HINTS TO ENTER EL SALVADOR BY CAR:

Entering El Salvador with our car from Guatemala was trouble free and without bigger annoyances. To get the temporary import permission for Your car You will have to fill out documents, have Your car revised by customs (and finally again by the police!) and pay some minor administration fees. Have US$ handy as You will need to pay some fees in $. We crossed the border on a festive weekend which seemed to be better in terms of queuing as there was no other people, cars or trucks entering at all. While there is a lot of so called "guides" offering to help to go through this process we prefered to do this on our own. The only difficulty was to find the right office to begin. Afterwards they always told us where to go next and things happened quite easily.

A big help is always to have some copies of Your passport, drivers license and car registration handy. At almost every border crossing You will need these.

First office to begin:
After leaving El Salvador You will go across a bridge and see a small office right after the bridge at the left handside. Here the whole thing starts - and they hand You out the necessary documents which You will have to fill out.

Attention:
At a certain point You will have to make and pay for copies for the documents that have the stamp of the customs person that revised Your car.
Be aware - and this is the same hassle at most of the bordercrossings in central america - make sure that add-ons like stamps, signatures a.s.o. are done on ALL THE COPIES as otherwise You might end up doing and paying for copies again that carry all the information. The worst border Crossing in this means was Leaving El Salvador and entering Honduras... - See hints and tips for this really hassling and complicated bordercrossings further down.

Process of entering EL Salvador in short terms:
1. Fill out documents and get some stamps at the small office after the bridge on the left handside entering from Guatemala.
2. Customs - Building: Personal entry with Passport
3. Customs - Building: Organise revision of car from Customer representative
4. Pay 1US$ at the bank (End of Customs building) for Customs revision (Enjoy seeing what effort they produce to get this 1US$)
5. Get some Stamps that this whole process has been done (First Office at Customs building)
6. Get Copies of the stamped, new documents
7. Have the police revise Your car again (Have the Copies stamped from the officer again)
8. Drive passed the Customs building - leave the copies...
9. Enter....

HINTS TO LEAVE EL SALVADOR BY CAR and ENTER HONDURAS

Leaving El Salvador with our car and entering Honduras was our worst and most hassling border crossing at our whole expedition across Central America. I will try to remember what You will need to make Your exit and Your entrance to Honduras a little better than ours. The main problem at this border crossing was that the officers at the different places sometimes intentionally made us miss some things (stamps, copies a.s.o) and we ended up driving back and forth different places, queing each time again. 

First Hint: Be early in the morning, Have copies ready and try to be in a good mood. ;)

We slept at the Texaco fuel station close to the border (right hand side) and had to pay 2$ to do so. Bargain!!!
You can take a shower in the small cabin on the right handside of the parking lot. 

Leaving El Salvador by car starts about 500 meters after the Texaco fuel station where You'll see a fenced aerea on the right hand side with a lot of trucks parked inside (and possibly alongside). Unofficially dressed people tried to stop us there but we first drove passed to return some 30 minutes later as we learned that initial things have to be done right there.

The boarder Crossing to leave El Salvador consists of 3 major places to organise and do things:

1. Fenced aerea with trucks inside (about 2.5 km's in front of the border) - about 500 meters after theTexaco fuel station.
2. Barrier 1 km after the fenced aerea.
3. Border with Customs offices and Exit.

1. Fenced aerea (2.5 kms's in front of the border)

Don't drive inside this fenced aerea as they want to charge You for parking - just stay alongside the road at the entry of this lot.

Ok... - where to start..? First I have to say that there was so many things that happened (and happened wrong) that I can hardly remember everything the right way. We were sent back and forth different places and had to queue every time again. 

To Do's at this fenced aerea before the border:

1. Exit-stamp in Your passport  (Personal exit) 
2. Inspection of  Vehicle with a stamp of the officer (on the temporary import document of Your car)  that You are carrying all the goods with which You entered El Salvador and the car with the right VIN-Nr.
3. 3-4 Copies of the car papers (car import documents, registration, drivers license, passport?)

You will need to pay some minor fees for the copies.

Don't leave this place without this stamp of the officer or without the copies.

2. Barrier (1 km later)

Here the officer checks these papers, checks the STAMP and takes a full set of copies. Possibly Your car will be inspected again.

3. Border

You will need to park Your car. 

Here You have to find a customs officer inspecting Your car again, making another stamp, stating that You are still carrying the right car and the right other temporarily imported items. With this statement You will have to get to a customs person with a computer, cancelling the temporary import permission of Your car in the customs files. 

After this You carry the same documents (2 copies) with this new stamps which should allow You to leave El Salvador.

Make sure that the Officer makes these stamps on ALL the copies - otherwise You will need to get new copies that carry this new stamp before You can go to the exit barrier.

In our case there was a huge queue for the officer on the computer. A nice guide (which we finally hired to get into Honduras) helped us to enter the customs offices to get this done first hand. (We still had to queue until this process was done).

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Volcano Expeditions / Vulkan Expeditionen / Hints & Tips / Trails to active volcanoes 
Copyright © 2003 Marius Staerkle "volcano expeditions around the pacific (ring of fire)"
Date: 18th May 2004