June 2022, having spent about a month traveling around Guatemala, we ended up in Guatemala City. And then it was time to move on to the city of Santa Ana in El Salvador.
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We found two ways to do that by public transport:
- By comfortable, direct coach for 240 GTQ (some $31). You can search for such here.
- By a combination of local chicken buses, which we finally opted in for, that came up to a total of some $9.
Yet another option—which would be the fastest, comfiest, safest, and still fairly economical for a group—would be to arrange a private transfer here. The lowest fare was $115 when I checked.
We first popped by the coach office to ask about the route. That is named Terminal Galgos International and is located in the city zone 1, 7a Avendia, next to the building of the National Typography and near Tipografia station (exact coordinates: 14.6297, -90.5143). There was quite a queue before the single operating ticket booth, and the clerk was extremely slow. Besides the relatively high cost, we decided to instead take a chicken bus because there were only two coaches running daily at 6 am and 9 pm (too early and too late). The trip would have taken 3-4 hours.
The chicken buses for the El Salvadorian border leave from the junction of 2a calle and 5a avenida a, zone 9, near the bus stop of Torre del Reformador. We headed thither early in the morning. We could have taken the city bus, but since we had to change two of them from our location and make quite a round, we instead called an Uber.
At first, we planned to cross via the border of San Cristobal. But we figured out there was no direct bus to that, and we’d have to change at Jutiapa. Instead, we found a bus for 60 GTQ going directly to the border of Valle Nuevo.
Boarding the bus, we stroke up a conversation with a dude who turned out to be an armed security guard working for the bus company. He proudly showed us the guns he kept tucked into his pants, with which he was supposed to protect us against potential highway robberies.
In the end, despite what they said, we had to change to a minivan in the town of Jalpatagua. But that departed almost immediately and we didn’t have to pay any additional fare. The trip to the border lasted some 4 hours in total.
The border crossing was straightforward and calm. There were no lads touting to assist us with the process—as common at many border crossings in the area. The money changers were polite and nonpersistent. We changed our last quetzales with one of them. At first he gave us quite a bad offer, but we easily bargained that very close to the current official exchange rate. We also attempted to change some euros, but their rates were outright terrible ($40 for €50 best offer—no thanks).
The queue was long at the office to exit Guatemala but it moved rather quickly. The clerk was very friendly and eager to practice his English in spite of my initially speaking to him in Spanish.
Then we walked a couple of hundred meters down the road and across the bridge to the other side of the river Paz and into El Salvador. That side was very chill. The immigration control took place at a little stall under a shed by the roadside. The officer was chummy and jolly. He just cast a quick glance at our documents and let us proceed without stamps, questions, or anything.
Some 50 meters ahead, there was a direct bus about to depart for San Salvador. They wouldn’t enter Santa Ana, but it was an option to be dropped off outside of it and walk or take a taxi. However, we decided to better change two buses and make straight for the center.
We waited some 15 minutes until a bus bound for Ahuachapan showed up. That cost $0.42 and took about 20 minutes to reach the town. From the place it dropped us off, we had to walk some 10 minutes to the stop where the buses to Santa Ana departed from. That is located at 13.9243, -89.8433. The correct bus is the one numbered 210. The ticket cost $0.48, but we ended up paying an extra ticket for the extra seat our backpacks occupied. Less than an hour later, some 8 hours in total since we left our accommodation in Guatemala City in the morning, we were dropped off in the center of Santa Ana, a mere few minutes’ walk to our cute and cheap hotel.
Accommodation and Activities in El Salvador
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