San Salvador Fact Dump

We had to cross a tiny section of Honduras to get from Nicaragua to El Salvador so that was a sweaty, multi-bus mission but Honduras immigration was fun. We were greeted by a lovely chap who spoke English and our passports were flicked through by officials. Then they started laughing and showing my passport around. Why were they laughing? Was it my face? Yeah nah, they’d found the stamp for The Seychelles which looks suspiciously like an arse. The English speaking guy asked us about it as his colleagues gathered round, fascinated. I tried to explain the coco de mer and how proud the Seychellois were of their huge nuts but he just looked at it, looked back at me and said, “But it looks like…” and patted his arse. This is why we affectionately refer to it as a butt nut. Best not tell the Seychellois though hey.

Loitering by the border after entering Honduras waiting for that blue minivan to get enough passengers. They like to fill up, and when I say “fill up” I mean they crammed 21 passengers into a van designed for 14. It was… cosy.

Once we were in Honduras we were passed seamlessly from bus to bus by drivers and ayudantes that must deal with people transiting the country on a daily basis. Three buses later and we were deposited on the other border, stamped out of Honduras and we walked over the bridge towards El Salvador. A woman called out in English, “Have a good trip!” The officials spoke English too. We were processed within minutes, told we had 180 days, then off we went in search of a bus. We were only intending to get as far as San Miguel, Tarrant had spent the longest bus journey, the best part of three hours, being belted around the head by the various snack vendors that seemed to get on and off every six fucking minutes. I think she’d have left me if I suggested we get on a sixth bus today.

Many border crossings involve a bridge over a river but this one between Honduras and El Salvador is particularly pretty.

We holed up in a cheap hotel next to the terminal for the night then shuffled off in search of a bus the following morning. We were looking for a chicken bus but actually ended up on the super especial 301 service which was a big, air conditioned coach with reclining seats and a toilet. Oh go on then. I think the chicken buses are a couple of dollars cheaper but it’s worth it just to not be sweating to death for a couple of hours. Fuck me, it was hot here after the relative coolness of northern Nicaragua. The bus dropped us out in whoop whoop, the nueva terminal deals with buses going to and from the east of the country but it’s several kilometres out of the city. Uber exists here though so we ordered one. There are buses of course but we’d read that this was a particularly sketchy part of the city so we erred on the side of not being stabbed in the head.

Well hello then, San Salvador. Not actually hideous for a capital city.

We were going to skip El Salvador because the first thing you think when you think of El Salvador is “murder capital of the world” which can be a bit off-putting, but then we kept hearing about how it’s much safer now thanks to a controversial crack down on gangs by the current government. Controversial because they basically suspended civil rights in order to make it easier to arrest and detain gang members. Every month they vote to keep what they call a state of exception. Apparently they built a prison just to house the gangsters which I guess you kind of have to do when you suddenly incarcerate over 60000 people.

There’s some decent street art here. “Sivar” is national slang for El Salvador.

Anyway. We started our San Salvador adventure by heading to the bars near our hotel to commence the very important task of working out our new favourite beer. Current winner for me is the nation’s favourite, Pilsener. It’s a generic lager but it’s cold, wet and fizzy and unlike the other two we tried, Suprema and Golden, it actually tastes like something other than piss water. It was early on a Saturday but locals were several bottles deep already which is fine except later on as we were heading back from the supermarket a car beeped and the occupants enthusiastically waved at us. It was a couple of guys from the bar. Oh mate, you really shouldn’t be driving! We hadn’t even interacted with them, they’d obviously just spotted the foreigners they’d seen and wanted to say hello which was very sweet but fucking hell, take an Uber, buddy!

This is the boozes for me for the next couple of weeks.

The next day we got ourselves onto a tip-based walking tour. We met Erick and one other tourist, a chap from Spain, opposite the cathedral in the Centro Historico. Downtown San Salvador used to be the most dangerous area in Latin America, Erick told us. The streets were packed with markets too, permanent structures were erected by vendors so there was no room to walk on the pavement. It was Bukele’s first big project back when he was the mayor of San Salvador. He cleaned up the area, invested money, and now it’s a safe tourist area. He’s now the president and the one responsible for the reduction in crime across the whole country.

Everywhere used to be like this with markets in the streets blocking shop fronts but a lot have been cleared away making the streets feel bigger and cleaner.

The vendors were moved into a multi-story market and five months ago the structures were removed from the pavement.
“You can see the buildings now,” Erick told us, “You didn’t use to be able to.” Money is still being pumped into San Salvador. A large park has been renovated, a new road is being built, existing roads have been resurfaced and there’s work going on to improve other areas. It’s great! Our Uber driver yesterday loves the changes. Erick loves the changes. Yet he doesn’t know if he’ll vote for Bukele in the next elections which I find odd. Maybe I’m missing something but if the president makes such huge improvements wouldn’t you want to keep him?

