By the time we got out of our RV the next morning, there were kids playing around La Combi, the wonderful campsite we stayed at overnight run by Isabel and Javier. They host events for kids and the community, and the kids were having a blast on the zipline, playground and running around--it was apparently an end of year holiday party for the kids, which was so lovely.
Javier and Isabel took a quick break from running around themselves as we went to say goodbye. They don't charge people to stay onsite (it's by donation). We didn't have any quetzales on us, but seeing their home and campsite, we gave them 3 canvases with Michael's paintings, and it was so wonderful to see their eyes light up with the specific gift. Apparently they had another international visitor stay with them for a couple of months who also painted for them, and they loved the art and said they'd display it somewhere for visitors to see. While we didn't really get a chance to explore Guatemala, we left with hugs and them saying to please come visit them again someday.
Crossing into El Salvador
We were only an hour away from the border crossing between Guatemala and El Salvador, and again the process was for us to drive past the long line of trucks to arrive at Pedro De Alvarado (the Guatemala side). We got our passports stamped, and had to cancel our TIP (taking the sticker off the windshield). The challenge was that the lady kept asking for originals of all the documents that we didn't realize we needed to provide--and copies--so Michael kept having to duck in and out. Where it got really confusing was that she needed a copy of the front and back of Michael's license but simply said "completo" (complete), which we didn't understand for a few minutes (it was complete?), but Michael was great to piece it together and realize she needed both sides.
In El Salvador, the process was much easier as a lot of it is now done online. We got our passports stamped, purchased a new TIP (there was no vehicle inspection), and for Sheila, Lisette presented the paperwork without them needed to see our dog! We were relieved to have a smooth process, so we could be on our merry way.
Compared to driving in Guatemala, the roads in El Salvador were a dream... in fact, some roads were even better than in the US to drive! There also was a lot of new construction being done on roads. We did see a lot of US restaurant chains though as we approached major towns--Panda Express, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars (and multiple branches) abound in El Salvador.
We definitely didn't want to have unhealthy fast food for lunch, and Lisette was eager to try pupusas, the national dish of El Salvador that's basically a thick griddle cake or flatbread made with cornmeal or rice flour that's stuffed with ingredients like meat, cheese, and beans. It's served with curtido (a type of lightly fermented relish usually made with cabbage, onions, carrots, oregano, and sometimes lime juice) and tomato sauce and is traditionally eaten by hand. We found a roadside restaurant (they are everywhere) and got a couple of pupusas each--meat for Michael, while Lisette had beans and cheese, with the curtido and sauce on the side. They were delicious! It was great to also see these being made fresh, with several ladies standing by the griddle on the side of the road, slapping these on to cook.
Volcanos, McDonald's and The Best Night View
In the afternoon, we drove on a stunning road where we could see a majestic volcano alongside us. How incredible! It was on Michael's side so he couldn't help but drive slowly and kind of pause while the traffic was a bit congested to take some shots!
Michael had been craving McDonald's (sure, not the healthiest option but especially if you've had stomach issues you want something familiar), so we found one in the city of San Jose. It was cool to see the local menu options that McDonald's does in every country--this included a pico guacamole beef burger and tocino smokehouse res (bacon smokehouse beef) burger. The desserts were all different and looked tempting--including a caramel pie (instead of an apple pie), a pineapple pie, and various cakes in elote (corn), strawberry, blackberry, and carrot! Michael stuck to a tried-and-tested burger, fries and drink though.
We hopped on one of the nicest, smoothest highways, which was lit up in bright blue light--we were cruising on this road! It looked really new, although one design flaw was that the pedestrian lane was in between the cars and bike lane, probably not the best to feel sandwiched this way while running or walking along! We left this highway, arriving at Laguna Aramuaca campground, a park that had a security guard 24/7, where we could park inside for the night.
We paid the guard and drove in, guided by one of the several dogs in the compound. Once we got to the campground--wow, it was hands down one of the most stunning views we've had on this trip! We were right on the lagoon, looking directly at Volcano Chaparrastique (or San Miguel, it's still an active volcano). We had a couple of swings hanging off the tree in the foreground, and in the evening twilight the scene looked absolutely picture perfect. We're looking forward to seeing the campground and the view in the daylight tomorrow!
