San Miquel, El Salvador

We headed out early today to make sure we had enough time to make it through the border at El Salvador and officially start our two day blitzkrieg of pushing through three countries. It seems as we continue heading south, the border crossings keep getting longer and more confusing. The first challenge-Guatemala City. Without a decent map, and no signs whatsoever to help us navigate through it, we basically were left to just ‘feel’ our way through it. It was a game of eeny,meeny,miney, moe as we decided which way to go, and about 45 minutes later we were on a country road apparently skirting the outside of town, climbing over a steep mountain pass. Soon, we were spit out onto what appeared to be the pan-american highway and we were through it! One capital down, one to go!

The border crossing in El Salvador was hectic and required way too many ‘photocopies’ of everything. It seems like these folks want to seem ‘official’ but instead of the office making copies for you, you have to go find a copy machine in some dark alley. Seems like just a scheme to pump more money into the micro economy to me! One surprise was how nice the roads became as soon as we entered El Salvador. Wide roads, shoulders, signs. Deluxe!

We used the same tactic as before to get through San Salvador, and made it through without much trouble, mostly due to a little better signage.

As the day started winding down and the sun started to set, it was time to look for a place to stay. We pulled off the highway into the second biggest city in El Salvador, San Vincent. We drove around for a bit looking for a hotel that was mentioned in the guide book, but didn’t have any luck. We drove around for another twenty minutes, stopping and asking folks on the streets where we could find a hotel. From what we could gather, it didn’t sound like there was much in the town. Time for plan B.

We pushed further down the road towards San Miguel racing to get off the road before the sun dipped behind the large volcanoes in the area. As we were losing all of our light, we came across an ‘Auto Motel.’ We innocently pulled into the individual garage, curious why there wasn’t a front desk of any kind. As soon as we got the van pulled into the garage and walked into the room, we discovered our mistake. Everything in the room was a stark white. Picture a room from a horror movie. The buzzing fluorescent light revealed dirty walls and years of neglect. With just a small bed in the middle, a long mirror at bed height along one wall, and a toilet paper dispenser next to the bed, we realized what this was. We immediately scurried back to the van, wiped ourselves down with sanitizer, and promptly popped the top of the van to sleep in the garage.
In Central America these little places seem to be outside of the towns a ways, and can be rented by the hour. There isn’t any type of check in desk, instead you drive to the room, park in the attached garage, and they call you on the phone to ask how much time you want. I guess this allows one to be ‘discreet.’
As creeped out as we were, we were at least thankful that we had a secure place to park the van, and didn’t have to worry about anyone sneaking up on us! I’m sure the guy that came to clean the place the next day (if that happens) was pretty confused when nothing was disturbed in the room!