Panama Bound

Life has returned to normal in El Salvador and commerce has resumed, flower sellers are offering their plants to families remembering their dead even though All Souls’ Day is not the big thing it is in Mexico. The roads were procession free with small gatherings of people hanging out together. 

We drove the coast of El Salvador to see what it is like and in point of fact the beaches as usual are mostly inaccessible. Partly through geography and partly through bloody stupid urban planning. 

The geographical layout of the fascinating winding road probably saved it from damage by Tropical Storm Pilar. These photos are courtesy of my wife in the passenger seat. I couldn’t see the ocean as I drove!

We were winding along a heavily forested mountain road hundreds of feet above the water. In no way did it feel like a coast road! 

We made a stupid mistake by not stopping to have lunch at one of the cliff top restaurants overlooking the water. But you have to understand we had a Plan. 

It was a good Plan as plans go but it didn’t work. 

The idea was to spend a night (or two!) parked by the beach south of the main town of La Libertad on the coast. 

I tried to escape the war in the 1980s by visiting the surfing hotspot for a day and found it depressingly run down lacking customers obviously and despite its status as an informal firefight-free zone I couldn’t wait to escape back to the capital. 

Unfortunately even today the town is industrial, dusty and not very appealing. 

The Main Street runs one block back from the beach, parking is scarce and expensive, the people we encountered were dour and after we fought an ATM into submission and had withdrawn a thousand bucks on our Florida Keys bank cards (it’s convenient El Salvador uses the US dollar as it’s currency!) we were ready to flee to our highly recommended iOverlander overnight spot.

Even the parking attendant tried to get me to back into a tree and my usual cheerful interactions with the locals left me feeling like a “touron” that rather cruel term used in the Keys by locals who don’t understand how the economy works in the islands. I was ready to leave when Layne got back from the bank with our cash. 

On the drive across town my eagle eyed passenger spotted a water truck. We asked for three water jugs of purified water at $2:75 each, much more expensive than Mexico. Me showing the locals how tourons siphon water into their thirty gallon RV tank: 

Cristal water is owned by Coca Cola and in Mexico we avoid it as it is the most expensive…

The beach area south of La Libertad was not very appealing. We stopped to ask several timesif we could stay the night but the replies we got were day use only. Beach camping by tourons is not a thing yet in this country! 

Also the irritating habit of putting a cap on entrance gates makes it impossible for our nine foot van to access many spots including the one we were looking for. Inexperienced travelers worry a lot about ground clearance but air draft is much more critical in our driving explorations. Low hanging wires and trees and parking areas blocked by stupid low gates…Plus unlike Mexico there is no legal requirement for public beach access. We drove miles of private property separating us from the beach. 

We gave up and drove inland looking for an open space to stop and make lunch. No luck on that either as we drove into the mountains. The cliff top fish restaurants were distant memories in our rear view mirrors! 

Finally we found a cool crisp sanctuary at Finca (Farm) Macedonia at 2500 feet and made fresh acquaintance with the 43 year old Mercedes farm truck that pulled us from the mud on our last visit: 

We had a much delayed meat lunch (sausages in the photo) at the restaurant and retired to GANNET2 for a nap in anticipation of evening rains that never materialized. 

We still plan to drive to Nicaragua this weekend making a fast four hour crossing of Honduras to get there. Further south Panama is in an uproar and the country is shut down by a general strike so effective it is veering into violence. We have serious doubts we can make our container date at the end of the month in Panama City as things stand and we may need to do some serious re-thinking. 

Meanwhile we will continue to tour what we can and figure out alternative routes. For now the road to South America is closed. 

It’s all about a mining contract with a Canadian corporation that was approved with no public input and is viewed as a national sell out. Farmers can’t get produce to market. Protestors and counter protestors are fighting.

 Lawmakers say they daren’t rescind the contract lest Mineria Panama sue them for billions. The Supreme Court refuses to take the case and declare the contract unconstitutional.  No one knows what happens next. This is the route to Colombia: