Puerto Acajutla

23 June

We left Amatitlan and headed south to El Salvador.  The border crossing from Guatemala to El Salvador took about 3+ hours to transit between the two countries.  Lots of paper work and we had our VIN checked three times by three different officials.  Norm was doing paperwork and Sandra got asked questions by an official and we received a panicked call for Trinora to come help.   The official was very nice and professional, so things weren’t too traumatic for Sandra or Roger, who I left alone in our RV’s. 

We then drove on to Puerto Acajutla, which took about 2 hours.  We are camped at an El Salvador Naval Base.  

Calling the building a base is a stretch, as there is just one large building.  For example, in front of the main building is the volleyball net.  We talked with some sailors and they said that their mission is to make sure Guatemalan fishermen aren’t fishing in El Salvador’s waters.  Small boat fishing and not commercial fishing is the concern.  When asked about narco-traffic, they said they didn’t have the problem.

The beach water is warm, and the sand is dark.  We took a walk on the beach and the sun is strong.  We saw several guys playing soccer on the beach.  One guy had some fancy foot work.  The rest were just playing for the sport.  

We also watched a man net fish for lisa fish.  He had 4 in his bag and caught 4 more while we were around.  I asked him if the fish were bait or to eat and he said to eat.  I thought they were rather small eating fish.

It is rather sticky here, but we’ll survive.  It beats the alternative which was to stay at the border and listen to diesel truck idle all night long.