As for the gangs, the trigger was when over seventy people were murdered in 48 hours and enough was enough. They’d gotten away with it with previous governments because they were on the take but Bukele took a different view and started the crackdown. Erick tried to make us understand how bad things were, he said, “These people are not common criminals. They’re terrorists.” They killed people, raped women and girls, extorted money from ordinary people. These days people can have a business without the threat from gangsters. They can go about their day in safety. Tourism has increased. At first they were worried about the state of exception and civil rights being suspended as that’s obviously very much open to corruption but things have worked out in favour of the masses.

A view from the food hall of a mall. I promise you there’s a volcano in there somewhere.

Erick took us around markets and churches today. There’s a souvenir market which we’ll definitely need to go to so we can stock up on tat. He took us to the market the street vendors were moved to and showed us the view from the top. We popped into Iglesia El Calvario which is a beautiful church built in the neo-gothic style, designed by an Italian with the stations of the cross rendered in Italian marble. It’s very beautiful inside and out. We popped to the cathedral but underneath to the crypt where they were having a separate mass to the one upstairs.

One of the 15 stations rendered in marble.

Óscar Arnulfo Romero is buried here. He was the Archbishop of San Salvador and very outspoken against El Salvador’s military government at the time. He was eventually assassinated in 1980 during mass, Erick said the government sent a sniper, and he was canonised in 2018. Now he has followers who come to pray to him below the cathedral, people were kneeling around the memorial that marks his final resting place, one woman I saw was wearing a t-shirt with his face on it. Like, a whole separate cult has sprung up around this dude.

That was cool but the church I’d been gagging to see was the Iglesia El Rosario. It looks like absolute shite from the outside, like a place you’d go to pick up a spot of crack for the weekend, but inside it’s very different. We had to wait for mass to finish before we went inside but it’s very much worth the wait because the walls are inlaid with coloured glass and it’s utterly fucking spectacular. It was built in the 70s, designed by an artist who decided to sculpt the stations of the cross in an abstract style. It’s epic.

The outside of the Iglesia El Rosario. Looks a bit shit.

No photo I take of the inside will do it justice.

This one represents Jesus falling for the third time.

At the end of the tour Erick took us to his bar. It’s a private bar for friends, friends of friends, people on the walking tour etc, but they have events and stuff. We had a couple of beers (Regia is apparently now Tarrant’s favourite) and chatted a bit more before heading off in search of food because it wasn’t even midday yet and the beer had already started eradicating brain cells. So far I really, really like El Salvador. People say hello to us in the street a lot, in English too. Everyone has been lovely. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the country.

Jump to “Useful shit to know…”

San Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador

Stayed at: Hotel Jerico, San Miguel & Hotel Happy House, San Salvador

Hotel Jerico. Absolutely fine for a night. It’s literally across the road from the bus terminal and has several cheap comedores nearby, including right next door. The fan cooled room with a private bathroom for $18 was fine but you can get AC if you prefer. Diagonally opposite is the much fancier Kings Palace if you prefer. It’s twice the price though.

Hotel Happy House. A bit more than we usually pay but the cheaper hostels are a bit too far out west for our liking. Here we were close to transport links, supermarkets, bars, restaurants and pulperias. We had AC and hot showers and they offered to change our towels after two nights. I would absolutely recommend this place. Very close to the Metrocentro.

San Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador

Useful shit to know…

How To Get From Somoto, Nicaragua To San Salvador, El Salvador By Public Bus

As of 15th August 2024, British citizens need a visa to enter Honduras and you need to get this in person from the London embassy. So sadly, just nipping across Honduras to get from Nica to El Salvador is no longer possible with a British passport. The Honduran embassy has information on how to get a visa on this website in Spanish.

Another option would be to take the boat from Potosi, Nicaragua to La Union, El Salvador. I didn’t do this so I don’t have any first hand information but cursory research suggests you need to WhatsApp a chap called Mario on +503 7282 4362 to arrange it and it’ll be US$50, plus whatever transport you use to Potosi. It runs four times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

Gecko Explorer offer a whole trip from Leon, Nicaragua to El Tunco, El Salvador by shuttle and boat for US$95 at the time of writing.

