Border Day. Always exciting.
May 18th. 119 miles
we got to the border in two hours from Santa Rosa. We got out of Honduras for free, in 15 minutes. We drove the long gap between borders and spend about 30-40 minutes at the Guate office. It was $5 for the permiso, which you pay at the bank window. Got a sticker and immigration was free. we could not have snuck past either of these two gates with out getting the paperwork done.
Its different at every border, even within the same country.
The road to Ipala was nice, cool high, great mountains. We ate lunch in Esquipulas, happy to have tortillas again. Towards Ipala and a small dirt road for an hour brings you to the small town. Closes early with few diner options.
To explain the picture above of the strange looking shower head. This is the central american version of "hot water shower". They are fairly common in the cooler mountain areas. Affectionately called a suicide shower. It uses an electrical resistance element similar to a range top in the shower head to heat up the water. So if you touch the shower head while the water is on you get a little shock. It's a bit sketchy, you just have to stay aware and you get a nice warm shower.
