We crossed the road to get our bus that left at the stupid time of 4am! It was a 'first class' bus but it wasn't a patch on Cruz del sur in Peru.
The attendant took our passports and we didn't even need to get checked at the borders. We had to cross through Honduras to reach el Salvador and at every border we didn't have to move. When we got our passports back we found that we didn't have an exit stamp for Nicaragua or an entry stamp for el Salvador this worried us but the attendant said it was fine. We even got a chicken and rice takeout box on board the coach which was a nice change! Still not worth the $50 bus ticket though.
After 11 hours we arrived in San Salvador the capital of el Salvador, and there were no hotels to be found! This was annoying, we headed to one we looked at online but when we got there they had doubled in price from their online price. We swiftly left and got a taxi to the shadier part of town.
Here we found the tica bus terminal and booked our bus to Honduras for a couple of days time so that we wouldn't be caught out again. We then started walking towards a hotel in the guidebook, the sun was setting so we didn't have much choice. It was cheap and the room had 4 beds in so we took it. It didn't have WiFi so that was annoying and although the sheets were clean the floor and especially the bathroom were NOT. Dan's feet were black from walking once from the bed to the bathroom and back. I found it hilarious.
The next day we scouted out nearby hotels and all were as bad or worse and none had WiFi which was a shame because we actually had no idea what we should do in el Salvador. We decided to check in to the hotel in the tica bus terminal even though it was overpriced it was at least clean which is saying something for this part of the city.
We took a walk around and to find a pizza hut Dan had found on his maps. The whole city was so chaotic. Every single street and road was lined with market stalls selling everything and anything! We even saw a man with about 1000 shoelaces all over him to sell, and market stalls just selling men's belts. We eventually found the pizza hut and it was good!
We headed back to the hotel and used the WiFi to try and organise a day trip for tomorrow but they were so expensive!
We decided to get the bus to Suchitoto, a small little town not far from San Salvador. We got a taxi to the bus station which was not a pleasant ride as he took us down the back roads of San Salvador to get there, down brothel alley, not fun.
Eventually we jumped on a chicken bus to Suchitoto, as soon as we set off a man jumped on harping on about Jesus. Usually people do this, for charity or dressed as clowns and say something for a few minutes ask for money then jump off and do it all again. This guy stood right in front of us literally shouting about the bible for one entire hour, near enough the whole journey! It was excruciating! To be honest I think he just did it so he didn't have to pay the bus fare!
Suchitoto was a lovely little cobbled town with a square and a church. We headed for something to eat at a place that did Panini's and bagels! Yum! We wandered around the town, which took no time at all, visiting the miniscule park and then we stumbled upon an artisans market. There we found a painting! Its only the second piece of art since we've stared the trip! We then came across a crazy 'museum' called 1000 plates and more... It sounded terrible and only cost $1. We obviously went to go look. It was as horrible as it sounds, there were cheesy plates lining the walls grouped in themes; Elvis Presley, Jesus, countries etc. It was weird and a bit creepy and I'm pretty sure there
weren't 1000 of them! It did however fulfill its purpose of wasting time so that was an advantage.
In the end we spent longer getting to and from Suchitoto then in the actual town itself. The bus ride back was also excruciating because we got stuck in traffic and so the journey took twice as long as on the way there!
The next day we got a bus to Honduras and Dan checked us in, which took forever, because they were still selling people tickets for buses in the coming days whilst making people queue to check in for the coach that left in ten minutes. Dan was very irate, 40 mins later after joining the queue we hopped on the bus back to Honduras! We also didn't get an exit stamp for el Salvador, so apart from our painting we have nothing to prove we even went to el Salvador!