Our Dramatic Weekend in El Salvador: Drone, Policemen and More

As I write this while waiting at the El Salvador International Airport for our flight back to Costa Rica, we have still not completely recovered from the happenings of the past weekend. We are still shocked, sad and happy, all at the same time! Our last weekend in El Salvador was dramatic, to say the least – our hearts racing fast, almost every hour of the clock!

Let’s start from the start.

Expectations…

The original plan for our last weekend in El Salvador was simple, specific but time-bound. We were spending our last few days in San Miguel, in the eastern part of the country, and had to head back to the capital, San Salvador, by Sunday afternoon, but not before checking out some cool attractions.

• Saturday:
  • Morning & Afternoon: Take a trip from San Miguel to Conchagua Volcano, about 50 km away. The onward journey involves a bus ride and a 4X4 truck ride, and the reverse for the return trip.
  • Saturday evening: Continue working on the blog posts and videos from El Salvador.
• Sunday:
  • Early morning: Explore the Centro of the San Miguel town. Shoot drone footages of the town and the church with the backdrop of the San Miguel volcano.
  • Before noon: Checkout from Airbnb and take the bus from San Miguel to San Salvador.
  • Late afternoon: Reach San Salvador and check in to the hotel.
  • Evening: Relax and celebrate the beginning of the end of our 1 month trip of El Salvador.

Vs. Reality: Saturday Morning

As per plan, we started at 6:00 in the morning for our Conchagua Volcano trip. When we arrived at the top, we were enthralled by the views from the lookout area. But the only challenge was, it was very windy.

While walking along the edges of the viewing platform, I felt like the wind was so strong that it could sweep me away. Yes, me, a whole human body! Then, imagine what could that strong wind do to something that weighs only 570 grams (1.25 lbs)?

To Do or Not To Do?

That is where it all started.

There was one moment when the wind seemed to have calmed down a bit. Indranil said, “It’s not as windy as earlier. Let’s utilize this opportunity for a quick drone flight.”

Pubali: “Are you sure?”

Indranil: “Yes, let’s do it now, before the winds become stronger again.”

We quickly set up the drone and the remote, and Indranil initiated the take-off of the aircraft. As it ascended up in the air, I saw the drone swing in the air.

“Are you sure, you want to fly it in this windy condition?”, I asked.

“It will be a very short flight. I won’t fly it far from us”, Indranil reassured.

We took one shot, with the drone still hovering over us, few meters above the wooden platform where we were. I thought we were done, and returned from the shooting frame. But Indranil wanted another perspective. So he called me.

Pubali: “Do not fly the drone in this condition. I can see it swing.”

Indranil: “Come, it’s just here.”

Pubali: “We do not have backups from the last few flights. Do not do it.”

Indranil: “Arre, ay na.” (Hey, come) – in a reassuring tone, that nothing bad was going to happen.

I joined Indranil in the shooting frame. He started the flight, with the drone flying away from us. It was supposed to be a scenery reveal kind of shot.

Wind Sweeps Away Our Drone

The drone was not far, about 300 meters. But before we knew it, the remote control started displaying the strong winds alert.

The remote control in Indranil’s hand could no longer control the movement of the drone. The drone could not be moved forward or backward, neither left or right. He could only change the altitude with the remote. That is what he played with, to try and find a spot where the wind impact could be circumvented. But alas, nothing worked.

The wind kept moving the drone away from us. The distance kept increasing and the battery kept dropping.

During many tricky situations during our past drone flights, I have seen Indranil keep his calm and use his presence of mind. But this time was different. He started to panic, because nothing was in his control.

I could see it in his eyes. His heart was heavy with the sadness of the reality that we were actually losing the drone, and his mind was engulfed with guilt and regret of not listening to his wife’s repeated warnings.

In almost no time, the drone was more than 2 KMs away from us, and the battery reached its last leg. The drone initiated emergency landing and started descending, wherever it was. Before we could see the final landing on the mobile screen, the drone battery died and the remote control lost the connection with it.

Wind swept away our drone and the forest of Conchagua down below gulped it!