Some Hiccups in Honduras
We spent some extra time in the morning at Laguna Aramuaca, doing some final checks to get our paperwork in order and tidying up because we would be crossing TWO borders today--El Salvador to Honduras, and Honduras to Nicaragua.
We left our beautiful campground and went straight to a gas station to fill up (El Salvador is cheaper than Guatemala and Honduras for petrol). As we were doing that, a man drove right up to our RV and jumped out, offering his services for crossing the border. Okay, we'd had a "fixer" in Guatemala, but he was cool and not aggressive at all. When someone is in our face and saying "hey friend" in an overly familiar way, it can be off-putting, so we waved him off and drove along, past the standard queue of trucks at the border before getting to the El Salvador side.
This side was a bit confusing, because we only saw trucks here--where were the cars and people who weren't truckies waiting to go over? But we were waved through, and perhaps it was just our timing that meant that we were the only truckies that needed to be here to cancel our TIP. That was done quickly and as we were getting back in, the fixer who we saw earlier stopped us, saying we still needed to go to the quarantine section to get Sheila's stuff sorted. Lisette was really skeptical, but we got out and gave the paperwork, and it turned out that we needed to do this, and pay at the bank (in a confusing spot, we had to walk outside and behind this building, past some trucks in lanes).
Then we headed over to the Honduras side, where we got our passports checked (fairly simple), and a ticket, to drive across the bridge, showing a ticket given to us where we had our passports checked. On the Honduran side it was a bit of mayhem--not enough parking and plenty of folks spilling out onto the streets everywhere! We tried to park a bit to the side of the road, but were told we had to move because if a bus drove past it would get stuck, so went a bit further to behind the customs office where we luckily had space. Here, there were more folks suggesting they could help us--including a young guy who spoke in perfect American-accented English (turns out he grew up in Texas), but we nodded along and walked over to the customs office, where there was a long, long, long line of people waiting to get their passports stamped. We finally made it to the front, paying $3 each to enter.
Then it was a separate office for the TIP. It would have been simple enough, but when Lisette asked about where to go for Sheila's paperwork (we needed a quarantine office), the lady looked at Lisette and buried her face. It turns out, the Honduran quarantine was on the El Salvador side, and was a window right next to the window where Sheila's El Salvador paperwork had been canceled! Argh... Michael was very angry now at Lisette for refusing to work with a fixer, and we had no choice but to drive across, worried that we could be in a bit of no man's land in getting back into Honduras.
It is a weird set up, but Lisette worked it out with the Honduran quarantine in the end (Michael was too pissed off and stayed inside the RV), where he got all the paperwork, stamped it and took a photo of Sheila before we headed off again. When we got to the bridge on the Honduran side we didn't obviously have the ticket, but fortunately we explained it to the officers (one spoke English really well), and we went back to the office to get our TIP finalized, where the lady we'd been dealing with was glad to see us! We also were able to bring Sheila into this office, which was a relief because it was scorching hot in the RV by this time.
We had parked in a different spot to before, and as we were leaving we ended up scraping the roof of one of the little shops along the road...All in all it was a bit more stressful, but we made it!
Storms in Honduras
The roads in Honduras are apparently just as bad as our experience in Guatemala, but we were on the stretch of road that was leading to the Nicaraguan border, so it was pretty smooth the whole way along. Lisette was even able to make sandwiches at the back for a late lunch while Michael was driving!
It's only about 80 miles or so (130 kilometers) from the border with El Salvador to the border with Nicaragua (just over 2 hours), so we didn't see much of Honduras besides the rather rural terrain around us. No cities, just lots of trees, hills and road. This led Michael and Lisette to debate whether this constitutes someone adding this to their list of countries they've visited, because we at least got our passports stamped (which is what some folks count, such as visiting places like North Korea and going to the DMZ)? But we didn't really see anything and we were here for less than a day...If that's the case Lisette has been to all the countries in Central America, but we can change this ambiguity in the future as we do want to visit Honduras in more depth later!
We had torrential rain--like the streets were flooding--and it happened on 3 separate occasions, getting more frequent (and with more lightning and thunder) as we approached the border with Nicaragua. We hoped that this would actually help speed the process up to cross!
