El Cuco to La Union. 38 mile

The drive was easy to La Union and this will be our final stop before the Honduran border. La Union is a port town that is at once bustling but still retains a small town atmosphere. As we ate dinner tonight, Tom and I reflect on the fact that we had almost skipped this remarkable country. If we had listened to those we had met before us, we would never have come here. But, the reality is that in the time we have been here, we have not felt threatened nor scared nor seen anything that would make us feel unsafe. Instead, we have been greeted by everyone with smiles and courtesy and such expressions of pleasure that we are well.. smitten. I personally like the smallness of the country. The beaches are truly phenomonal but at the same time, San Salvador or San Migual (the second largest city) are within driving distance if you want theatre, ballet or just a night on the town. The waves (for surfing or boogie boarding) are considered some of the best in the world, so Tom is enraptured. We know we have a long way still to go but we both agree that we would purchase property here. El Salvador did manage to sneak into our hearts. And to think we almost didn't come. What a pity that would have been. Tomorrow we will tackle the Honduran border. It is considered to be the most difficult and corrupt. We will see. But.. if things go bad we can always return to El Salvador!

Costa Del Sol to El Cuco. 95 mile

We leave Tesoro Beach with just a little regret. It is beautiful but the next stretch of beach beckons. We are heading to the southern end of El Salvador to a string of remote beaches and we have chosen Playa El Cuco. El Espino beach is the most popular here and had been written about in some guidebooks but we have decided to strike out on our own. Luck was with us. We got to Playa El Cuco with no difficulties and on arriving in town started to look for prospective places to park the RV. There were plenty but suddenly an older gemtleman approached us. "The gringo lives down the beach" he tells us. Huh! "The gringo" he said. "Just drive down this road and go to La Tortuga, that's where the gringo lives". Not knowing what else to do we follow his directions and arrive at La Tortuga Verde. There is a narrow entrance, not tall enough for the RV to pass under, so we park. I get out and go inside the gates. Hmmm! "El gringo", I say to the first person I encounter. He looks at me. Emboldened I say louder "El Gringo esta aqui?" (Is the Gringo here?) He smiles. Yes, wait. All of a sudden, this man appears, a New Yorker ( deja vu, hadn't we just met people from New York? Was there some thing I had missed about the relationship between New York and here?) but I had no further time to reflect as I was embraced in a handshake and hug combined. "What in the world brings you here?" he said. I was laughing as I retorted "And what brings you all the way here". I walk him to the motorhome as I tell him about our journey and intent. He is amazed. Shakes Tom's hand, pets Winston and indeed does reflect that we can cannot stay at La Tortuga because we don't fit under the entrance. "No matter", he said "I own most of the property on the beach, so go further down and there are two spots which you will definitely be able to stay. I will come down later to check on you but be sure to tell them Tom said it's ok". We drive about a half mile further to the end of the road, more of Tom's property. Again we won't fit. They volunteer to chop down a tree so we can pass. "It's ok, we will try the other place". We head back down the road and with a little help from a pole to lift the sign up, we were able to slide in the RV. We are in a grassy area, next to the swimming pool and very close to the ocean. There is a power hookup and we are set. Later that afternoon, Tom and his girlfriend come visit and we become more aquainted. Tom is from Manhattan, a real estate person there, who liquidated some assets and bought property in El Salvador. He now owns more oceanfront property in this area than anyone else. An old surfer, he and Tom have a lot in common. I had talked to the caretakers of the propety and arranged for us to have a fresh fish dinner. Whole barbequed fish with rice and salad. Perfect. New York Tom points out land which seems just across the sea, more like an island. "That's Nicaragua," he says. Wow! As the sun sets and we part company we agree to meet the next day. Tom and I have already agreed we will stay here at least 2 more days. I need to get laundry done and this place is great. I negotiate with the caretakers, Olga and her husband Juan to get our laundry taken care of. Dinner will be served at 5:30pm, fresh fish again and the day is our own. We run Winston on the beach. Tom (the owner) comes to eat lunch and we hang out and chat. How he came to be here. He's a surfer and had been to Mexico, then Guatemala and eventually 5 yrs ago to El Salvador. Had lost his heart to the coastline and surfing here and had come back and bought land and then more land and well, the rest was history. He asks Tom if he'd like to boogie board. Duh! 7am he will pick us up. The next day, Tom took us up the coast a mile or so to a famous surf break. The morning is gorgeous and Winston is having fun too. Tom takes to the waves and they stay out for the next couple of hours, whilst I have a one on one, personal tutor Spanish time with Tom's girlfriend. The rest of the day is spent lazing, swimming in the pool and reading. Olga again brings us dinner at 5:30pm, - I could get used to this! But, tomorrow is a road day to get us closer to the border. We are going to leave El Cuco with regrets. This is one place that Tom & I agree that we would like to look at property to purchase.