I held Indranil tight and tried to calm him down, while trying to keep my sadness from surfacing.

Our only ray of hope was that DJI noted the last known GPS coordinates of the drone.

Impossible To Reach

The GPS coordinates location was quite far from where we were. There wouldn’t be any public transport available to reach that place. We asked around everywhere – the young chap selling coffee and cookies at Conchagua Volcano, the guys from the 4X4 truck transportation to the volcano, the man who owns and runs the company of the viewpoint at the volcano. Everyone said, the only way to reach that GPS location would be to go back to La Union town, try and find a car to rent and then drive up to that place, do the search operation and then return.

With the time and money we had left with us on that day, this drone search operation was undoable. As much as we wanted to do it immediately, we did not let our impulse cloud our judgement.

Vs. Reality: Saturday Afternoon & Evening

We spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening, analyzing less of what we could have done to avoid this situation and strategizing more the best possible way to carry out this drone search operation on Sunday.

Transportation

We had to be cognizant of the timings as we had to checkout from our Airbnb by 11:00 am, and catch the bus to San Salvador during the day. There are no buses in the evening.

So, to avoid dependencies on public transport timings, we tried to rent a car for a day, for Sunday. But the bigger car rental companies did not have any cars available in San Miguel, and the smaller companies were not willing to rent out vehicles for anything less than a week. And we had less than 1 day left in San Miguel.

So, we were left with the option of using the combination of public transport and hitchhiking to reach our destination – DJI noted last known GPS location of the drone.

Safety

But there were other finer details to worry about. El Salvador does not hold a good reputation of safety. While during our time in El Salvador, we never felt unsafe, on the contrary, have always been amused with the kindness of random strangers, this drone search operation was different.

We would be venturing into unknown territory, in a desolate area, in the forest, through private farmland properties. What if people, if any, see us as a threat?

We decided that it would be best if someone from the area could accompany us. Thankfully, our new friend Manuel from San Miguel, whom we had first met less than couple of weeks ago (that’s another story for another day), offered to accompany us on this mission. With the guidance of someone from the area, we felt more confident about the adventure.

Vs. Reality: Sunday

We woke up early, packed our luggage (Airbnb checkout in a few hours), had an early breakfast and sent a note to our close friend back home in India. We told him, “We are going to a remote place today. This is the last Airbnb we stayed at. If you do not hear back from us by your morning (our evening), contact them.”

Part 1: From San Miguel to La Union

By 7:30 am, we left and met our friend Manuel at the nearest bus stop.

Our first step was to take Bus # 324 from San Miguel to the next big town La Union. The usual frequency of this bus is every few minutes. We quickly learnt that on Sundays, buses on any routes are much less frequent, and sometimes, not even available! In fact, there was speculation that, given it was a Sunday, the last bus for San Salvador could be at 1:30 pm.

There was no way we could return by 1:30 pm after completing the search for the drone. But for everything to fall into the schedule, we had to reach San Salvador by that day. What if we couldn’t? Anxiety peaking.

After a wait of about 40 minutes, Bus # 324 finally arrived. As soon as we boarded, Manuel confirmed with the bus driver the bus timings for San Salvador. He said the last bus from La Union would be at 1:30 pm and the last one from San Miguel would be at 4:30 pm.

Okay, we can probably still make it in time.

Part 2: From La Union to Diversion to El Cacao

From La Union, we had to take another bus that could drop us somewhere near the diversion that leads to El Cacao town. But again, at the bus station, other passengers confirmed that it would be tricky to find a bus on that route on a Sunday.

At this point, a private vehicle offered to drop us on the highway, near the diversion to El Cacao, but for a price of 2 USD per person. With no other options immediately available, Indranil and I agreed to take the ride.

Part 3: Waiting on the Highway

After getting down from the car, we realized that we were getting more remote. There were no passing vehicles, no residential areas, no people, no commercial spaces. We could see only one rugged road that was supposed to lead us to our location. But how could we go there? Maps showed that walking would take 4 hours and 24 minutes to reach! Not an option, as we had to return too.

