Border Crossing and Other Hassles

Crossing the Guatamalan/El Salvador border is kind of like ordering an engine for an airplane. They are both exercises in patience that would challenge a Tibetan monk.

We drove up to the border from Guatamala at about 2:30pm. Everything we have read told us to anticipate this crossing taking about 2 hours. Our passports were quickly stamped and we were out of Guatamala. A man was standing at the middle of the road at the “Bienvenidos a El Salvador” sign. He asked to see our passports. He asked if we were married. He asked where we were from and then exclaimed that it must be cold there. Then he waved us through. Too easy! I thought. “Es Todo? Is that everything?” I asked him as we pulled away? No, he said, go see immigration.

We parked the car and walked up to a window labeled “Imigracion.” They stamped our passports and handed them back and pointed us to another doorway. A man at a desk asked to see our Permission to Import our vehicle. He said we didn't have the right stamps. He pointed us back to man standing in the middle of the street. We walked back to the border but the man we had talked to before couldn't give us a stamp. We talked to his colleague and a bus driver before we discovered the man we needed to talk to was standing in the ditch, in the shade, cleaning his fingernails. He said, “I didn't see your car come through, but I'll stamp the form.” Great. Form stamped, back to the desk, and they point us inside the building.

Something reminiscient of air conditioning exsists in this seat of bureaucracy, so the next couple hours weren't as misable as they could have been. An armed guard told us to wait in line, which we did, until we saw no one else was waiting in line. Then we walked up to the counter and pushed our papers at someone with a computer. The man asked for a copy of a drivers license-- no, not the real thing, the car title, and the permission to import paperwork. Good. That's everything. Wait.

After about 15 minutes, the man called us back and asked for a copy of our passport stamp. There is a little office next door that makes copies. By the end of the border crossing, you are on a first name basis with the man that works there.

This is like an elaborate scavenger hunt where they pretend they have never imported a vehicle into the country before, and you pretend that you are on a video game collecting the right number of coins, jewels and weapons to advance to the next level.

Next the man at the computer asked to see our car. He had us unlock it and he checked the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) against the title. He asked how many cylinders and how many cubic centimeters is the motor? I made up answers. He said, ok. Everything is good. Now this paperwork is ready to be checked. We went back inside and he told us to wait.

After about 20 minutes, a different man came out and called our names. He asked for a copy of the vehicle registration. 15 minutes later he asked to see the car again. He checked the VIN and checked under the hood-- I got the number of cylinders correct! He asked if we had anything besides clothes and surfboards. Then we went back inside. The man disappeared with our paperwork.

Thirty minutes later, the first man called our name. He asked for 3 signatures and another copy. I can't even remember what he wanted a copy of. We were running out of things to copy. But if he asked us to xerox our hands, we would have done it. He told us to wait more.

After about 20 minutes, first man was ready to see us again. He asked for another signature. He put a sticker on a piece of paper and said we were done. However, we must make a copy (of course!) of this piece of paper and never give anyone the original. We went to make a copy of the paper and he told us to have a nice trip.

As we pulled away from the border office, a guard asked to see our papers. We handed him the copy. He said, “No. I need to see the original.” We hesitated, and then handed him the sheet with the sticker. He walked away, leaving us in the middle of the road. Five minutes later, he returned and gave it back. Bienvenidos a El Salvador! Just over the two hour mark.

Now, that sounds complicated right? Well, the bureaucracy at the El Salvador border is comparatively efficient to an American aircraft company called Texas Skyways. I ordered an overhauled engine for my Cessna 206 on November 6^th. They told me four to six weeks for delivery. Christmas came and went and still no engine. They made excuses. They stopped taking my phone calls and wouldn't respond to my emails except on Fridays to say “Next week, for sure.” It was much like waiting in a semi-air conditioned room not knowing what to copy next. Finally, just as my fingers were hovering over the phone number for the Better Business Bureau, my mechanics called to say “The engine finally arrived!” This was on January 31^st, a mere 12 weeks after I ordered and paid.

January 31^st was a Friday, and the maintenance shop didn't open the engine crate until Monday morning. They called me and said, we have a problem-- Texas Skyways sent the wrong engine. Those pleasant folks in Texas sent me an engine for a Cessna 185. When I called them to sort out the problem, they immediately tried to blame their middle man where they had placed the order. I said I really didn't care who they blamed, but now I was 2 months behind schedule and in possesion of an engine for an aircraft I didn't own. They said they would expedite an order for a new engine right away and I would have it in 10 days. This was on February 4^th.

The weeks pealed by, and I made repeated international phone calls to check up on their progress. Again, I was ignored or told “next week” if I managed to get to talk to someone who knew anything.

My mechanic emailed on February 17^th to tell me that Texas Skyways had delivered a conversion kit. He could convert the Cessna 185 engine to a 206 engine if that was what I wanted him to do. No! They are supposed to deliver the correct engine! More expensive international phone calls ensued.

Finally, the correct engine was delivered on Monday, March 3^rd, just a month after the 10 day promise. This engine is a power upgrade from my previous engine, and requires something the FAA calls an STC to make it legal. Texas Skyways is one of the few companies that provides this STC, which is why I ordered from them. However, they still have not delivered the STC. When they shipped the engine. I asked again for the STC. They said they had already sent it. I asked them to confirm the date they sent it and they realized they had not. On March 3^rd, when the engine arrived, they promised to overnight the STC. They sent me a copy of the paperwork. The STC paperwork they sent was for a Cessna 210. Again the wrong airplane, but not the same wrong airplane as the wrong airplane engine. They are trying again. They currently anticipate I will have everything I need to install the engine by Tuesday, March 11^th.

Either that, or I will have so much patience between this and border crossings that I will have reached Nirvana.