tell me about San Salvador

You're safer there than El Salvadorians. The US embassy there has just as much power as their federal government (exaggeration, but it's not far off).

My friends in Guatemala make it into SS several times a year. In fact I was going to go with them, and I asked them about potential safety problems, and was told not to worry.

I'm sure someone will chime in with personal experience though.
 
It's a surprisingly modern cosmopolitan city. It sits in a valley amongst several volcanic mountains so the vistas are outstanding. Most of the infrastructure is not too far off from what you will see in the States. I met several ex pats who are doing exactly what you are considering and they love it.

But security is a big concern. You will have concede some things that you take for granted. Most of the people I met have armed body guards with them when the drive around the city. It's kind of a weird security blanket that most of them cling to but realize that if push comes to shove, it's very unlikely that the body guard will actually do anything to risk their own life.

In a strange sort of way, I could see it being a very good environment for a family, since they will be the primary focus of your life. That's exactly what I gathered from the people I met there. I am considering doing the same thing in a 10 to 15 year time frame. I am really hoping that the security issue is dealt with in between now and then.
 
San Salvador definitely has some safety issues. Everyone is going to have barb wire around the edges of the roofs on their homes. In some areas people will have an armed guard protecting the street. Don’t walk anywhere. Taxis charge $4 no matter where you are going. It doesn’t matter if it is one block or several miles.

I also wouldn’t drive around outside of San Salvador at night. One night we ate dinner at some town about an hour from San Salvador. We left the restaurant and started to head back to San Salvador probably around 10:00 p.m. It seemed like nobody lived in the town. Nobody had lights on and it was incredibly quite. When we got to the city limits there were about ten to fifteen people standing in the middle of the road. The Salvadorian guy driving punched the gas and the group of people decided to move out of the way just before we got to them. They weren’t walking anywhere, they were just standing in the road. This couldn’t have been normal because the Salvadorians we were with looked pretty worried about that I don’t know what those guys wanted but I’m sure they weren’t the welcoming committee.

I don’t want to scare you too much because I’m going back down there in a couple of weeks. It is still fun to go and visit but you need to be careful about what you do. I couldn’t imagine living there though.
 
Yeah, driving in general, night or day, can be fairly nerve wracking. The farmers seem to really like to graze their livestock on the side of the road, I probably saw 3 dead cows while I was there. The buses are owned by private companies, so they like to try to race each other to the next stop in order to pick the most passengers. That and all of the Pollo Campero delivery guys racing around the city make rush hour driving in Dallas or Houston seem like a breeze in comparison.
 
The people are definately crazy drivers but that wasn't the point of my story. I'm fairly sure we would have been robbed and/or killed if those people had suceeded in getting us to stop the car. The guy who drove the car had his sister get kidnapped and killed 5 - 10 years ago.
 
Head out of San Salvador and towards Libertad. It's a cool beach area and has some nice hotels around too.
San Salvador is nicer than San Jose and is safer too. There are lots of Americans doing business in SS so you will not stick out or feel weird. Lots of folks think it is the next Panama City with all the banking and IMF initiatives going on now.
 
Tyler, I've heard that same story a hundred times. That's just a little game the locals like to play on the touristas. If you would have stopped they would have taken you out of the car, blind-folded you, and taken you an old abandoned warehouse filled with literally hundreds of pinatas, strippers, and firetrucks. Everyone from all the neighboring villages would have shown up and thrown the biggest fiesta you've even seen, in your honor. Sounds like you missed out.

Seriously, you are very lucky someone didn't do their best Laura Ashley Hall impression on you. Nobody drives an hour outside of San Salvador in the middle of the night, it's just not smart, and hasn't been for some time. Helicopters have become pretty much the preferred method of transportation to and from most of the regions outside of the capital.

That being said, I do know many people who live there and trust me they live very well. You are about 30 minutes from some of the nicest beaches in world, especially for surfing, sport fishing, and free diving. Lake Coatepeque is an absolutely amazing volcanic crater lake, one of the more scenic places I've ever seen, and it's a little over 30 minutes away. You do have to plan your days out very carefully, and not take unnecessary risks, which leads to an inherent loss of some of the freedoms that people take for granted in the States. Unfortunately, this is standard operating procedure for a lot of the places in the world not named the US.

The truth is the country needs to make many changes in its legal system in order to more effectively establish the rule of law. The legal system is set up so that the victim, or victim's family, has to effectively press charges against a perpetrator even in serious matters, which would be prosecuted by the state, regardless of the victim's intentions here in the US. Obviously, the majority of the crimes go unpunished due to victim intimidation. Juvenile crime is also a major issue that the system really has no effective answer for at this point. The vast disparity between the rich and the poor in the country, let alone majority of Latin America, isn't helping matters.

Like I said, I'm really hoping things turn around for this country. It would be a very difficult decision to move there at this time, unless you feel reasonably certain that cards are stacked in your favor, so to speak. It is like Tyler said, a very fun place to visit.
 
I loved Lake Coatepeque. I didn't mention it because I would not have been able to spell it.

You have to be careful when you are there but I had a lot of fun. Like I said I am going back in a couple of weeks.
 
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