Our journey from El Salvador to Costa Rica

This part of our journey had some surprises in store. This region of Central America was a stark contrast to our relaxed time in Belize and Guatemala. After spending two weeks in El Salvador, we had to part ways to bypass the strict photography laws of Nicaragua. Our journey from El Salvador to Costa Rica was chaotic, very crowded and intense at times; an adventure in an adventure!

What's in this update

• "Conchita Panda"
• Stories from the past in San Salvador
• Nicaragua forced us to split ways
• The three border crossings from El Salvador to Costa Rica
• What's next?

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"Conchita Panda"

The border crossing into El Salvador was a breeze and we were greeted by friendly officials; always a good sign. Our first stop was at the Pacific Ocean, which we hadn’t seen anymore since we left Baja in December. We ended up camping next to a restaurant; on one side of the property a dance class was being held with classical music blasting over the lagoon, while a costumer from “our” restaurant had brought his own speaker and was completely drunk singing on 90’s music while dancing in the water. Both adjusting the volume to overrule the other. Apparently, he had adopted a stray dog for the evening and had given her the name “Conchita panda”, which he shouted every few minutes. It was quite hard to ignore, because our camp spot at the restaurant was next to the chickens, geese and other animals that were being held for the restaurant. Every time our guy shouted “Conchita Panda”, the roosters started to crow as well. We didn’t knew back then, but this cacophony of sounds would become a theme for the next few weeks.  

Our first night in El Salvador

Sleeping in San Salvador

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Stories from the past in San Salvador

One of the issues we had faced in the last few weeks was a shortage of energy, mainly because the extra energy consumption from our fridge due to the high temperatures and because of a lack of charging capabilities due to the shaded areas we were camping at. We decided to fix this issue by adding another solar panel onto our roof rack. We headed to the capital San Salvador and found a mechanic that spoke both fluent Spanish and English. While we waited for the solar panel to arrive, he showed us around San Salvador and told us about the gangs who had ruled over the city only 4 years ago. He told us about special ‘killing cars’, where you would be pulled in and slaughtered in the back seat and about an old lady in her 90’s who was the mother of an important gang leader who would point a finger at anyone she didn’t like, causing this person to disappear. He also showed us his two AK47 gun wounds that were a result of him doing ‘something stupid’ and told us about the bodies he had found when he was digging on his property. Before the gang crackdown, El Salvador’s homicide rates were the highest in the world and we can’t imagine how this place must’ve been back then.

We continued East, towards the border of Honduras and spent a few days in the touristic region of Flores. We noticed the people change and the streets getting more and more crowded the further we drove East. When we reached Flores, it was clear that we had entered a different kind of El Salvador. People were in a hurry and cut us off on the highway, they weren’t that warm anymore and we were often ignored in stores or family restaurants. We decided it was time to move on towards Honduras, and did a final check for the entry requirements of Nicaragua, which is known to be quite strict for photography gear. Little did we know this would change radically our following week.

Sleeping at this families place next to the drain, which was cleaned by the chickens

The intercity on a highway in El Salvador ;)

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Nicaragua forced us to split ways

Nicaragua, a country where you have to obtain a permit for bird watching, made life a little bit more complicated for us. The majority of our gear was on the ‘forbidden’ list, and would either be confiscated on discovery, or we would be forced to pay import duties. With the gear we have, it wasn’t an option to risk it. We decided that Pleun would fly to Costa Rica with all the gear and Martin would drive through Honduras and Nicaragua in a few days. From the border of Honduras we drove back to the international airport of San Salvador. While Pleun tried to fly with cabin bags holding both our camera equipment that were nearly 3 times over the weight limit, Martin set off to his first border crossing into Honduras.

The three border crossings from El Salvador to Costa Rica

While exiting El Salvador was again a breeze and a very friendly experience, Honduras was the opposite. I was forced to stop in-between the borders by an official guy from the Honduras customs. He wanted to have my documents that he would bring to the office, while I was forced to go with a (paid) fixer for an entry stamp in my passport. When I told him I didn't want his help and asked him to show his official card, he started shouting and almost hit his card on my head. Not the best start.. I’ve read that if you’re having trouble with some guys at the border, the cops will make your life even worse down the road in Honduras, and as I wanted to cover as much ground as possible I decided this fight wasn’t worth the risk. I gave him the documents and quickly went inside the immigration building with the fixer whistling agitatedly behind me. After nearly 2 hours (the customs guy was having a long lunch), I was good to go. I gave the fixer 5 dollars (which very clearly was not enough to him) and quickly set off into Honduras.

