Cramer and I make our way to the back of the bus and stake out the two back seats. The bus is a coach with no AC, but it has big windows so I`ll have air blasting in my face all the way to Tegucigalpa. It`s about a 7 hour drive to the capital of Honduras. The trip is comfortable and we`re treated to some great scenery out the bus window as we cruise through the Honduran countryside. Plenty of green mountains and fields. I plow through the book The Mosquito Coast, and finish it on the way down. It is a great book that seems extremely relevant with everything going on in America today, highly recommended. (I never saw the movie so I can`t comment on that.) Once we get to Tegucigalpa, Cramer wants to try and get further to Nicaragua if possible. All the British travelers are spending the night in the capital. We are not sure if its a good plan or not, but we take a taxi to another bus station. Again my bad Spanish fails me as I try to communicate with the person selling tickets . Luckily there is a woman named Patricia there who is Honduran, but also lives in the US and is able to translate for us. We are not sure if it is a good idea to go on or stay in Teg. She helps convince us to go on and we board the last little mini bus going towards the border. It will only take us as far as a little town called El Paraiso, which is about 20 minutes from the border. She talks to us the whole ride and even tries to call ahead to set up a room for us. We have people looking out for us down here! After about two hours she gets off in a town called Danli, and we continue on for a few more miles to El Paraiso before getting off. El Paraiso does not have much to see. We get in about 7:30pm and grab a very bare bones room for about $20. We hit the street to find some food and only find dark streets and closed doors.
This is definitely off the ¨Gringo Triail¨ or tourist trail. Walking around town seems a little sketchy and I swear my Spanish is getting worse by the day, especially since Utila where everyone spoke English. So we go back to the place we are staying and grab a little grub before turning in early. I have not mentioned this before, but people in Central America love fried chicken. There is not many KFCs but there are tons of local and national fried chicken places. The place we are staying at also serves fried chicken and greasy fries. I am seriously craving tons of vegetables big time right now, but can not bring myself to order a salad. Also the keyboards down here are different then the ones in America too, so I am unable to use an apostrophe right now... hence the lack of contraction in this post, sorry. We wake up early the next morning at 6am and walk a few blocks to the chicken bus station. The bus will take us to the border crossing at Las Monos. About 20 minutes later we get to the border crossing. By luck there is a nice coach bus sitting at the crossing too which is waiting for all the travelers to get through immigration into Nicargua. I ask the driver if we can catch a ride and he says ok, for $10 to Managua (the capital of Nicaragua). Unbeknownst to me is that it costs $12 to enter Nicaragua. I 
thought we had enough money to pay to get through the border and pay for the cost of the bus. Looks like we just have enough to cross the border and with no ATMs anywhere in the vicinity, it is not looking good. I am starting to panic a little thinking we will be stuck at the border for the next few days! I did talk to a younger Spanish guy who had $20 while we were waiting to pay the immigration people... Luckily Gasper, the Spanish guy, is in the right place at the right time and somehow I convice him to loan me $20. Everything works out and we get on the air conditioned bus all the way to Managua, Nicaragua. (The capital) I am enjoying the beautiful scenery and am putting my Kindle to good use. I start reading the next book by J. Maarten Troost, Getting Stoned with Savages. When we get there about 5 or so hours later, Cramer and I get in a taxi with a German guy to find an ATM. We find one and meet back up with Gaspar to pay him back. All of us get on another small bus and continue on to Granada, the old colonial capital, which is about 45 minutes away. Finally after a day and a half of traveling we finanlly get to Granada.
No comments:
Post a Comment