So it was supposed to take us two and a half hours to get from Antigua to the El Salvadorian border. We left at 10:30, but by midday we had only made it 20km.
Over the last few days we'd been having a few electrical problems, but after speaking to his Dad and doing a lot of tinkering around Tom thought he'd solved the issues. But just outside of Antigua the bike started to splutter badly again, and once we were in stop-start traffic it continuously cut out. We ended up stuck in rather a hellhole of a town where we sat on the side of the road choking on truck fumes wondering what to do.
So we did what we always do in times of motorcycle-related doubt, and called Rod again. He took us through a few things, all of which were fine. Pretty sure it was electrical, Tom crimped the ignition connections. The bike started on the first kick which was a very good sign, so we decided to carry on and just see how we went. The bike ran beautifully (which was fortunate as we ended up going steeply uphill for a solid twenty minutes) and we were soon cruising along the Pan American Highway. But after about 40km the spluttering restarted; keeping the bike running while dodging potholes big enough to swallow the front wheel soon had Tom rather frustrated. Then the rain started, but we powered on through the downpour trying to get to the border before it got dark. We made it there by 4pm, and were immediately harassed by the dozens of 'helpers' wanting us to pay them to help us go through the border crossing process. We knew from previous borders and from reading other blogs that this really wasn't necessary, so we told them no thank you and did it ourselves. However I did have a nice chat with one of them while Tom was sorting out the bike, a great way to practice my new Spanish and I think I did pretty well! The process was very easy - we got our passports stamped in the right hand side of the blue building, then went over to the left to get the bike stamped out. We needed copies of the import papers, vehicle title, drivers license and passport which we luckily already had, and within 20 minutes were crossing the bridge to the El Salvadorian side. After the bridge the Aduana staff directed us over the the right, where they took further copies of the above documents and checked the VIN and plates. They then took the papers into the office while we waited for about half an hour (I was happy as Larry playing with the local puppies) and then they told Tom to go down to immigration to get the bike stamped in. Strangely we didn't need to get our passports stamped on this side, they just checked the little piece of paper we were given when being stamped out of Guatemala. And that was it! We were in El Salvador. We head off towards the Ruta de Las Flores, a lovely road that goes through many pretty villages down to the coast. We stopped just twenty minutes from the border in a lovely little town called Concepion de Ataco, and pulled up at Segen Hostel which had a lovely big gated courtyard for the bike and large comfortable rooms for us.
Wondering around town we were confronted with a massive fireworks display which we still don't know the purpose of. But it was a lovely way to be welcomed into El Salvador, even if the health and safety aspect was somewhat questionable. Having not eaten since breakfast, we found a local Pupuseria, serving El Salvador's specialty: Pupusas - little disks of dough filled with all manner of ingredients that are totally delicious.
The town is a hot spot for El Salvadorians taking a break from city life on the weekends, so it being Friday night the town had a wonderful buzz to it. Slightly strange were the machine gun-wielding soldiers on every street corner - not that we were complaining but it was a strange sight in what seemed to be such a sweet, safe town.
It's safe to say that we slept soundly that night, and in terms of silver linings we would never have stopped in this quaint little town if we hadn't had bike issues; we'd have gone straight to the coast! We'll stay here another night so Tom can (hopefully) fix the bike and then head down to the coast on Sunday. It's all part of the adventure (I keep telling myself) and I'm sure we'll end up on the side of the road of many a town before we reach Brazil!