about the foreigner who had bought a second hand scooter without a license and basically was not able within a two year time frame to get correct number plates. This involved countless steps with the Guatemalan bureaucracy, using "tramitadores" (a profession that lives from steering for you through bureaucracy), bribes, etc.
As you can imagine we were not in great shape when we were driving back to Guatemala (partially in the dark which is discouraged in all guide books!!) towards our bureaucracy venture. We arrived late and just booked into a hotel. On the way we had contemplated going strait to a different border post and try it again but gave up too scared of further offending the custom officials.
As you can imagine we were not in great shape when we were driving back to Guatemala (partially in the dark which is discouraged in all guide books!!) towards our bureaucracy venture. We arrived late and just booked into a hotel. On the way we had contemplated going strait to a different border post and try it again but gave up too scared of further offending the custom officials.
Finally we left Antigua after more than a month. We had consciously spent more time than our orginial plan included in order to accomodate our desire to not only do sightseeing, but also to get to know people and culture. But by now it was time to either move on or abandon our plans for South America. So we decided that we would try to cross Central America quite quickly to get to Panama and to ship the camper to South America. Only in Costa Rica we wanted to spend some more time since it seemed a great place to see live volcanoes, cloud forests and other attractions. The plan to get to Costa Rica was ambitious. 4 borders in 4 days: on the way following the Panamericana lay El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Honduras (not only names that inspire confidence!!).
So on Sunday, 5th of February, we left Antigua to make it across the first border into El Salvador. We had to cross the capital and then drive some 250 km to the border. What you can make in a day depends in those countries mainly on the road conditions which are almost always predicted to be very bad by the guide books. Our host however thought this would be feasible in one day.
We managed to get through Guatemala City without a map and the road turned out to be ok. After a last lunch just before the border we arrived at the first border post. The usual hazzle of trying to get not only people but also our car across the border awaited us. Than it happened: customs explained to us that because our car permit had run out 5 days ago we could not exit Guatemala. Basically our fault. We had not seen that there was a deadline to the permit and in particular that it was only 6 weeks whereas the visa for humans was for 3 months. The problem with cars in Central America is that authorities don’t want foreigners to come into the country and sell their cars without paying duties.
Now 5 days overstaying did not seem a crime to us and so we tried to work the customs people a bit to let us through. But they seemed to be pretty determined to make our live difficult and told us that only in Guatemala City at the Tax authorities this situation could be clarified, meaning either we had to pay a fine or the customs duties on selling our camper!!! We still did not believe that we couldn’t get out of this situation. After an hour of argueing, asking help from the passport people and begging we wondered what would happen if we just left and went into El Salvador without solving the problem (Guatemala had claimed we could not enter!). We went to see the salvadorian customs official and asked. He said that basically he did not care what the problem with Guatemala was and we could without any problem get permission to travel into San Salvador. Our decision, being a bit desperate by now, was quickly taken. We got our exit stamps from the (friendly) passport people and drove to the San Salvador border. However we had underestimated the determination of the Guatemalan customs officials (all under the age of 30 spending their Sunday at work!! They were obviously looking for some fun.). They had seen us walking across and as we understood afterwards had gone to see the neighbor customs and basically threatened them with consequences in case they let us in.
So on Sunday, 5th of February, we left Antigua to make it across the first border into El Salvador. We had to cross the capital and then drive some 250 km to the border. What you can make in a day depends in those countries mainly on the road conditions which are almost always predicted to be very bad by the guide books. Our host however thought this would be feasible in one day.
We managed to get through Guatemala City without a map and the road turned out to be ok. After a last lunch just before the border we arrived at the first border post. The usual hazzle of trying to get not only people but also our car across the border awaited us. Than it happened: customs explained to us that because our car permit had run out 5 days ago we could not exit Guatemala. Basically our fault. We had not seen that there was a deadline to the permit and in particular that it was only 6 weeks whereas the visa for humans was for 3 months. The problem with cars in Central America is that authorities don’t want foreigners to come into the country and sell their cars without paying duties.
Now 5 days overstaying did not seem a crime to us and so we tried to work the customs people a bit to let us through. But they seemed to be pretty determined to make our live difficult and told us that only in Guatemala City at the Tax authorities this situation could be clarified, meaning either we had to pay a fine or the customs duties on selling our camper!!! We still did not believe that we couldn’t get out of this situation. After an hour of argueing, asking help from the passport people and begging we wondered what would happen if we just left and went into El Salvador without solving the problem (Guatemala had claimed we could not enter!). We went to see the salvadorian customs official and asked. He said that basically he did not care what the problem with Guatemala was and we could without any problem get permission to travel into San Salvador. Our decision, being a bit desperate by now, was quickly taken. We got our exit stamps from the (friendly) passport people and drove to the San Salvador border. However we had underestimated the determination of the Guatemalan customs officials (all under the age of 30 spending their Sunday at work!! They were obviously looking for some fun.). They had seen us walking across and as we understood afterwards had gone to see the neighbor customs and basically threatened them with consequences in case they let us in.
