Shuttle across four borders

The shuttle is my preferred means of transportation in Central America. Not because of its comfort but because of the door-to-door service that shuttle companies offer. They pick you up at your hotel (as long as it is in town) and then drop you off at your new destination (as long as it is in town). Drivers, there are always two, load/unload your luggage and carry it to/from the van. Easy. Couldn’t be more convenient for someone like me.

Someone who travels with a suitcase.

If you like comfort if you like to travel in style then you need to take a bus. Some bus companies (e.g. Hedman) provide super fancy buses equipped with super fancy latest gadgets, bathrooms, bed like seats, foot/head/armrests, blankets, pillows, air con, snacks… AND… they are cheaper than the shuttle.

So, why don’t I take a bus? Because buses operate only between bus stations. There is no pickup and there is no drop-off. To get to the bus station and later from the bus station to my new destination I need to take a taxi.

Traveling with a suitcase is stressful enough. Traveling with a suitcase and having to deal with 50 years old piece of junk called the taxi and taxi drivers too smart for their own good is a tad more than I like to handle. Immobilized by my suitcase I am the target and, quite frankly, I hate to put myself in a vulnerable situation. Add to that the messy and sweaty job of dragging/pulling the suitcase on a dirt ‘paved’ station while looking for the right bus. Nah, thank you very much. Not a good way to start a trip. I’d walk to the station… if I only had a backpack. But I don’t. so I take a shuttle.

Shuttles take about 12 people. No fancy gadgets, not much room leg, in fact, no much room at all (unless you sit right behind the driver), but 3-5 hours on the road is easy enough to manage. You can add few hours if the shuttle is half empty or if you are half the age. 

It is 680 km between León in Nicaragua and Antigua in Guatemala, four borders, and 14-16 hours on a two-lane (one lane in each direction) pretty bad (most of the time) and busy road. My plan was to travel 4-5 hours at a time, make a two, three-day stopover in Honduras and then in El Salvador before reaching my final destination in Guatemala. The ‘master plan’ behind it was not only to make the trip easier on my bones but (above all) to take a glimpse at the two no-go zones – Honduras and El Salvador. A little adrenaline kick. 

Things didn’t quite work out as planned. There was nowhere to stop in Honduras. There was no town, no village, no hotel en route to Guatemala where the shuttle could drop me off and later pick me up. If I wanted to stop in Honduras, I’d need to travel some 14 hours to the Caribbean side (wrong direction) or take a chicken bus and go offroad which was not an option. Thus, I had to abandon my wish to spend time in Honduras and traveled directly to El Tunco in El Salvador.

Border crossing

Note: the shuttle leaves León at 2 a.m. (not fun). The same time also applies from the other direction – Antigua. 

Crossing all four borders went smooth – another advantage of taking the shuttle. 12 people vs 50 can save a good few hours. In addition, whenever possible, the drivers do the job for you: collect passports and exit/entry fees so you don’t even have to leave the van. They all speak English and, if need be, help with translations and assist with immigration. Should there be a problem at the border, the shuttle will wait for you. The bus will not.

NOTE VISA: when you enter one of these four countries, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, you enter them all: that is you need only one visa (if you need any) to enter the foursome. Also, the total time you can stay in the area is three months – you will not get another three months just because you e.g. leave Honduras for El Salvador.

Nicaragua EXIT – very easy. Fee 7 USD. (4 for Nicaragua exit and 3 for Honduras entry). The driver collected all passports and exit/entry fees. We stayed in the van. The whole procedure took maybe 15 minutes.

Honduras ENTRY. Potentially most time-consuming border. We were lucky – first ones to arrive. Only one immigration window was open. We were photographed and fingerprinted. All in all 40 minutes. A bus full of people can waste a good few hours on this border.

note 1: VERY IMPORTANT – make sure you have your fingerprints taken otherwise it may cost you 200 USD in penalty/bribe during exit. Sometimes people traveling on chicken buses miss that moment (and I wonder if they are not deliberately misled into doing that). Make sure you are not one of them.

note 2: try not to lose the small pieces of paper immigration officers put into your passport

Entering Honduras was like entering another planet. We almost drowned in the sea of rubbish. Plastic bottles, paper, wrappings. containers – you name it. Shocking. I never saw anything like that. The road was very bad and boring. Other than dead trees along the way, on either side, there was nothing else to see. Depressing.

Honduras EXIT – no glitches. No fees. They matched out fingerprints with the ones taken during entry. Make sure you have your fingerprints taken during entry.

El Salvador ENTRY – walk in the park. No fees. Some 10 immigration windows open. This border is nicknamed ‘the easy one’.

Entering El Salvador felt like leaving a bad dream behind. Only a few hundred meters in the country we stopped at the gas station to fill up the tank and to have a breakfast. I wasn’t going to have any. But once I saw the station and the breakfast they served I changed my mind. Super modern and spotless place serving fresh just cooked appetizing looking, deliciously tasting breakfast. And they charged in USD. Like Panama, El Salvador adopted USD as its own currency. I couldn’t resist.

Three hours later we arrived at El Tunco, a beach resort on the Pacific coast and my ‘fun in the sun’ place for the next three days. Three days later the shuttle once again picked me up and I continued my journey to Guatemala. 

note: the shuttle is scheduled for 12 (ish), however, it may be delayed if there were some border issues or tons of traffic – after all, it comes all the way from León in Nicaragua. We left on time. (If the eventual delay is substantial they send another shuttle to meet the delayed one.)

El Salvador EXIT: walk in the park. No fees

Guatemala ENTRY: walk in the park. No fees. It took four hours from the start in El Tunco to the drop off in Antigua.

Security

“It is safe here BUT if you go to X… then ...” Then I go to X … and they tell me exactly the same thing. Over and over again; in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala.

So I asked some more, this time in Facebook groups. And ‘they’ tell me “Don’t go“, “Are you crazy?”, “I would never go“. “I have heard this, and I have heard that“, “My friend told me“, and so on and so forth. El Salvador and Honduras are no-go zones – by second, third, fourth hand accounts. Not once did anyone tell me: “This happened to ME while visiting X“. All the stories, every single one of them, were referring to other people’s accounts. 

The very few blogs I found written by people who actually visited the no-go zone countries were nothing but positive. They all described humble, welcoming and generous people who only wanted to show the beauty of their countries and to help.

… and the rumors?

What about the rumors of shuttles (used almost exclusively by tourists) traveling at night being targeted by gangs? It happened once or twice many years ago that a gang held up and robbed the shuttle but it is an extremely rare occurrence. If anything, the chicken buses are at more risk. 

What about tourists being mugged at knifepoint? That can happen anywhere in the world if you’re dumb enough to stroll a no-go zone alone and drunk in the middle of the night. 

Ok then, so what about the statistics? According to the statistics, the triangle Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala is one of the most violent regions in the world; according to the statistics, Honduras is rated today as number one homicide country in the world (it used to be El Salvador) and its current political unrest makes matters even worse; according to the statistics …

All true, HOWEVER, all those crimes are drug and gang dominance related. So, unless you are a gang member, sell drugs, or walk around alone at 2 a.m. drunk and vulnerable you have nothing to worry about. For extra precaution don’t travel at night and don’t show off all your bling – but, as anywhere else in the world, use common sense. Amen.

And above all – enjoy your trip and have fun. 

p.s. Happy Birthday Linnea