The Wanderings of busman7

Hit the El Salvadorian border (the last one) about 4:00 pm on day 29 & the fun began!

Seems that on my Guatemalan vehicle entry papers they had given me one day to transit the country but I had taken 3, so a letter stating why the delay was in order.

Next The Ministerio de Hacienda (Aduna) had a cow over my van being a tad too old (actually 9 years too old), so that took up a couple hours, especially when I didn’t have the address of the house I bought. Managed to find my lawyers iphone # & got that straightened out.

Next step was to completely unload the van so everything, being brought in, could documented (had been expecting this so no biggie).

Finally 5 hrs later I was cleared to enter my new home country. Have to say that both the inspecting officer & her supervisor were very professional & pleasant throughout the process, with the supervisor constantly apologising for his poor English. Now as it was way past dark & the prudent time for a gringo to be driving in CA, the officers allowed me to park on their patrolled lot for the night (took the extra precaution of hiring a local, who was watching a few trucks, to keep an eye on it also.

Then after a night spent in a local hotel. half a block from the compound where the van was parked, I commenced the final 3 1/2 hrs of my epic road trip! Stopped at a roadside “Mirador Tourista” with a small open air restaurant & had desayuno of huevos, frijoles y platano frito while overlooking the Pacific Ocean with the smell of the sea in the air.

An hour later I pulled into La Libertad, hit the ATM at Biggest then out to Playa San Diego & El Roble Hostel for a much needed cervaza to celebrate the end of a 30 day road-trip!

30 days on the road from Peterborough ON, via Chicago, US Route 66 to the Santa Pier, 14 days & 5020 km with the side trip to Roswell NM. This was followed by a tour through San Diego CA onto Douglas AZ where I entered Mexico for an 8 day excursion through that country, 3 days in Guatemala with an overnight in my beloved Antigua. Arriving at the El Salvador border with the trip meter odometer reading exactly 9,999.9 km, that has to be some kind of an omen!!

Finally arrived at Playa San Diego with 10,138 km wracked up driving solo in a 1993 Ford E350 with a Thomas Minitor body & a 7.3 litre International diesel.

Only repairs on the trip was a muffler in Holbrook AZ. Added 1/2 litre of oil + 3/4 litre tranny fluid.

Spent Friday afternoon arranging for internet (can’t live without that) & a satellite dish. Kind of out in the boonies, 2nd house from the end of the road so no cable available, a Canadian couple staying at the hostel, while awaiting fund transfer, have also purchased a house here in Playa San Diego, but on the beach so I joke with them that they may have`the beach but I have the cows.

Saturday found a bed & a couple things needed for the house but stayed another night at El Roble as mama was cooking her to-die-for popusa’s for cena, one would have to be a fool to miss that & my mama didn’t raise no fools LOL!

So after unwinding for a couple days at El Roble that has just made it into the new edition of Lonely Planet, Sunday I finally moved into my new home, Las Brisas (The Breezes) at Playa San Diego, La Libertad, El Salvador!! 🙂

This entry was posted on Monday, November 8th, 2010 at 21:33 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.