We waited for vehicles that we could request a hitchhiking ride. But there were none. We asked a couple of passerby, what would be our options to get to that location. There were no encouraging answers. The only remotely feasible advice we got was that we could wait for 3 different motorcycles, and each of us could be a pillion rider on those 3 motor cycles. That would require 3 different motorcycles to be available at the same time, all of them to agree to our request and our team of 3 to spilt into 3 different groups. None of these sounded good.

We continued to wait, in the hope that some car or truck passes in that direction. But nothing!

Part 4: Police Enters the Scene!

Until we spotted a police truck driving past us on the highway.

Manuel, Indranil and I, all three of us, exclaimed at the same time, “Police!”. We agreed that we could explain the situation to the police and ask for their advice. So, we waved at the police truck, they noticed and stopped the vehicle. They were a team of 4 armed policemen.

We crossed the road, met the policemen and Manuel explained them the situation.

The entire conversation among all of us happened in Spanish.

Hearing that we were from India, the police asked to see our passports. They also assumed that Manuel is our tour guide, so they asked to see his tourist guide license. But Manuel was no tour guide, he was just a friend. So, of course, he did not have any such license of a tour guide. And we had left our passports at the Airbnb. Why would we need them in the jungle for finding a drone?

Now, the El Salvador police just met two Indian people without passports on them, accompanied by a local Salvadorian who did not have any kind of tourism related license. So, the police officer asked us the most obvious question. “Are you trying to enter the United States?”

“No!”, I asserted, “We live in Costa Rica. We are visiting El Salvador. Today we check out from our Airbnb in San Miguel, then take the bus to San Salvador, where we have a hotel reservation. On Tuesday, we have our flight back to Costa Rica from El Salvador.” And along the course of the discussion, I showed him digital documentation of almost everything that I stated.

The police officer looked convinced. He made a couple of calls, probably to update his seniors, and then told us to get in the police truck. Indranil and I sat inside the cabin while Manuel sat on the back of the truck.

Part 5: From El Cacao Diversion to El Cacao/GPS Location

The police truck took the left. We started our ride towards our destination.

Now, the El Salvador police were part of our drone search mission!

During the drive, the senior police officer kept confirming with me, if we were headed in the right direction, as I continued to check Google Maps. There were other regular conversations like if we were a couple, since how long have we been living in Costa Rica, what brought us to Costa Rica etc. They also offered us water to drink.

As the drive continued, we realized that we couldn’t have done this on our own, without the help of the police. The road was not only bumpy, uphill and terrible, it passed through inhabited lands and through private properties. No other vehicle would go there!

After about an hour, we reached the last drivable point from where we had to walk to the DJI noted GPS coordinates.

Part 6: Drone Search and Rescue Operation

The senior officer explained that 1 of the policemen would stay with the vehicle, and 1 of us should stay with him. The rest of the group would go on the search.

Manuel offered to stay back and wait. The policemen made sure that Indranil and I had enough drinking water. But soon Indranil and I realized and agreed that it would be best for me as well to stay back as I was dealing with an internal injury of a knee and the walk down the hill would be on undefined and possibly nonexistent paths.

So, Manuel and I stayed back with one of the policemen, while Indranil ventured into the jungle with 3 other police officers. So, the experiences of the following hours were different for Indranil and me.

For Pubali

To begin with, I was cool. We were on track with the drone search. The best people were out there to find it. We had the coordinates. So, during the wait, I was enjoying chats with the policeman and Manuel. The policeman asked me how he could find us on YouTube as he would like to follow our travels. Manuel and I talked about El Salvador’s safety, politics, education – past and present. All of us enjoyed the views of Gulf of Fonseca from where we were standing.

But after an hour, I started to get anxious. So did the other two people with me.

There were no updates. There was no communication. Nobody had any phone signal. I did not know where Indranil and the other 3 policemen were. I could not know if Indranil was safe!

All kinds of terrible thoughts crossed my mind!

At this point, I could not care less about the drone. I just waited with bated breath for Indranil to return, or at least to hear from him that he was safe.

