I write from El Salvador in what they call an Auto Hotel. No internet here so this will have to wait and get uploaded later. I just couldn’t resist writing while it’s all fresh in my mind.

“What’s an Auto Hotel?” You say.

Well, let me explain a few fun facts about this little phenomenon in Central America.

Though it sounds like something from the movie “Cars”, I can assure you it’s much different. The Auto Hotel is maybe not really a story for kids, which is why I find it amusing that we’re watching cartoons in one right now. It’s a hotel which caters to the hourly patrons, complete with a garage to hide your car so that no one knows you’re here. You pull in, shut the garage door and go into your attached room. There is a box in the room where you put your money -the cost depends on how long you plan on visiting- a hand takes your money and leaves your change, a towel and the remote control. You can also buy all sorts of things from this mysterious stranger, breakfast, coffee, beer and others I’ll leave to your imagination. I’ll assure you they aren’t balloons though.

We saw this particular one from the highway about an hour after crossing the Guatemalan border. Though it may sound seedy, it’s quite functional for us at the moment. It’s secure, comfortable and cheap. I’m assuming the armed guard doesn’t see many kids around here, he was a little surprised when our entourage pulled in. Originally we only asked to camp in the secure lot, but when we found out it was only $19 for a room went for that option. The room is nice, shower, T.V., a little patio and Dora fits just perfectly in the little garage. There is a toilet paper dispenser right above the bed that Eir has been having fun with too. The most important thing is that we feel safe here, anyone who visits is not likely to be seen.

We got on the road at 6:30am and after a quick stop for gas were on the same highway we had witnessed the armed robbery on a couple weeks before. Flory (the director of the school) had arranged for a police escort to follow us through the more dangerous parts of the drive, but we never did end up meeting them on the road. Needless to say we didn’t have any problems, drove through some pretty parts of Guatemala and saw another active Volcano spitting up smoke and ash into the sky. This one was way bigger than the first and we actually had a camera this time. Pictures to come. The roads were surprisingly good, not nearly as many Tumulos or Topes as Mexico and we made good time. It was about 12:30pm when we arrived at the border of El Salvador to began the long, tedious process of border crossing. If there is one good reason for flying it’s not having to deal with this process. First we had to stop on the Guatemalan side, cancelled our vehicle permit and went to immigration to tell them we were leaving. This was relatively painless, no major hassles, they checked our passports in the computer and we were on our way. We changed our Quetzales with one of many money changers around and got a surprisingly good rate. 10 Q for a dollar, not bad considering most of the places in Xela were about 7. On we drove into El Salvador.

First stop was with an immigration officer in front of the bridge. He checked over our passports and the vehicle permit and pointed us in the right direction for the next few steps. He was speaking really fast and we didn’t really get much information, but we went on anyways. We saw two Ontario license plates parked that gave us a glimmer of hope, we weren’t the only ones. A couple little boys started swarming around the van asking if we needed help in Spanish, we told them no but they insisted on “guarding” our van while we were inside. Okay, no harm in that We went into one of the building and started waiting in line. This took about 30 minutes only to find out that we needed to go to another office for our vehicle permit. I was having flashbacks of the Mexican Border already. Okay, so we went into another office and began waiting in line again. The girls were getting restless at this point and I went back to the van to give them some food and a juice box each. It was at this point that the crowds came. Everyone wanted to see the little blue eyed girls in the funny looking van. The two boys who were “guarding” our car were the first and then came the rest. The little guys were desperately asking about the few hats I had hanging up and I decided that they could have one each. They were very grateful, though persisted in asking for more stuff as time went on. The girls were in love with Eir and Freja and get picking them up and commenting on their “Azul” eyes. After about 2 hours we went back inside to see what Shona was up to. She was nearly done, filling in the forms of all the things we had in our van. This was a true test of her Spanish, and I was quite proud. We couldn’t explain the breadmaker very well and I think it made it on the list as a toaster. Oh well. He came out, checked out the van and we were basically on our way, one more stop at immigration to check our passports. No problem, we hit the road.

Well hit the road for 2 minutes, until we met up with our first “Checkpoint”. He looked over our papers and then told us we’d need to pay $5 american for tax. I think it was a scam, I tried to explain that everything should be free and he was having none of it. I didn’t want to argue, made sure he gave me a receipt and gave him the $5. Now we’re off.

So we made it 5 minutes and then got stopped by a police checkpoint, he waved us over and wanted to see our papers. He asked a few questions and said we were good to go. We then asked him where a secure place to camp was and he told us to come this way. We’re basically at a crossroads for the coast road through El Salvador, just five kilometres from a small place called Los Cabanos. We’re going to drive to San Miguel tomorrow and prepare mentally for what is supposed to be the worst border crossing in Central America, El Amatillo. That will put us in Honduras for a quick jaunt and then Nicaragua from there. That’s all for me, back to my Corona delivered from that mysterious hand in the box. Early to rise tomorrow.