The El Espino / La Fraternidad Border Crossing

The first bus leaves Somoto around 5.30am and it got to us at the entrance to Somoto Canyon at about 5.50am. We reached the border about fifteen minutes later. It only cost C$13 each.
The bus will drop you right at the gate of El Espino.
A guy took our passports and gave us a customs form to fill out.
He gave us back our passports and we headed to immigration which is in a building that looks like a spaceship.
There was no queue at just gone 6am on a Friday so we went straight to the desk.
It took them about half an hour to process us.
They asked our professions and we paid the exit fee of US$3 each, paid in USD with unripped, unmarked notes albeit not crisp and pristine.
We were given our passports back with a loose slip of paper confirming exit. You don’t get a stamp.
Outside immigration a guy checked our filled out customs forms and a guy here can change your money. It was a pretty good rate too.
A bit further up a guy will check your passports and take your exit slip and your customs form.
You’re out of Nicaragua. Walk over the border.

Before you enter Honduras you have to fill out the prechequeo which you can find HERE, or you can download the app. We downloaded the .pdf that was emailed to us to our phones.
Find immigration which is around the side of the obvious building.
Again, there was no queue at about 6.45am on a Friday and it only took about fifteen minutes to process us both.
They did ask about the prechequeo and we showed him our .pdf on our phones. He might have asked as I did it wrong the first time and had to do another one but it was done correctly the second time and there were no issues.
They asked where we were going (we said El Salvador), took our fingerprints and our photos and stamped our passports.
We paid US$3 each entry tax in US dollars.
You’re in Honduras.

Getting Across Honduras.

Walk a bit up the road to a bus shelter where you can wait for a colectivo to San Marcos.
You’ll likely need to wait a while, they’ll want to be full before they leave. We had to wait until 8.55am before it left.
It cost L30 each and took less than 20 minutes. We all paid the driver before we set off.
As we got off the bus people were asking if we were going to El Amatillo or El Salvador. Several of the passengers were and we were put on a small bus waiting over the road bound for Choluteca.
It cost L48 each and took an hour and 20 minutes. We paid the ayudante.
I assume we were heading for the bus terminal in Choluteca where we’d change buses but they spotted a chicken bus bound for El Amatillo over the road when we were very close and managed to get it to stop. We were bundled onto that.
Regardless of where you change buses, the ayudante knows you want to get to the border and he’ll point you in the right direction.
It cost L82 each and took two hours and 45 minutes.

The El Amatillo Border Crossing

Super easy and took minutes for each side.
The bus drops you pretty much where you need to be. We arrived at 1.20pm.
For the Honduras side they just took fingerprints and stamped us out. There was no exit tax.
Entering El Salvador they asked where we were going and which hotel (no proof was asked) then we were told we had 180 days. There was no stamp and no entry tax.

El Amatillo To San Salvador Via San Miguel

On the advice of a man who has done this journey a couple of times we decided to go as far as San Miguel to avoid arriving in San Salvador too late. Also, fuck taking any more buses today.
We walked up the road to around coordinates 13.597862, -87.769463 where the 330 bus was waiting.
This goes to San Miguel direct. You can also go to Santa Rosa and change there if there’s no direct bus.
It cost US$2 and took two hours and 15 minutes. There was no ayudante, we paid the driver when we got on. It turns out this is normal in El Salvador.
We stayed at Hotel Jerico for US$18 for a fan-cooled double room with WiFi and a private bathroom. If you fancy something a bit posher Hotel King Palace has a pool and offers fan-cooled double rooms for US$36 a night. They’re both right by the terminal.

There are, apparently, chicken buses leaving regularly to San Salvador but whilst we were looking for one we were directed to the Super Especial 301 service which leaves from around the side at coordinates 13.484675, -88.171132.
It’s a big, air conditioned coach with reclining seats and a toilet. Oh go on then.
It cost US$5 and took nearly three hours. Money was collected once the bus was underway.
You’ll be dropped right out of the city at Terminal de Oriente Nuevo Amanecer.
We were staying in Colonia Centroamérica and it cost US$8.59 in an Uber to get there which took a good twenty minutes.
There are probably buses but I’d read it was a bit of a dodgy area so we erred on the side of not wanting to get stabbed in the head.

It’s free to get into Iglesia El Calvario and the cathedral.
It costs US$2 each to get into Iglesia El Rosario.
You can book Erick through GuruWalks, it’s a tipped based activity.
To get from the Metrocentro close to where we were staying to the Centro Historico, head to Blvd. Los Heroes, SW bound (around 13.709083, -89.210252) and take the 2C.
To get back head to 1ª Calle Poniente (around 13.699924, -89.191828) and get on any bus with “Metrocentro” written on the front.
The local bus costs US$0.35 each, one way. You pay the driver when you get on.