San Blas to Costa del Sol. 98 miles

After saying goodbye to our guard and Bianca, we set off for the middle section of coast and supposedly one of the most pretty. This should have been a short 1 and a half hour drive but we are learning. We stop at La Libertad, a large port to shop. There is a very nice supermarket here, full of fresh produce, items we need and clean. As Tom packs away the groceries, I give Winston a quick walk and we tell him today is a short trip. Ha!! Once again God is tracking us and laughing. About 20 minutes out of La Libertad there is a detour. No problem. We ask the guard if our RV can handle the side streets. No problem. We follow a bus with no problems until... a rushing river! Uh oh, huge problem. Part of the bridge has collapsed and there is no temporary or repair in progress. We look at each other. There is absolutely no way we can get through. Not only is the river flowing quite deep and rapidly but there is no exit point on the other side. Some of the village poeple urge us to try it - I think they are bored for entertainment! and the others are telling us it is not possible. Tom and I agree. We back out and head back through the village. Now what? We find a place to park and check our maps. The only other road down the coast is to go north through San Salvador. Again, something we don't want. A trip through a capital which has no circle route, so all driving has to go through the city centre. Tom groans. I tell him it may not be too bad, while in my heart of hearts I know I am not telling the truth. Well, suffice to say we survived it. It wasn't pretty but we manouvered our way through the city center and somehow managed to get on the right road for the beaches. Again, the quality of the roads are far superior to Mexico and Guatemala and less pothole avoidance does help the shattered nerves. After that it was clean sailing to the Costa del Sol. After a 70 mile, 3 hour detour we arrive. The Costa Del Sol is actually a peninsula. You drive in and out on the same road and we had decided to drive to the end, turn around and head back after scouting out places to stay. Our first stop was a Comfort Inn which is closed Monday through Wednesday but the vigilante guard and his wife assured us there was no problem and we could park for the night. We had the hotel grounds to ourselves. Gorgeous, sparkling pool, great beach and Winston was happy. And we were able to hook into power. The next day (Thursday) we drove a little further and stopped at the Tesoro Beach Hotel. If we had known about the place, we would have stayed here the night before. The Tesero is a Spanish ranch style hotel which is gorgeous, with beautiful grounds. We were allowed to park next to the pool, plug into power and... because this is the off season, had the place to ourselves. Winston roamed, Tom played in the ocean and I lazed by the pool. We eat in the restaurant that night under stars and it is remarkable. We reflect on the complete beauty of the place and are utterly sated by the food, the view and the fact...that we really do have it all to ourselves!

Guatemala to El Salvador, La Hachadura

Tuesday morning. Wake up, walk Winston and chat with the gas station attendants. We have breakfast at a restaurant next door and pack up. We have decided to try to cross at La Hachadura. If the bridge is really impassable then we will turn around and go to Las Chinamas. Well, the bridge was definitely down and several makeshift piers and planks had been set up to cross the river. We watched. We waited. We chatted. The locals, the police, even the bus drivers agreed... we could make it! Okay. We head down into the bank of the river. Ahead are 4 "bridges". These are temporary piers made from tree trunks with planks on top. All very shaky, all very narrow and no railings. I say a prayer and Tom forges ahead. All I can see is the river below us. Oh well, at least it's not too far of a fall if the worst happens. I unbuckle my seatbelt, just in case. My side, my side, I keep muttering to Tom. Meaning that we are awfully close to going off the planks on my side. "Hey, what about my side" he says. "Just concentrate". As we head over the rickety makeshift bridge, I wish we had a camera handy. There is no way this would be allowed in the States. Liability comes to mind but with the river rushing beneath us, a truck ahead of us and a bus behind, there is no turning back. Finally we cross the last bridge and climb up the far embankment. Tom glances over and notices that my seatbelt is undone. "What, you think if we went over, you could jump?" We start to laugh. Partly at the the insanity of it and partly because...we made it! We are 30 mile from the border. I start checking and re-checking our file. All is in order. We arrive at the Guatemala departure and are again inundated by the tramitadores. We tell them we need no help. Tom and I have agreed on this. We have many borders to cross and we need to get used to it. The officials, the questions and the paperwork. It really is not so bad. Just go slow and be patient. At the checkpoint we go first to the temporary auto window to have the vehicle stamped for exit. Then to immigration for our passports and finally to Quarantine to get Winston stamped out. Change our Quetzales for U. S. dollars (El Salvador uses dollars as it's national currency) and onto the El Salvador side. Thoughts of bribes, shakedowns and bureaucracy cross my mind. Everywhere there are signs in English and Spanish that there are no fees expected and none were requested. We went to immigration and had our passports checked but because of the CA4 not stamped. Whilst Tom started the temporary Vehicle Importation Permit, I went to Quarantine to deal with Winston's paperwork. I was through in less than 5 minutes,the vehicle permit took longer. The customs agent checked the RV, but did not go inside. We had exited Guatemala and entered into El Salvador in less than 2 hours. We high fived one another and beaming with calls of goodwill from all sides and directions from customs as to our route we took to the streets of El Salvador. Gangs, drugpushers, militia, police bribes... what would the roads be like? Well, for one thing, they are better maintained than Guatemala. Less potholes. And all those other scary mindtraps, that first day all we ran into were people waving at us and smiling. We relaxed. Our first stop was going to be a string of beaches north of La Libertad, a large port. We turned off the main CA2 onto the playa road and followed it around. We found one area for parqueo and the restaurant owner said we could park but kept changing the price on us. We decided to go to the end of the playa and if there was nothing else, we would come back. As we were driving along, we came to a beautiful hotel resort called Sabas. We stop and talk to the armed guard, who in turn brings the general manager. La Senora Bianca told us we could park by the street, the guard would watch out for us and that for drinks and/or a meal (if we wanted) we could you use their sparkling, refreshing pool. I needed no further encouragement. We parked and readied the RV, changed into swimming gear, grabbed Winston and headed through the hotel to the pool and the beach. Fantastic. We walked Winston on the beach and tested the ocean. Warm and with the kind of waves Tom likes. He gets his boogie board and Winston and I head to the pool area. There is a couple with a young child and older lady already at the pool. I listen for a second. They are American, well almost. They are from New York and on a 2 week vacation. He is from El Salvador and the older lady is his mother. We talk for quite a while. He tells me that like anywhere, be alert, be watchful but have fun. I sip my beer, play with Winston and watch Tom in the waves. The sun is setting. I am definitely having fun.