Border crossing marathon through El Salvador, Honduras and on to Nicaragua

Leaving Guatemala well-prepared for the border crossing into El Salvador we were excited to enter a new country and also a bit tense because of the bad reputation. We actually quite enjoy border crossings, making it a game finding out where to go and what to do. The border guys were really friendly, but took for ages to process the papers.

Finally entering El Salvador the road lead along La Ruta de las Flores (of course with lovely flowers along side the road) through the mountains and right down to the coast. Having lunch overlooking the ocean, two KLR guys rode up. It turned out to be Josh, who we had met in Guatemala and Tyler. Together we rode along an awesome twisty coastal road to El Sunzal and spent ages looking for a cheap place to stay. The town was the most touristy place we had seen in a while! Heading on through El Salvador to El Cuco along a 4km dirtroad by the beach, the next night was spent at La Tortuga Verde – a postcard beach with rescue pelicans and turtles. At night whilst walking around the hotel grounds, suddenly three guards appeared out of the dark with shotguns! Not really sure if to feel more safe or not!

Next up on our border crossing marathon was a blitz-visit to Honduras. No hassle to enter and after 2 hours we were rolling. Getting used to this game! Along the Pan-American highway we stopped for the night at Cholcuteca and ventured out for some food. To our surprise heavily armed security guards with shotguns were guarding the entrance to the restaurant and even the guy grilling hamburger in the kitchen. The supermarket was also heavily guarded and they were searching everyone. Not very calming, so we retired to our hotel room.

So the border crossings had been going sooo good and next up was Nicaragua – and everything changed. We were held for five! hours trying to enter Nicaragua. The border guys seemed to be playing around on their mobiles and coming out of their office from time to time to interrogate us. After a while we got fed up, stood in front of their office and started to eyeball them through the glass window. They just told us to be easy and have a coffee. In the end we had to sign an additional form which we did not completely understand and had never heard of, and send it ourselves by email to the government office. But we were finally allowed into the country! We had enjoyed playing the game – but enough for now!
> Later we learnt that getting special approval to enter was a new procedure due to increased drug-trafficing, MARAS activity and upcoming elections. A few days on we met two other overlanders who were held up for 26 hours at the same boarder because of the new form – so we were lucky.