Still Looking for the Bus in San Miguel (Day 14)

I'm posting this from San Miguel in eastern El Salvador, gateway to Honduras & points further southeast. This town isn't as bad as Lonely Planet makes it out to be. Sure, it's blisteringly hot & humid, but so are a lot of other places.

From my perspective San Miguel has a lot going for it. For one, I'm staying in an excellent hotel just across the street from the bus station and the central district with the usual central plaza, cathedral & market is just a short walk away. True, the hotel is a bit above my budget, but at least they accept credit cards. Even better there's a Pollo Campero right across the street. Pollo Campero is Central America's answer to KFC and though this is my third trip in as many years to Central America, I still haven't tried Pollo Campero but I think I might do so tonight.

My room has all the amenities including the most important one, air con. The hotel also features free high speed internet and a nice courtyard with a swimming pool. And we have our very own hired guard, a "special forces-type" gentleman dressed in civvies who totes a very lethal looking double-barreled pump action shotgun.

My only problem, as I see it, is I'm still looking for the first class bus to Managua & beyond! But this town is small enough that I was able to invest a couple hours today on foot, trudging my way around for some 3 or 4 miles, still looking for the Tica bus--or at least the Tica bus office so I can book a seat for tomorrow or the next day.

I did manage to get a clue from a couple helpful citizens along the way, and I've been advised to show up at 8.00 a.m. sharp tomorrow morning at a certain location in town near the main road going south, etc. etc. So hopefully in about 14 hours I will know if I can get a seat on one of these elusive "avion de terra" buses!

Meanwhile, this is not at all a bad place to be. I'm not too far from the town of Perquin which was the headquarters of the anti-government FMLN during the civil war and which the Lonely Planet recommends as a destination in its own right. I may take a day or two there before I continue--depending upon what I learn in the morning.

Hard Travel on a Rugged Coast

It didn't take long yesterday to get to the coast from the Salvadorean coffee highlands, but once I was there I discovered a largely undeveloped but beautiful region of high forested cliffs, rocky coves and small isolated beaches with big waves(but possibly dangerous undertows).

This is the back way, or the slow route, from Sonsonate to La Libertad. What I thought might be a simple day trip from the quiet fishing village of Los Cobanos (The Coves) to El Zonte beach turned out to be a half day's hard travel on local buses. In fact, I didn't even reach my destination. After a 90 minute trip the bus went down the coast only so far as La Perla where I would've had to change for another bus, but by the time I arrived in La Perla it was getting late already--I needed to be back "home" well before dark.

By the end of a very hot day (93 degrees Farenheit) I'd decided to give the rest of this coastal area a miss but only because there are almost no hotels to choose from. The dubious room I ended up with in Los Cobanos was perhaps the worst value I've encountered thus far: an overpriced $15 for a hot (and not so clean), mosquito-infested hovel with no windows, AC, TV or any other amenity. The only things this place has going for it is it's right on the beach and the attached restaurant serves an excellent $7 fish dinner.

So I made straight for the capital city San Salvador early this morning to grab what turned out to be the best value so far in a very clean $20 room at the Hotel Villa Florencia (Centro branch). This room is terrifically graced with windows, AC, TV & the other amenities! I'll be here for two days, then it's on to San Miguel in eastern El Salvador, then on to Honduras & Nicaragua.

Since I need to start making miles, I'm seriously considering booking a seat on a Tica bus--the first class airconditioned option--to go, if not to Panama City in one fell swoop, then maybe as far as Managua. I'd like to revisit the grand colonial city of Granada & the quiet little paradise of San Juan del Sur before crossing into Costa Rica.

¡¿Where's the D%&ç Bus Station?!

One of my least favorite chores on the road in Latin America is figuring out which bus I need and from which bus station I have to find my way out & onward to my next destination. Unlike in some countries, Central American bus companies have their own private terminals, and most big cities have several of these large, chaotic terminals spread out over a wide area. So it can be tricky to navigate your way from hotel to terminal--especially if you want to save money on taxis--and from terminal to hotel in the next town or city.

Even when I have the assistance of maps & guidebooks, as I do here, I am often frustrated in my research. For example, my Guatemala Rough Guide indicates that the Tica Bus Company, which runs major routes all over Central America, has its terminal just three blocks west of my hotel (unusally convenient for me, in my experience!), but when I went for a walk to look for it yesterday I found no sign of it. Errgghhh. . .

Sometimes the bane of my traveler's existence, Latin American buses are a reality you have to deal with sooner or later--if you want to stay on budget and get around overland. But unsurprisingly I will sometimes stay an extra day someplace just to avoid dealing with it a little bit longer. . .