Honduran Border Crossing

Day 16, 2012  San Salvador, El Salvador to Choluteca, Honduras

Gas: $19.25 US  El Salvador currency is US Dollars and they sell gasoline by the gallon!  It is over $4 per gallon
Miles: 187
Food:  We had an El Salvadoran buffet at an open air bakery cafe for $11.50 just outside of San Miguel and then in Choluteca we went to the Pizza Hutbfor pizza and Pepsi for $275 Honduran Limpira.  Damn that pizza was good.  The Pizza Hut was very modern and nice.  We had to hire a taxi to find a bank that would take MasterCard to get cash and we stopped at Pizza Hut, picked up pizza and brought it back to the hotel room.


Hotel:  $700 limpira  I think there was a gringo tax added but hard to argue when it is getting dark and you have no idea where another hotel is.   We wondered around Choluteca for quite awhile and finally decided to ask a young man on a small motorcycle to take us to the nicest hotel in town.  I think something was lost in translation, but the important things are here; air conditioning, shower, wi-fi. 
Exchange rate:  $1 US dollar = $18.67 Limpira

Border Crossing from El Salvador to Honduras at El Amatillo:  Where do I start?  It took us 4 hours and it was hot and humid.  Remember in the last post there was a picture of 2 young men that helped us at the Guatemala/El Salvador border.  Well, the one said he was going to call his friend at El Amatillo to help us at the border.  Despite very good advice from Carlos, we took their help.  We laid down the ground rules right away but it all went to hell in a hand basket anyway.  When we got to the first stop Carl went past the speed bump and the kids told me that he was going to have to pay a fine of $60 but not to worry, they would take care of it and it would only cost us $20.  The next thing I know the Aduana (customs) official has our original paperwork for the bikes and us and then he gives them to the "helpers".  They explained to us that it was lunch time and we had to wait for them to have lunch and they would get it all done.  I kept saying "no, I want to do it and I want my paperwork back"   Well, the aduana guy had it and it just continued to get worse.  The kid did do all the work and the other one stayed with us and explained what was going on and why it was taking so long.  Well, finally we have all of our paperwork in hand and the kids want paid back for the fees that they paid for us. When we start to settle up with the kids, they were telling us that the exchange rate the bank at the border gave them was $8.75 Limpira for $1USD.  Fortuneately, I had checked the exchange rates in all of the countries 2 days ago and made a list.  The exchange rate was $1 USD =$18.67 Limpira.  The kids insisted that was what the bank charged them at the border.  After a lot of talking, threatening them with their pictures smeared all over ADVRider and Horizon's unlimited websites while Carl was snapping their pictures,  they accepted the rate I had.  Longer story gone bad, it ended up costing us $150!  (boy are there some lessons learned today!)  They had 2 receipts one for $3 X2 for immigration and one for aduana which was $506 limpira X2 for the motorcycles which totaled about $64.
It was so nice to have a comment on the blog from our oldest grandson, Hayden!  About chocked up Grandma and Grandpa!