Costa Rica Driving Adventure Day 8: Mazatenango, Guatemala to San Salvador, El Salvador

It is hard to believe that I've been on the road for 8 days now. The time has flown by. I have found myself not really having any interest about what is going on in the U.S. I just don't care. Also, it feels weird using my Michigan address for everything and putting attorney as occupation on all of the official forms when I know I won't return to either. Mazatenango is REALLY a Guatemalan city. What I mean by that is it is not a tourist town. We didn't even see one tourist there at all. The people here are hard pressed to reach 5'5" and many are less than 5 foot tall. Notice how I look like a NBA player in this pic.

They are also super friendly. Anyway, we started out the day going to the market in Mazatenango, Guatemala.

On the way there, a lady was giving away free puppies.

I took quite a few pictures here because the scenery was pretty interesting. I bought a plate of fries for 60 cents and a bag of blackberries for 40 cents.

Dean was busy interviewing people for his documentary. He is a small time film maker. It was a bit difficult though as most Guatemalans don't speak English and Dean speaks limited Spanish. We left the market and drove the final 2 hours to the border. I was a bit concerned about another border crossing involving Guatemala after the experience yesterday. I swore not to get a helper. The process goes like this: Get permission to exit Guatemala for the vehicle, pets and yourself on the Guatemala side. Each is in a different, inconspicuous location. Against my better judgment, I got a helper. He was great!

The Guatemalan side was freaking slow. Seriously, how long does it take to stamp exit papers? We then crossed a bridge into El Salvador. The El Salvadorans run a tight ship at this border crossing.  It is very organized and not slow. It is also free. It was a big difference at this border crossing. It took a total of 1:40 to cross. I tried to exchange some dollars here for El Salvadoran currency but was told they were the same. Oops, stupid American. Several of the immigration workers were fascinated with the pugs.

One took a picture of Midas on his own camera and then took this one for me. This has been happening a lot to help us avoid scrutiny. We then drove 2 hours into San Salvador, El Salvador.

It took us quite awhile to find a hotel, because there really aren't any. After being turned down at 2 hotels for having dogs, I went into a 3rd one called "Good Luck Hotel".

The desk worker was an obvious gay person and acted kind of weird when I asked if dogs could stay there before he told me no. Later we noticed a gay bar very near the "Good Luck" and then we figured out that the Good Luck is a hook up joint for gays feeling frisky at the gay bar. Hence the name, "Good Luck". LOL Anyway, the 4th try was the charm and we got rooms at the Miramonte Hotel (Mountain view in English).

I have started carrying Gretel into the hotel when I ask about dogs as she is so small and not intimidating. It seems to be working and it has now worked 2 nights in a row on the first try. We went out to eat and get drinks at a place near the hotel. Things here are incredibly inexpensive. I would say close to 1/2 of U.S. prices. On the down side, it is a freaking war zone here.

There are large block walls with barbed wire on top everywhere. I have never seen so many people with shotguns and machine guns anywhere in my life. Even the security guards in convenience stores have automatic weapons.

Very few people are on the streets after dark. A guy at our hotel told us 10 people are murdered in San Salvador everyday. Yikes! Next we'll be driving the east half of El Salvador and crossing the border into Honduras, which is supposed to be similar to the Guatemala entry where we had issues. Ugh. Then we will drive the 80 miles across Honduras and do a second border crossing into Nicaragua. The Honduran cops are supposedly the most corrupt in Central America. I guess we will soon find out.