on our way.
We went to Monterrico looking for a beach, but only found a small fishing village. So we got back on the road to El Salvador.

El Salvador - Guatemala Border Crossing
Entering Guatemala, the border officials had made a mistake in copying our license plate and reversed a couple letters. This gave us a little difficulty in getting out of Guatemala at the El Salvador border. We had to spend some time to talk to the officials, make some extra copies, and get some extra stamps. There was no charge other than the extra copies.
Crossing into El Salvador, we ran into the same horde of people trying to help us cross the border. Fortunately there weren´t as many of them as the Mexico - Guatemala border. Fortunately we met a 12 year old kid named Alex who spoke English. He had been born in the US. He directed us where to go to get all the proper papers filled out and signed. Another kid watched our car while all this was going on.
Officially there isn´t any charge to enter El Salvador, but the guy at immigration who stamped our passports wanted $20 which he quickly put into his pocket. El Salvador uses the US dollar as currency. This can be convenient for Americans. We tried to find some souvenir colones, the former currency, but no one had any.
I tipped the two kids $2 each for their help. Alex asked if we would need help at the Honduran border. We then asked, "You want to come with us to Honduras?" And he said he could go. While a translator would be nice for the trip, there is no way we were going to be transporting a 12 year old kid across any borders.
We were short on cash, so set out to find an ATM at the next major city in El Salvador. We wound up in Zacatecaluca. After trying 3 different banks, there were no ATMs that would work with our American cards. We went on to the next town, Usulatan. The first three ATMs there also didn´t work for us, but then we found a ScotiaBank which did have an ATM that worked with foreign cards. Apparently the local Salvadoran banks are not hooked up to the system that we would need to get cash out with an American card.
Now with cash in hand, we decided to stay in San Miguel. We arrived just before nightfall, and found the Tropico Inn, which was pretty nice and seems to be where all the Americans stay. We got the recommendation from someone at the border who spoke english. The room was $57 which included a buffet breakfast.
We grabbed a bite to eat and made some calls home. We then went out for some dinner. After dinner we hopped in a cab and asked to be taken to a Cantina. The cabbie dropped us off at a real dive. There were 6 locals in a little bar. The place was dead. We promptly ordered two beers, and I put a dollar in the jukebox. I asked one of the guys there to pick some musica español. We were the life of the party for an hour or so, and had a great time trying to carry on a conversation with the locals.
 

Banditos at the border

Guatemalan Border Crossing

The Mexican - Guatemala border is ridiculous. First of all make sure you cross at Talisman, not Hildalgo on the CA-2 route.
At Talisman there are 40 Mexicans chasing you around asking for a propina (money) to help cross the border. They are yelling and screaming at you so you´ll pick them, which makes it tough to actually talk to the real officials.
We unfortunately hooked up with one helper who didn´t speak english. He charged us 100 pesos to run around with the paperwork. He took us to one building where they wanted $250 USD for car permits to enter Guatemala. They told us it was expensive because it would work all the way to Panama. I don´t know if this is a scam or not, but it seems likely, since we only paid 20 quetzales (Guat. money, about $2.50) for fumigation and 41 ($5) quetzales for the auto permit sticker. The border helper continued to annoy us throughout the whole process, and demanded the 100 pesos even though he tried to screw us with the allegedly fake auto permits.
In all it took us about 3 hours to cross the border.
Once in Guatemala we drove on to Escuintla. The roads were decent, but the traffic near the border was heavy, and Guatemalans drive like shit.
We made Escuintla shortly after nightfall, breaking our rule of not driving at night again, hopefully for the last time. Every business in town has bars on the windows and armed security guards. We saw a lot of shotguns. The 18 wheeler trucks have a driver and a armed guard riding shotgun, literally.
We had trouble finding a hotel in Escuintla. It is a very large poor town and there isn´t much for accomodations. We finally found what was supposedly the nicest hotel in Escuintla (think Motel 6) but they had no vacancy, so we stayed next door at a much older hotel. They had secure parking which was all we cared about. We paid only 180 quetzales ( a little more than $20) for the night. The room smelled like RAID, but we didn´t see any bugs, so it was fine for us.