Canada to El Salvador

The trip from Sarnia to Toronto Airport was uneventful. The flight was at 9:30 AM and we arrived little early at 5:30 AM. While that may seem excessively early, it was quite good. We were able to get 2nd in line at the check in counter and have lots of time to go across the road in Terminal 3 to the Sheraton Hotel for a great breakfast buffet and not be rushed to eat.

Surprisingly getting thru security was a snap, a total of 5 minutes and I was through. Still having problems with the security guys not understanding that computers need cables and attachments and they really don’t need to get everything unpacked to see what it is. Security in Europe was so much better trained. They would scan the bag see a laptop and cables and that was it. Oh well.

The flight was packed. Not an empty seat on the plane. Surprisingly enough, there was not a single baby seated anywhere near me. The food was typical crap but the service was good and overall I like TACA.

Landing was interesting. Since this is the first time that I have flown into El Salvador in the rainy season I wasn’t sure what the approach would be. Unlike my previous flights where they fly out over the ocean and come back to the airport, this time they fly through the mountains complete with the turbulence to get a straight on shot to the runway.

Once we had landed and collected the baggage it was time for immigration. The lady that served me asked if I spoke Spanish and I told her a little she immediately switched to English and asked me how long I would be staying and where I would be staying. I told her about 60 days and I would be staying all over. Gave her the $10 fee for the tourist card and that was it. Simple and straight forward. Best immigration procedure I have experienced in Central America.

We were meet by a friend of Isabel’s and got all the baggage and ourselves loaded into the back of pick up for the 2 hour trip to Isabel’s mother’s house. Things were going well then about 40 minutes into the trip the heaven’s opened up and we were drenched. While I don’t mind the occasional drenching I wasn’t too pleased about the luggage. It was totally soaked and took 2 days to get completely dry. I had thought about packing everything inside a large garbage bag or leaf bag but didn’t. Lesson learned.

After a very good night’s sleep I was ready for day 1 in El Salvador.

More to follow …