Salvador....

The easiest title for a blog based on a film title....

We managed to get into El Salvador with a Right Hand Drive car but only just. You can get a letter of permission if you know the correct people. Turns out some of our traveling buddies do know the right people so now do we. We Emailed him and about a month later we had a letter to say we could come in. Trouble is the letter we got on the 4th July expired on the 10th and we had read it as the permission started on the 10th. It didn't. It started on the 10th June and ended on the 10th July. The very day we had been waiting to get into El Salvador was the day when it ended. So thankful the helper the guy had sent to the border called and we got him to talk to Aduana's (customs) and we were let in on the condition we got another corrected letter the same day !!! This he did and we got it hand delivered to the hotel in San Miguel. We are very lucky the Land Rover Club El Salvador know all the right people ! Many Thanks to them and especially Jose Mario who knows all the right people, for sure ! I'm not including us in that list.....

Spent a few days on the beach in El Salvador at a little place called Firewood in El Tunco near La Libertad. GPS Point is N13 29' 38'' W89 22' 53''. They make you pay $1usd to take your car down the road to the hotel....I thought that little trick ended in Africa ! They charged us $9usd for parking or $25 for an air-con room but common showers.

Anyhow we are now sat in the Land Rover dealers in El Salvador waiting to be picked up by Jose Mario and get taken out to dinner....he is REALLY looking after us ! Tomorrow we go to the BBQ,,,,,, so as this blog entry will be delayed due to the security issues it will contain both past, present and future stuff.

As It turns out Jose Mario has arranged a lot. We are having a BBQ and the Land Rover dealers on Sunday in our honor ! The UK Ambassador is coming to meet us. More likely she was coming anyhow but it is "our" BBQ so we can only presume she was coming as default. A little known fact was after 9 - 11 our embassy was closed here and only re-opened a short time ago. I didn't know we closed a lot of embassy's due to the "terror risk"? Anyhow, its now open and also the US Embassy here is MASSIVE (one of the biggest in the world). This place is really trying to put itself on the map and increase tourism a bit like Honduras. Jose Mario told us that in the next few months you can get stuff here from Europe without paying tax or import duty. So if you need spares and are coming this way this is the place to get the sent. In a few months time that is when the new law comes into effect. As always the place I would recommend getting them from is Britcar on my links page.

If you need the details for the letter we will send it to you. I'm going to ask Jose Mario if he minds if we put it on the Blog but I think a Private Message (PM) is best. Use the contact us until we know if he wants a million Emails.

Turns out he's fine with being contacted about the permission letter and It can take a month to get so ask early ! The Land Rover club here has a Facebook page so you can use that to contact them. Their Facebook page is
Club Land Rover El Salvador.

The BBQ was a success and many members turned up in their Land Rovers and a good time was had by all. We chatted with the Ambassador and members for hours and actually managed to eat very little which is good. Normally I eat way to much ! I didn't drink too much either.....

The Land Rover garage said we could have free labor for maintenance so I decided to make use of the spare Turbo I'd been carrying and get it fitted. The same for the four new fuel injectors. She's running pretty well now. The power is a lot smoother. When we were working on the car I decided to do a clutch inspection and this took rather longer than I hoped. We were in the garage for two days removing the bits needed to get to the clutch. In the process we managed to snap a captive bolt on the exhaust which needed drilling out. Also during the fitting of the turbo I noticed the top bolt hole for the inlet manifold had been stripped in the block. This needed a Helicoil to repair it. Something the dealers didn't have. Luckily the local tool place had the correct kit and the drill to go with it. Much more expensive then the UK though but still only $50usd.

Some Photos from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.