Not to bore you any longer with our emotional roller coaster experience, in the end he wrote us a nice letter explaining the matter which we had to take to the customs officials whom he had called (!!). After hanging around for the rest of the day and waiting for resolution we got the required paper. The following morning we made it back to the border where the supervisor of the Guatemalan border post personally appologized for the treatment we had received two days before. Apparently the event had almost caused an "international border crises" between Guatemala and El Salvador. However, it had been resolved that morning by a meeting of the big wigs. We were happy to forget this experience quickly which had been one of the very rare events when we did not meet very helpful and friendly local people. From the border we only drove a few kilometers to stop at a volcanic lake which serves as a sort of weekend resort for the San Salvadorian city dwellers (apparently also for the El Salvadorian presidents whose villa at the lake can be visited for a small bakshish as we were explained).
The following morning we managed to cross the capital without a map quite quickly and made it within the day to the border with Honduras. Having read in the guidebooks about the complicated burocratic nightmare of border papers at this particular border we gave in to the hard selling of the tramitadores who offered their services. A bunch of very friendly young guys helped
The following morning we managed to cross the capital without a map quite quickly and made it within the day to the border with Honduras. Having read in the guidebooks about the complicated burocratic nightmare of border papers at this particular border we gave in to the hard selling of the tramitadores who offered their services. A bunch of very friendly young guys helped
When we arrived at the window of the guy who had earlier told us we could enter without a problem he was now saying he could not let us in without the solution to the Guatemala exit!!! Now we were in deep trouble expecting all sort of repercussions by the Guatemalan officials. We argued, discussed, begged, prayed, used the "children weapon", tried to make him feel bad, cried for about 1 hour before we admitted defeat!! There was no alternative than going back to Guatemala and hoping we would be able to acquire an extention without loosing our pants. That meant officially re- entering Guatemala (we now had first to get entry stamps for San Salvador and then get entry stamps for Guatemala) and driving back the 250 km to Guatemala. However, the worst was the administrative nightmare that awaited us to get an extention.
We had read in the book written on Guatemalan culture
We had read in the book written on Guatemalan culture
The following morning we went to see the equivalent of the tax authorities. After waiting for a while we were greeted by a friendly civil cervant who after listening to our request suggested going to customs and telling them we could not leave earlier because of a problem with the car or a health problem. This smelled like the beginning of an endless flurry of civil servant encounters where each of them pushes the solution off to the next and you never get anywere. In addition, we did not really feel like lying and making potentially matters worse and therefore pressed upon him that we had actually spent several weeks helping the country (!) as volunteers and did not understand why we now need to pay for this...
us to get out of San Salvador (only 1 hour of hazzle). But then getting into Honduras was much better: passport control and stamps, filling in car entry paper, paying 10$ for entry to one counter, getting stamp in different building, making photocopies in different building, paying some more to get the official paper and stamp, getting the fumigation paper, etc. In this very confusing process our helpful tramitadores had managed to make us believe a 100% more expensive exchange rate and in the process ripped us off by 50 $. Fortunately, before it was over we got wind of this and when I challenged the guy he paid me the difference without complaining (I thought they would just do a runner, since the fee they would get was only 10% of the cheating gain!).
Nevertheless, they had the guts to insist on getting paid for their services once everything was over!!
After this experience we were not looking forward to the remaining 3 border crossings before hitting Panama! There is not much to say about Honduras other than since we had heard it was very cheap to ship packets via seamail back to Europe we had produced two heavy parcels full with books and other stuff that we did not need any more but did not want to throw out. So we went to the post office in the second biggest town of the country. When asking for sending the parcel we got the answer that right now they did not have any stamps in the (main) post office (of the second biggest town in Honduras), but in the afternoon they would probably arrive!!!
After this experience we were not looking forward to the remaining 3 border crossings before hitting Panama! There is not much to say about Honduras other than since we had heard it was very cheap to ship packets via seamail back to Europe we had produced two heavy parcels full with books and other stuff that we did not need any more but did not want to throw out. So we went to the post office in the second biggest town of the country. When asking for sending the parcel we got the answer that right now they did not have any stamps in the (main) post office (of the second biggest town in Honduras), but in the afternoon they would probably arrive!!!
We spent a night on the carpark of a nice hotel with swimming pool and drove the next day through the mountains on a brand new road across the border into Nicaragua. An easy 1-hour border crossing in the cool mountains!!
At the previous border we had met a Danish family that was travelling with their 4 children in a Toyota campervan!! We met them again at this border and decided to have lunch together a few kilometers down the road. When we saw the "spaciousness" of their vehicle we knew that we would never again complain about being squeezed together on 10 m2. Their car
was basically not bigger than a VW van and they slept all the 6 inside!!! They had travelled also from Europe via Russia to North America and were now on their way down to South America. We found we had a lot in common and liked each other and would subsequently meet up several times again on our trip.