But the wait continued for another 45 minutes when Indranil called on Manuel’s phone. I spoke to Indranil. With unstable phone signal/connectivity, I could only ask if he was safe, and could hear him say “yes”, but in a not-so-good tone.

The search team returned after about 2 hours since when they left.

For Indranil

Indranil and the 3 police officers hiked down the mountain, crossed a dried river, lost their way once, got back on track, greeted the handful of habitants along the way, collected oranges from them, entered a bushy path and made their way to what was marked as the red pin as per the DJI recorded last location of our drone.

But there was no drone in sight. The forest was dense, with several trees. The policemen strategized the search method. They decided they would look not only at the GPS location, but also search 20 meters around that spot. One of them even climbed up to the top of a tree to get a wider view of the location. All four people scanned the area for more than 40 minutes!

But sadly, the search team could not find the drone.

On the way back, they spotted a common potoo, a bird not commonly sighted – at least something to cheer, right?

From Left: (1) The disappointment on Indranil’s face, (2) A mobile snap of the Common Potoo.

The Feelings

At the marked location, Indranil felt terrible that they were right there, still could not find the drone. He was able to reach till this point, which without the police, wouldn’t have been possible, yet could not find the drone.

May be the drone had not even landed properly? May be it had just crashed and bounced off a tree and fell down the mountain? We will never know!

All of us, not just Indranil and me, but also Manuel and all the policemen were sad that the drone could not be found, even after trying so hard. But we were happy that at least we tried, tried our best.

Part 7: Return to San Miguel

We started the drive back in the police truck. During the ride, the policemen had more casual conversations with us, about our experience of traveling in El Salvador, what kind of food we tried here, our blog and our YouTube channel.

The police truck dropped the 3 of us on the highway from where they had picked us up in the morning.

From here, after a long wait, we found a passing vehicle that agreed to offer us a ride till La Union, for a price of 1 USD for the three of us.

From that place, we could catch a bus to San Miguel.

Part 8: From San Miguel to San Salvador

We were still running against time as we had to get the bus for San Salvador.

After we boarded the bus for San Miguel, Manuel had a chat with the bus driver. The same bus was going to go to San Salvador, after passing through San Miguel. So Manuel requested the driver if he could wait for us where we would alight from the bus in San Miguel, so that we could quickly go grab our luggage from the Airbnb. The driver kindly agreed to wait for 5 minutes.

Manuel recommended that it would be great if we could try that, because otherwise we would have to rely on the last bus to San Salvador. What if that bus breaks down or has a tire puncture? So, he said that he would wait with the bus until we returned with our luggage to the bus.

5 minutes time was not a comfortable amount of time for us to get down from the bus, walk/run to the Airbnb (Pubali with an injured knee), use the restroom, collect the luggage and rush back to board the bus. But we understood the benefit, and managed to achieve all of that!

We hugged Manuel goodbye and boarded the bus and continued our journey to San Salvador.

That night, in San Salvador, Indranil and I treated ourselves to fried chicken, French fries and cold drinks!

Final Thoughts

Manuel, Indranil and I spent about 7 hours for this drone search mission, and the police were with us to help for almost 4 of those 7 hours. There was no guaranteed outcome from this mission. The participants had no vested interest in this arduous task on a Sunday. Yet, our friend Manuel and the policemen participated as if they lost something of their own.

Indranil and I are trying to move on from this drone loss incident, but still processing our feelings every now and then about this whole series of events. In a nutshell, what we lost: a 1000$+ drone, plus some priceless video footages from our 1 month in El Salvador, and what we gained: another memorable life experience of how kind human beings can be!

We are shocked that we lost the drone. We are sad that the drone could not be retrieved even after putting in all the effort and getting all the help in the world. But above all of that, we are happy to re-learn that we live in a world where human beings are really there to help each other, even if that means going out of their own ways. Kindness and compassion still exist!

This may not exactly be a happy story, but a memorable one – one for the Paradise Catchers diary!

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Despite our dramatic last weekend in El Salvador, out 1 month time in this Central American country has been amazing, filled with beautiful nature, delicious food and the warmth of people. Watch out for our El Salvador blogs and vlogs, they start pouring in from later this week.

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