We got to town of Guasale, on the Honduran side, and by now we're practically experts on border crossings (plus everything was in the one building), so it was a breeze to get everything sorted--passport stamp, cancel TIP (and have RV quickly scanned), check on requirements for dog. Done in less than 30 minutes!
Crossing into Nicaragua
Now our final, final border crossing for a while--into Nicaragua! There's a bridge to get to that side, and we got stuck behind a long line of trucks, as unfortunately there wasn't room for us to squeeze past. Well, there was the pedestrian path on the bridge, but we weren't able to fit there, and were jealous of the cars and motorcycles that succeeded!
But finally we made it in after sunset, showing our vehicle registration, passports and license to the officers standing outside, who waved us in towards the customs office. Here, we waited in a short line to get our passports stamped, paying US$13 each for entering the country. Now the tough part--getting our RV inspected and the TIP. Nicaragua is notoriously stricter than the other Central American countries--you're not allowed to bring drones and binoculars, and they check everything in a vehicle before deeming whether there's additional import taxes required on the goods, or anything that needs to be noted on your form.
The rain had subsided, but it did start to rain again when we went with the inspector outside to our RV, where it was inspected from top to bottom. Cabinets opened, questions asked. When we got to the storage space at the back, we had to pull everything out. EVERYTHING. It had started to rain again, and the boxes we have in the back are rather heavy, so poor Michael had to haul everything, and we had to balance that out with a barking Sheila, making sure to steer her clear of any dogs lurking around (there were a few!). We had to also get haul some of the luggage out to be scanned.
In the end we had a few personal items listed, but the most interesting one was our coin collection. We have a collection of foreign currency (most of it is coins that we had from travels that couldn't be exchanged at the end of a trip). It's not worth much, but the customs officer counted every single coin and wrote it down! Not the value, just the number of coins. It was like someone paying with pennies at a grocery store--tedious! Eventually we finished and paid for the TIP (US$4.90).
It was dark and getting late, but we still needed to get Sheila's paperwork presented in Nicaragua. The office was on the other side of where the trucks were lined up, and Lisette ran through the rain and walked through some wet grass and dirt to get to the quarantine area. Fortunately Sheila didn't need to come like in El Salvador--the officer simply went through all the paperwork, and Lisette paid US$30.
The last thing we had to do, which was different to other countries in Central America--was purchase insurance (it's illegal to drive without insurance). It's sold just outside customs--basically we went to some ladies sitting on their plastic chairs with their kids on their front porch, and bought it from them! It's about US$10-15, and we got a slip of paper to confirm we have it. If you get pulled over, you simply show this piece of paper.
And finally, that was that! We were at the Honduras/Nicaragua border crossing for about 3 hours, and at the El Salvador/Honduras one for about 3.5 hours, and had about 3-4 hours drive in total...so we were exhausted! Lisette felt like her brain cells were fried from using up all her Spanish! It was already dark, so we drove until we got to an open parking area (used by trucks and campers as a stop). There wasn't anyone to pay to stay for the night and there were only a couple of trucks in the lot, sowe had ample room to park and exhaustedly sleep for the night.
Getting to Granada
In the morning, we still didn't see anyone in the lot, but it was a national holiday in Nicaragua--the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (a Catholic holiday that the country celebrates). So we left the lot and started to drive towards the city of León, a popular city to visit that's known for its colonial-era architecture, and its proximity to volcanoes like Cerro Negro.
We've been there before and loved the city, but once we got there, we realized that the streets were too narrow for our RV, so we changed course and headed for Granada, skirting the capital, Managua. Since it's December, it was wonderful to see the Christmas decorations all out, and every roundabout was adorned for the holidays. It'll be lovely to be here in the most festive month of the year!
We made it to Granada, where we first drove to the apartment we'll be staying at and unloaded our stuff, then drove to the parking lot where we could leave our RV in a secure area. And now...our epic RV trip is over! We will be settling into this apartment in Granada for a bit, and then figure out what's next. We've spent 295 consecutive days living and traveling in an RV (with some welcome stays at friend's houses as well along the way), and while it's definitely had its challenges, it has also been one of the most memorable and certainly momentous trips we've ever done. It'll take us a while to process everything, but we have this blog to also turn back to, to relive our experiences! If you're reading this, thanks for reading and following along our journey--and if you are considering going on a road trip, we say, go for it!