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El Salvador: Safety on the beach:
I've lived in Playa San Diego for a couple of years when I first moved to El Salvador and it's a wonderful community. That said, what I'm about to tell you is second hand information from people I know who still live there. The properties near La Bocana are fairly safe and see very few problems. The properties mostly to the right of the main entrance to SD and some that are on the left close to the entrance almost all have had serious incidents of crime and theft. Never have I heard of anyone being physically harmed, but people have been threatened, things and animals have been stolen, and some are too frightened to even leave their properties alone for fear of having them broken into. Near La Bocana, I have heard of much less of these types of problems, but I would be weary of buying around the entrance to SD...
El Salvador: Car Permit and Insurance Questions:
1. It used to be that your car permit was only good for 60 days even though your personal visa was 90 days. I haven't checked on that one for a while, but I haven't heard that it's changed. I know, it doesn't make any sense, but as of a couple years ago, that's how it was.
Hopefully you're aware that the 90 days of your visa is good for all of the CA4 together. So if you've already spent 60 days in Guate, you only have 30 days before you have to leave Honduras, ES and Nicaragua to reset it. If you're on a residency in Guate, you can enter ES for as long as you want.
2. The only way I know of to get the permit extended is to leave the CA4. Last I checked, you couldn't extend the permit for the car from within the country. ES is strict about this, because they want you to import the car if you're staying longer = more money for them :)
3. Car insurance is not required, however, if you get into an accident and can't sort it out financially with the other driver, the first thing that happens when the police get involved is that person who is at fault goes to jail for a minimum of three days. (or if they can't figure out who's at fault, both go to jail.) There is no way around this once the poice are involved, unless you have insurance, which usually signifies that you'll pay for the damages no matter what. So if you opt to not get insurance, be prepared to pay whatever someone asks of you if you're at fault in an accident.
4. When you enter ES through the airport, everyone is required to pay $10 for a tourist card. When you cross a land border there should be no fee to enter ES. Guate may make you pay an "exit fee" but if someone on the ES side asks for money, there are anti-corruption signs everywhere in immigration with a number you can call to report it.
El Salvador: Moving to Playa San Diego:
Please don't believe everything you see on TV or read about El Salvador. While it does have some problems, they are not more severe than other countries in Central America. There are gangs here, but there are also gangs in LA, NY, Detroit, Chicago and many other places people live and travel too. For the most part, they don't have any desire to get involved with tourists unless you go out of your way to involve yourself with them. That said, there is a problem in ES, like many other developing countries with petty theft, and parts of Playa San Diego are especially bad. Ask around before you buy.
El Salvador: Felafel?:
There's a restaurant called Mr. Souvlaki that serves something like a falafel. A greek man and his Salvadoran wife own it. But to manage expectations, most places serving falafel here are making it out of the box - the only box of falafel available. There is no one, that I know of making it from scratch as I'm not sure you can even get all the ingredients here.
El Salvador: Moving:
International schools are usually hiring and they pay around $2000 a month (depending on what school). If you were to work in a public school, your pay would be about $200 a month and you would need to be fluent in Spanish. All international schools are in San Salvador, which is only a 45 minutes drive from the beach and surf. Mechanics are cheap here, if your husband doesn't mind working for pennies, he could probably get a job, but would never get a visa for it. Quality isn't really a factor here, so they would just want to hire any old mechanic for the cheapest amount possible. Call center jobs are pretty highly paid for around here, $500-750 if you can stand the mind numbing work.
You can drive to ES, but it's about 3000 miles once you cross the US border (depending on where you cross) so if you want to go faster, it's better to fly. I find the drive lovely and it usually takes me about a month. I've done it before in 2 weeks and it wasn't fun. Any car you bring to ES has to be 8 years or newer (when I checked 2 years ago, at least) and the taxes are especially high on SUVs. The cheapest taxes are on pick-ups.
I'm not sure what you mean by "normal" life here. Most expats live closely to what they're used to in their home country, which, I find to be relatively the same price as back in the US - $1000-2000 a month for a secure apartment with hot water and reliable electricity, clean and about $200 a month or so for a maid. I live at the beach (where there are little to no jobs for foreigners via a visa) and have a rustic little apartment with cold water and a metal roof that gets too hot to stand inside by 7 am, BUT I only pay $100 a month and I don't have a maid. For me, sharing my space with bats, rats and cockroaches and sometimes lose electricity for hours is justified so that I can surf everyday.
El Salvador: selling a US plated car in Salvador/Guatamela:
I drove down to El Sal a few years back and found it's a huge hassle to sell my car. To sell it legally, you have to import it. And the car you mentioned is too old to import into either ES or Guate. Your only option is to sell it to a foreigner who will only use it for the time that it has current registration in the US and will return to the US to reregister it. I don't know about Mexico. That being said, there is always someone who will buy a car illegally, but then the price goes down to something ridiculous (I imagine someone would take it off your hands for well under $1000). But then at that point, it might be better to just drive it home? Depend on your priorities, I guess...
El Salvador: Need Help Selling House:
Claudia L. Mayorga-Del Cid has a lot of connections with the expat community and upper-class Salvadorans in San Salvador and has been working in real estate for years. I don't have contact info for her but you can find her on facebook and contact her there.
El Salvador: I have a lot of Tattoos:
Depends on where you'll be hanging out...I wouldn't go wandering around Soyopango, Mejicanos or Apopa with those, but if you're staying in the "fancy" parts of San Sal or the touristy beaches (Tunco, Zonte) you'll be fine...Your family should have a really good idea as to how safe their area is or isn't...
El Salvador: weapons:
Foreigners are not permitted to carry firearms in El Salvador. I'm not sure but I don't think there's even a way to get a permit if you're not from here.
El Salvador: Considering a move to san Salvador:
Have you done any research? www.wtf-elsalvador.com
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