The Longest Day.
Trip Start
Oct 31, 2008
1
14
39
Trip End
Jul 01, 2009
Leon, Nicaragua
Sunday, December 7, 2008
5.30. Up, a little rum headed.
6.30. Chicken bus to San Salvador.
8.00. Arrived.
8.30. Depart to San Miguel. Scenery changes from lush green to parched brown.
12.00. Arrived. Great fruit stall.
12.30. Depart for the boarder with Honduras. Complete with crazed women to our left.
12.55. Inexplicably made to change bus
.
14.00. Arrive at the boarder. Hotter than the sun. Nadia`s bag strap breaks. Surprisingly asked for $8 a head to enter Honduras. Paid as there weren`t many options.
14.30. Jump on the first bus heading straight through to the Nicaraguan boarder. Two hours promised by the man. No currency. Pay in US Dollars, over charged.
15.00. Stop in random sweat box town where the driver and his boy purchase a number of mechanical items and set about fixing the bus. No currency, water being rationed.
16.00. Continue.
17.00. Arrive at boarder town. Hot, no water, conversation becoming limited.
17.15. Nicaraguan side surprise us with a $10 head to enter. Paid as there wasn`t much option. No Currency. A pleading Nadia acquires some water.
17.45. The end is drawing near. A 1 kilometre walk attaining money, water and food on route. Onto a bus with only 1 and a half hours to our finishing destination.......
19.00. Still at the Nicaraguan boarder having sat for an hour and 15 minutes waiting for the bus to fill up. Depart.
20.45. Arrive in Leon and commence a 20 minute walk into town.
21.05. First two accommodations are full, the third, mothers pardon our french, was a shit hole charging $20 a night.
22.00. After nearly an hour of walking round a dodgy dark city hungry and thirsty resulted we found out everywhere was full, saw us back at the shit hole called Hotel America, where the smug looking owner happily informed us one of the rooms had gone the only one left had single beds.
22.30. A cold shower and a slow count to 100 later saw us in a bar up the road, food on order and beer in hand. Chatting to a couple, we called The Zellwegers based on the guys name being Rene, who we had before met in Caye Caulker and just bumped into again.
00.30. Bed.
We left El Salvador to get to Leon in time for a festival for Mary and the immaculate conception the next day imagining fervour and colour. It turned out to just be a piss up. Quickly moving rooms the next day saw us in a nice hostel called Lazy bones. We spent the next two days pottering round the pleasant city going to the Cinema and socializing with the Zellwegers. But never really getting over the disappointment of leaving El Salvador to soon. Knowing that there was plenty of other things we would have liked to have seen and done.
Still, travel is full of Hindsights and Nicaragua, according to all reports, is an amazing place.......isn`t it...
No photos were lost of Leon. None were taken.
