Saving time or saving money....

When travelling you tend to try and live and travel on as little money as possible, partly to do with personal budget but mainly just to see actually how far and how much you can achieve on very little money at all, its just a challenge. It also gives you a chance to travel the local exprience rather than an easy tourist one, this way you get imersed in lots of fun craziness and probably have lots of stories to tell at the end. This can get a bit ridiculous though and Im not a student so dont need to get by on the absolute cheapest options available, I have a bit of leaway and would rather treat myself to a slightly nicer room and great meals out sometimes (bare in mind this can be done for very little over here)

It was time to leave lovely Antigua and start making our way south. San Salvador was our 1st stop. As usuall we set off later than expected so were in a bit of a rush in order to catch the easy 1st class Tica bus from Guatemala City straight to San Salvador. These Tica buses are a bit more expensive, but genrally clean, efficient, straight forward, get you accross borders and where you need to be in a good amount of time and with minimal hasle, which is needed and very welcome some times. We had already decided not to get the shuttle bus from Antigua to Guete City as this was slightly more expensive than the chicken bus, a bit more boring and just a bit too easy. Age wanted to experience local chicken buses (I already have many times) and so you should when travelling around, these are old jazzed up American school buses, jammed packed with locals and a really fun if very cramped way to travel short distaces, but not recomended for longer journeys! The 1.5hr bus journey cost 8 Quetzal = 59p

Money saving 1:0 time saving

We missed our Tica bus . Bugger

A friendly guy that Age met on the bus has decided to help us get from A-B, crapy bus stop to crappy dirty down town bus station, his help is really appreciated, we bus across the city for 1 Queztal = 7p
So lets find our own way to cross the border into El Salvador and make our own way to the capital. This is cheaper, so great, but trickier eek! and now we actually have no choice anyway as were stuck in down town grimy Guatemala City at 2pm and we just have to find a bus to the border quick sticks in order to get there before sun sets. There is a million men hassleing us to get on their bus to the frontier, but we have to go on a treck with our really freakin haevy bags in the hot hot afternoon sun, for more local currency as we havent enough, 20min later, 40 Queztal = 2.95 in hand each, we board the 2nd class bus, sit at the back, our bags have to go in the isles, in betwwen our feet, on our laps, everything gets moved a million times so as to cram as many people onto the bus as humanly possible, and then, once every single seat is filled, and the bus is very hot, 6-8 plastic stools are placed in the isle so that yet more people can be squeezed on, so we are effectively 3 deep about 3 quarters of the way to the front of the bus, wow, no we are ready for our 4hour journey to the border. It is fine, not great, but fine. We arrive at the border at 18:45pm, the sun has set, it is dark and we are thirsty.

Money saving 2:0 time saving

Off we toddle, heavy bags on back accross the border, thank goodness its still open, but think that we may have to find a hotel nearby as the busses have stopped running and to get a taxi now would defeat the whole purpose! The border cost us 10 Q this wasnt an official price just the old man in the qiosk wanted money, enough for a beer as it was late, what can be done hey!
So, its past 7pm, weve made it to El Salvador, its great to be back inthis amazing country,but not sure ho much further we can get. Santa Ana, a City 1hr from SanSalvador is only 30min away but taxi is our only option - or is it...? We get chatting to the border police, Jorge and Jose, really friendly guys, who just happen to be holding huge weapons (goes with the teritory here). Bizarly they offer to leave their post and take us to a small town nearby 15min away, this is so so kind. We discuss for a minute either to take them up on their offer or grab a taxi all the way to Santa Ana, anyway, as were discussing this, Jorge is on his radio and discovers that his sargent, Paz is stranded between this little town and Santa Ana as his truck has broken down, so Jorge offers us a lift all the way to Santa Ana, result! Is this a bit to good to be true? a free police escort accross El Salvador safely to a hotel. In some countires I think some of the police cant be trusted, but these guys just seemed super friendly, wanted to practice their English and I think it was just a well come escape from guarding the border, so bags in toe, we jumped aboard the police truck, along with Jorge, Jose and 2 other armed guys and off we went into the night. This was so exciting, and quite surreal! We stopped mid way to meet the sargent who was broken down, and he joined us plus another police guy on route to Santa Ana.

Money saving 3:1 time saving - horah!

Now time was ticking on, it was coming up to 20:30pm and we had read that genrally hotels and hostels close at 20:00pm, oh well, little we can do now and we are in the safest hands possible, brilliant. So here we are, in the back of a police truck, surrounded by 6 heavliy armed El Salvadorian police, searching for a hostel that we had marked in our guide book. The streets are deserted, and quite eery, there is no sign of the hostel and we are bang inthe middle of a deserted market so were quite glad about that, but not sure where to go next. So, Jorge is driving around pointing out motels, we stop at 1 and the sarge jumps out to go inspect in for us and ask the price, its not great and its a bit more than we wanted to pay so we all decide to carry on looking, this is so so bizare, and Age and I are really aware of the situation now and decide to just take the next hotel they offer, its not like we can drive around much longer with these police, weve taken enough of their time and they are not here to be our tour guides. We come across a hotel, it looks a bit crappy but Sarge Paz hops out and agrees a small rate of $9 for the night, we just hope the room is clean. We say our goodbyes and get a couple of photos and wave the guys off into the night. The hotel owner has a face like a slapped bum, he is not pleased at being disturbed at 21:30pm by 6 armed police with 2 gringos in tow, but thank goodness we see the room and its ok, not a cockroach in sight and its fairly clean and airy, and once we go down stairs to pay, the owner has managed to crack a smile probably with relief that the police have gone, so all is well.

Money saving 4:1 time saving - a pretty good result all in all, with a total cost of 3.61 in English pounds and 10hrs in world time, we arrived not far from our chosen destination. Rather than it costing 15.41 pounds but only 7hrs.

Bloomin long day, sweaty, hard and tiring, but cheap as chips and a lot more interesting & exciting than taking a tourist bus. I think though, sometimes its good to do it this way and other times give ourselves a break, take the easy option and use the spare energy and time you save to explore your new destination.