El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua in one day?
Call us crazy, but we did it. Two borders and three countries in one day? I was the biggest skeptic. Having crossed many borders before, I knew that just one border crossing alone could take half a day depending on various scenarios. Dealing with customs, immigration, insurance, vehicle inspection, money exchange, and getting what seemed like a hundreds of copies of this, that and the other documents could reduce any timeline you may have about accomplishing our ambitious plan.
After a good hearty breakfast in La Union, El Salvador, we had two more quick stops to make before arriving at the border of Honduras. Stopping for gas and money from the ATM we made a beeline straight out of El Salvador. We had done all the reading up we could several nights before and knew that this was supposed to be the worst border crossing of all the Central American countries. Less than a mile from the border all of the shenanigans started. Suddenly traffic came to a crawl, mostly big trucks and a few herds of cows interspersed for good measure. Then it happened, the money changers and border helpers swarmed all over us. One guy even jumped on the side of Angela’s and Scott’s truck, while we were driving, and demanded that he was our man to help us with the border crossing. He would not take no for an answer.
Once we finally arrived at the official border crossing we did elicit his help, and he was quite helpful ensuring that we had all of our paperwork straight. Once out of El Salvador and now into Honduras the fun really began. For some reason Honduras's Customs and Immigration needed more copies of everything we had, requiring multiple times to get copies, go to the back to pay vehicle importation fees and more. It took all of an hour and thirty minutes and we were officially in Honduras. Now it was after lunch and our plan was to cross Honduras in three hours or less, enter Nicaragua and make it to Leon before sun down. Driving across Honduras was uneventful and we made it to the border with Nicaragua. We admired the beauty of Honduras but did not stop. Now at the Nicaraguan border, we did the same old paperwork drill again and found ourselves across the border with about an hour and half of daylight. Finding the road to Leon was easy and we pressed on, but with a heavy rainstorm now and potholes the size of craters. Finally about 20 minutes before dark we arrived in Leon. So far we are very impressed with Nicaragua. The people are friendly, helpful and ask you questions as they like to practice their English. And the landscape is to die for. Stay tuned as we explore Leon.