Modern Malls and Junk Food Galore

The journey to El Salvador was, of course, far from simple! We caught a shuttle bus to Guatemala City easily enough (although it was fairly squashed up and i love the sight of the dutch in shuttle buses- they seem to have their legs folded around their heads!) and made it to our bus station. We were told that the 2pm bus was full and leaving now (it was only 1.30pm!) but that there would be another at 2.30 so not to worry. We went to the ticket counter and i asked, just to be sure, when the next bus was. The answer was v confusing... it seeemed to be 3 or 3.30pm. i sked which and was met with a dirty look and a muttering which sounded like "it goes when it goes"... hmmmm!

We waited around, had some lunch and then 3pm came so i asked again.

"oh no" came the response "there is no 3pm bus- its at 4pm"

We were somewhat annoyed by that but realised we´d just have to wait as no one seemed capable of giving us a firm answer! eventually at 4.30 after a 3 hour wait, we got on the bus and found we had the "scary seats" right behinf the driver! the name proved to be correct as the driver wound the bus, a 40 year old grayhound reject, around tight corners whilst going far too fast and chatting on his mobile! In the end it got too much when i realised he had one hand on the phone and the other behind his head- ie NO hands on the wheel and i shouted at him (in spanish- get me!) that it was dangerous and against the law. after that he at least used a hands free kit but persisted in driving like  total maniac- i just ended up closig my eyes and turning my i pod up!!

When we got to the border i was delighted to get stamped out of Guatemala as that isn`t supposed to happen- they have a 4 country agreement with el salvador, nicaragua and honduras so you get one stamp for all of them for a 90 day total stay. as i wanted more than 90 days i thought we`d get a stamp at the el salvador side but they refused to give us one! they said the border officials in guatemala were stupid and that my original entry stamp was still ok. whilst this was going on in Spanish,Alexis was getting more and more wound up,even though I told her it was ok. She ended up throwing a massive tantrum and crying and screaming at the border guard- not really a good idea! I was shocked by this but put it down to exhaustion- something i was to later realise wasn`t the case- she just had the shortest fuse known to mankind and thought throwing a tantrum would solve everything for her!

Eventually i cajoled her back into the bus and we made it incident free to the capital. San Salvador was quite a shock to me! I was expecting another Guatemala city and instead it looked more like a modern american city- lots of malls, fast food outlets and glitzy neon signs! We arrived at our hostel in town and went straight out for a bite to eat as we were starving- the choice was dazzling as long as you wanted fast food!

The following day we took full advantage of the malls and i shopped til i dropped, buying cosmetics i couldn`t get in Guatemala (including conditioner!) and a few non essentials as a treat! It was really nice to get shopping as i hadn`t realised how much i`d missed modern comforts til i had them again!

After dragging ourselves out of the mall we made our way downtown (via the wrong bus station- damn you lonely planet and your incorrent info, second time lucky!) to get the bus to the coast.