Departamento de Chiquimula

We wanted to start our trip through El Salvador in Santa Ana as this was supposed to be a good starting point for Ruta de las Flores. There was a tourist shuttle running from Copan to El Salvador which would stop in Santa Ana, San Salvador and at the beach in El Tunco. But the shuttle was $40 even if you would get of at the first stop in Santa Ana. And as we were the three of us traveling together we decided to make our way there by public busses. The shortest way to get to Santa Ana was through Guatemala and as we are all happy to collect more stamps in our passport anyway we decided to take that route.
The first bus we took was a really crowded minivan from Copan Ruinas back to the border of Guatemala. Here we went back over the border the same way I came just a few days ago (but this time everybody was sober ;)). From here we took another minivan to Chiquimula in Guatemala where we were dropped at a bus station in the center. Chiquimula was a pretty crowded city with street venders everywhere but people were really friendly and showed us how to walk the few blocks to the other bus station where our next bus to Anguiatú at the Border to El Salvador would leave. In Chiquimula there was some Motorcycle Festival happening.
In Anguiatú the bordercrossing was a little confusing. We got our stamp for leaving Guatemala like we were used to but when we went to the office of El Salvador the refused to give us a stamp. We were a little scared to enter the country without a proper proof that we did this the official way. And like I said before it's always a nice memory to carry in your passport. I knew that Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua have one 90-day-visa for all four countries but so far the others still gave us a new stamp everytime we crossed the border anyway. But the officer explained to us that in El Salvador you only get the stamp if you enter from or leave to a country other than theses 4 (by boat or plane).
Behind the border there was already the next bus waiting which would bring us to Metapán where we changed one last time for our final bus to Santa Ana. All together it took us almost 8 hours compared to maybe 5-6 on the tourist shuttle but we also paid less than $10 and saw a lot of different cities and landscapes and people along our way in 3 different countries.Read more