Hotel Meson de Maria San Salvador
20th September 2020
In: Hotels/Resorts
Hotel Meson de Maria San Salvador
You are probably thinking, why is the 2 star at best, Hotel de Maria in the middle of one of the most dangerous cities on the planet is on my website. Simple answer is, it got me off the streets of the most scary city I have ever visited for a few hours overnight.
San Salvador makes the worst areas of London seem like Disney World. I travelled on the famous Tika Bus from Guatemala City to San Salvador and the plan was to simply stay in the Maria Hotel, which is located in the bus station, for a few hours and get on the early Tika Bus to Managua the capital of Nicaragua. By staying in the hotel Maria inside the gated bus terminal, complete with shotgun wielding security, it should have meant I would not have needed to go out into the city, sometimes we know where the best laid plans go…
My room was a store cupboard on the top floor of the building, I say top floor but a store room on the barb wire clad roof would have been more apt, I wasn’t sure why the 4th floor roof needed barbed wire on top of the wall but hey, this was San Salvador. The view of the city was pretty good especially in the dark, all lit up, you could also hear the constant police sirens and the frequent sound of gunfire from various parts of the city.
By this time it was around 8pm and dark, so I headed down to the hotel reception which also doubled as the Tika bus ticket office. The ticket office was closed and the restaurant, which was a vending machine, was empty. I decided to head into the city to try and find food along with another 2 travellers and when we asked to get out through the huge metal gates, the shotgun wielding security guard mumbled something is Spanish, shook his head and opened the gate to let us out.
We got as far as a dingy shop about 50 yards up the road bout some drinks and snacks and headed back somewhat faster than when we came.
I got talking to a young woman who was also on the bus and she was in reception waiting for a lift to the US embassy where she was going to be working on an exchange programme. The bus station gates opened, in came 2 huge black SUV’s and the woman was welcomed into one of the cars by 2 gun totting CIA types and off she went. Clearly the embassy staff did not use local taxis.
I had a few hours sleep and headed down to reception at about 4.30 am to buy my ticket for the Tika Bus to Managua. There was a line of about 30 people who had got there before me and by the time I got to the front the bus was full, I bought a ticket for the next bus out, 24 hours later….
You are probably thinking, why is the 2 star at best, Hotel de Maria in the middle of one of the most dangerous cities on the planet is on my website. Simple answer is, it got me off the streets of the most scary city I have ever visited for a few hours overnight.
San Salvador makes the worst areas of London seem like Disney World. I travelled on the famous Tika Bus from Guatemala City to San Salvador and the plan was to simply stay in the Maria Hotel, which is located in the bus station, for a few hours and get on the early Tika Bus to Managua the capital of Nicaragua. By staying in the hotel Maria inside the gated bus terminal, complete with shotgun wielding security, it should have meant I would not have needed to go out into the city, sometimes we know where the best laid plans go…
My room was a store cupboard on the top floor of the building, I say top floor but a store room on the barb wire clad roof would have been more apt, I wasn’t sure why the 4th floor roof needed barbed wire on top of the wall but hey, this was San Salvador. The view of the city was pretty good especially in the dark, all lit up, you could also hear the constant police sirens and the frequent sound of gunfire from various parts of the city.
By this time it was around 8pm and dark, so I headed down to the hotel reception which also doubled as the Tika bus ticket office. The ticket office was closed and the restaurant, which was a vending machine, was empty. I decided to head into the city to try and find food along with another 2 travellers and when we asked to get out through the huge metal gates, the shotgun wielding security guard mumbled something is Spanish, shook his head and opened the gate to let us out.
We got as far as a dingy shop about 50 yards up the road bout some drinks and snacks and headed back somewhat faster than when we came.
I got talking to a young woman who was also on the bus and she was in reception waiting for a lift to the US embassy where she was going to be working on an exchange programme. The bus station gates opened, in came 2 huge black SUV’s and the woman was welcomed into one of the cars by 2 gun totting CIA types and off she went. Clearly the embassy staff did not use local taxis.
I had a few hours sleep and headed down to reception at about 4.30 am to buy my ticket for the Tika Bus to Managua. There was a line of about 30 people who had got there before me and by the time I got to the front the bus was full, I bought a ticket for the next bus out, 24 hours later….