I know its been a while and since i am here by myself with nothing but time, i had planned on writing out in full detail the incredible adventure my friend and i had over the past few weeks. unfortunately for you, i ended up meeting some nicaraguan teenagers and spending the night walking around the city and talking with them. This saga will probably have to be compartmented and told over a series of posts. as soon as you think youve seen it all, something more incredible, rediculous, or both comes your way. example, i thought i had done a few pretty cool and maybe adventurous things until i met a thrill thirsty irishman who treked the amazon barefoot.
i´m just going to begin with the mild, but tiresome trip leaving guatemala and getting where i am today. Yesterday, I woke up early, said goodbye to my friend anne as she left for the US and wandered the smog laiden city of guatemala before boarding a bus to managua, nicaragua. the bus was to be an overnight bus and arrive the next morning. that would have been nice. we set sail around three in the afternoon and right off the bat i realized my chair didnt recline. not only did it not recline, but when it isnt reclined, there is virtually no leg space. my knees were squished like sardines against the seat in front of me. this feeling however has become commonplace as i have left the comforts of tourism for the nitty gritty of the chicken bus. more on that will be explained when telling the whole story. THis predicament however was a little bothersome because everybody else had working chairs and i knew the likelihood of sleep on an overnight trip would be nil if i couldnt recline. Anyways, we set sail and i hoped that there would be an open seat but my chances looked slim.
I also noticed once again with this new method of travel that i was the only gringo on the bus. the only difference here was that i didnt have anne with me. the funny part is that everybody i met remembered my name. Even the bus drivers i purchased the ticket from the day before remembered my name when i walked by the station hours before the bus was set to leave. The bus was packed full of nicaraguans, guatemalans, and an argentinian who were all very nice, helpful, and patient with my pidgin spanish.
i digress. about an hour or two after taking off, we hit our first boarder. they got us all out of the bus along with all of our luggage and lined us up in a row to be inspected. once the inspection process begins, it takes a matter of minutes, but we sat and cooked in the guatemalan heat for a good hour before they decided to inspect. after that, we had to get stamped out of the country by customs. post stamping, we pile back into the bus, drive thirty feet and do it all again at the el salvador boarder. i was sitting with a few new friends i had made and we were all in agreeance that the next two boarder crosses would be equally excruciating.
after the inspection, we crammed back into the bus and i was fortunate enough to find an open seat next to a larger nicaraguan man. The seat reclined and i thought there might be some hope to catch a wink of sleep. Unfortunately, this bus had television sets and they decided to play a movie at slightly outrageous volume. to make matters worse, the movie was that blacky wacky wayans brothers move white chicks... and it was in spanish overdub. it was awful... lightly traumatizing. after that, the hour was getting reasonably late and the drivers continued to blast music through the speakers. around the time sleep was finally starting to fill my eyes, BOOM! honduras border number 2. same process rinse and repeat only this time we got to add a little bit of exhaustion into the mix. I had to pay three dollars to get into honduras which put my funds down to 7 dollars for the remainder of my trip. I gave the rest of my american dollar stash to anne who needed it for the hefty exit fee for her flight. I had a few oranges and a bottle of water to get me through the trip.
After the luggage check on both sides of the boarder, i made my way into the bus and passed out. I woke up some hours later and realized that it was overly hot and that we had not moved at all. there we sat all night until the early morning when the sun rose. so much for an early morning arival with a country and a half to still travel. when we started going again, the blaring music kicked back in full force. despite my wildest efforts, i think i maged about an hour and a half of sleep the whole trip. it seemed like most of the passengers were also pretty bothered by the music. it was really unpleasant. some hours later, we hit the nicaraguan boarder and the tarif there took my last 7 dollars from me. Once again, i was entirely broke heading back to the country where my financial troubles began.
fortunately, we had a quick pitstop at a gas station and i quickly chanced the atm inside. without any hastle, it worked swimmingly and my poverty was no more. unfortunately there was not enough time to grab a bite to eat. with a belly literally rumbling on the bus for it had not eaten in over 24 hours, some of the passengers became bothered with its grumbling and gave me a few cookies that they had purchased earlier in the trip. it was very kind of them and very satisfying to put something in my aching organ.
the last few hours of the trip blew by in a daydream and before i knew it, i was in managua without a further destination than finding a computer with internet. I said goodbye to my travel companions and hopped into the disgusting city. instantly i realized that there was no internet anywhere close and the pushers were out in full force trying to sell youe verything fron knock off sunglasses to salty nicaraguan baked goods with honey on top. It took me a grand total of ten minutes to hop on another bus to granada. i lucked out in this chicken bus because i got the front seat and didnt have to deal with the droves of passengers compressed together in the back. you guys really cant even imagine what this looks like until you see it. the front however was roomy and cozy. forty minutes later, i was in the beautiful city of granada hunting down internet so i could get in contact with some friends in the country and find a hostel for the night. During the last few weeks, i lost my very handy central america guidebook and annes guatemala guidebook was stolen while we were sitting atop mayan ruins. more on that later, but for now i am without guidebook. once i found out where i needed to stay i put my pack back on, grabbed my guitar and started hoofing it in the mid day heat with shotty directions to find my new home. about a half hour later, i arrived safe and sound to a quaint little place called hostal mochilas. i think i am currently its only guest. with that obstacle tackled, i set out to find food and spent the rest of the day wandering the markets trying random street dish after random street dish. nutritional value is now officially a thing of the past. the new name of the game is sustenance. from there i ran into the two nica kids who i chased away the rest of the night with. tomorrow i head to san juan del sur to get in a few last jams with my musical love and to enjoy some more good surf. hopefully itll all go according to plan, but it really never does. as for now, i am in one piece and have food in my belly and a roof over my head. simple pleasures really.
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