One of the many fires caused by the burning of plastic in Honduras

It wasn't any better in the mountains of Honduras, where everyone set their garbage and organic waste on fire near sunset

Even though my stay in Honduras was very short, I felt like it was long enough. Waste was scattered everywhere and the rivers were polluted and smelled rotten. I’ve seen many places with a waste problem, but Honduras was in a different league. Most of the trash I’ve seen was burning, with some areas and even mountainsides being on fire. I had police checkpoints next to bushes that were on fire, people either driving like idiots or so slow they barely made it up a hill. Just before sunset, I reached my destination only 10 km away from the border into Nicaragua.

Entering Nicaragua
The Nicaraguan border crossing is notoriously known for being slow. Very slow. People spend between 2 to 10 hours and sometimes every item gets inspected. Therefore, I arrived early morning just after sunrise to make the most of the day. After overtaking a few km’s of parked trucks, I reached the northern border not visited much by tourists. I’d hoped this would give me an easier passage than the southern border where the police tend to be more corrupt. I was the only tourist and went through the Honduras immigration in only a few minutes. The Honduras customs however were a pain again. I had to wait 1 hour for them to mop the floor and wait for it to dry. Unfortunately, one guy had walked in when the floor was not dry enough and they told us they had to mop the floor again, because of his footsteps on the tiles.. argh. After waiting 30 minutes inside the building, the lady looked up from her phone and asked me what I was doing there. I told her I was leaving for Nicaragua and she handed me over a form I had to fill in. After some more waiting, she finally came outside to check the car. She looked at it and said: “it’s fine. Give me the documents and I’ll cancel the temporary import permit later today. You can go.” Well.. although not a big fan of this approach - because I couldn't check for errors - I decided to just go anyways and leave it at this. 

The feared x-ray scanner of Nicaragua

People working in the tobacco fields in Nicaragua

Entering Nicaragua was a story on its own. At the first checkpoint an old lady from customs immediately asked if I had a camera and checked my documents. I still had one camera, and two lenses as it didn’t fit in Pleun her bags. I showed her my camera with the smallest lens. She looked at it and said: “hmm..”. Then she walked back and discussed with the others what to do. Eventually it was all fine, but I was so glad Pleun had brought all our stuff into Costa Rica already. I continued my drive to the customs, got fumigated by a guy dressed in a space suit with a sort of leaf blower fumigation device and eventually parked my car at the building. After answering lots of questions about my profession, if I had a drone, if I was married, if I had a drone, what I was planning to do in Nicaragua, if I had a drone.. I got the stamp. I tried to arrange the temporary import permit for the car (“do you have a drone?”) and was asked to go to the scanner for my car being scanned (“you better don’t have a drone!”). I think I was asked nearly 10 times about a drone. After some waiting, the scanning results came back. I looked at the paper and had a hard time holding back my laughter. The scan was so incredibly bad, the only thing that was visible were the tires and the front. The rest looked like some kid had been drawing randomly on the paper. They said they found something suspicious and when I asked them what that was, he answered: “the whole car”. Luckily, what happens quite often when we do border crossings, is that they’re more intrigued in how our setup works than that they’re actually searching. That’s what happened this time as well and after opening a few doors all was okay. In total, I’ve spent around 4.5 hours at this border crossing and couldn’t wait to finally start driving into Nicaragua!

The sun was setting over the oldest colonial city in Central America: Granada

The other side of Granada, heavy polluted river in the center of the city

My plan was to drive to Granada, an old colonial city in the center of Nicaragua. A drive of around 4 hours gave me a glimpse in the life on the countryside. I passed many tobacco fields and spotted some cigar factories. It was clear these places did well, as they stood out as luxurious mansion-like factories with beautiful gardens surrounded by slums.

After an uneventful drive, I arrived in Granada and found a spot to sleep close to the center. I climbed the bell tower of Iglesia de La Merced which awarded me beautiful views around the city at sunset. The next morning, I set off to Costa Rica. The crossing took me around 3 hours, but was rather uneventful. It mainly took so long because a Nicaraguan police officer was sleeping and the Nicaragua customs guy was no-where to be found; I found out later that he was also operating the luggage x-ray of the passengers entering and exiting by bus. From here, it was only a 5 hour drive to San José before I would see Pleun again and we could continue our journey on our own terms! 

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What's next?

We travel all around Costa Rica; from the humid Caribbean to the hot Pacific, from the windy volcanoes to the wet cloud forests. We escape the heat in a very special place, where we take our time to search for the resplendent Quetzal on our own, and even come across a very special mammal we never thought we would see. Afterwards, we continue into Panama to prepare for our shipment to Colombia.

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Until the next!