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Published: August 17th 2006
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Waiting at the Detention Centre, El Salvador
This is where they told us that we could "put out cots" and sleep on the floor overnight, while we were held in detention until our bus came the next morning...thankfully we caught one back to Nicaragua in just a few hours! The past few days have been quite stressful, and definately eventful. In fact, I can pretty much sum up Wednesday as one of the most stressful and horrible days of my LIFE. Tho it was actually SO BAD that it just became humerous...
After writing about our plans to go to Guatemala, we proceeded to
go to the Ticabus station at 4am on Wednesday to get our 5am bus to El Salvador, then on to Guatemala City the next day. After a long wait in line, they looked at our passports, asked me what I had been doing heer for so long, and issued our tickets. Everything went well until we hit the border with Honduras: the bus attendees collected evryone´s apassport, and we each had to pay a US$7 exit fee. Except that because I have been here for more than the 90 days
allotted on my passport, which was stamped when I got here on August 27th, I was
told that I would have to pay an additional fee of 20 cordoba for every extra
day I spent here, for a total of 270 cordoba. I had been warned that border
gaurds and bus attendees may try and rip you off, so i insisted on getting off
the bus to speak to the border gaurd myself. I also insited on seeing a
calendar, and COUNTING how many extra days it had been: turns out it was only
12 extra days, so I paid my 240 córdoba and we got back on the bus and were on
our way. (I was proud that I had managed to save 70 córdoba, but that happiness was short-lived as I realised that while exanging our money at the border, the
guys managed to confuse us and rip us off a couple of US bucks, which really
annoyed me, but whatever...)
I slept all the way to the border with El Salvador, where the attendee once
again came around to collect our passports. But this time there was MORE
trouble with my stamp: despite having paid the fine to leave Nicaragua (which I
had assumed meant I was now good to go--after all, why should EL SALVADOR
care), there was a problem. They made us get off the bus. I was worried that
it would leave, with all our stuff on it, and when I asked the gaurd "Is the bus going to leave?" he replied, "Probably not...Maybe". Very reassuring: my blood pressure must have shot up about 100%! We were hauled into the border detention centre to be questioned. It turns out that apparently all of the Central American countries have a convention whereby they are like one big country, like the EU. Therefore I needed ANOTHER passport stamp, to renew my time here for a further 30 days, in order to be able to stay in any ONE of the countries (not just Nicaragua). When the gaurd asked to see a reciept for the fine I had paid
at the other border, I realised that he never gave me one. I had no proof at
all: the guy had ripped me off. So much for being glad that I saved 30 córdoba: I actually LOST 240 córdoba. They told us that the only option was for me to go BACK to Managua, to get another stamp. Thereby having wasted US$75 on bus tickets to El Salvador (which we would have to pay AGAIN later...). I was royally pissed: Sure, I had forgotten to
renew my passport stamp (my fault, I´ll admit), but why didn´t they WARN me when they sold me my bus ticket, and looked at our passports?! It´s a good thing there weren´t any Ticabus employees there, or they would have gotten a piece of my mind...
Well, the bus left, (we got our stuff off it tho). We were frantically trying to call the Canadian embassy, as the El Salvadorian gaurds were saying "the last bus back to Managua
left this morning, so you will have to sleep here for the night and wait for the
next bus back tommorrow morning. But we can´t let you leave this detention
centre or walk around outside or anything. Don´t worry: I´ll pull out a cot so
you guys can sleep inthe middle of the room...". I was trying not to freak
out-- but we were both pretty scared. But by asking around, we managed to find
a bus going back to Nicaragua-- just as it was pulling out-- we ran after it
and got on, but they almost wouldn´t sell us a ticket! I was crying: we got the
damn ticket. We arrived back in Nicaragua-- after 8 HOURS (on what should be a 4
hour trip!), as the bus kept breaking down literally every half hour. It was
AWFUL! This was made worse (or funnier) by the fact that the movie "Failure to
Lauch" (ironic, no?) was playing on the bus, and every time the bus broke down
it would re-start, so we have seen the beginning of that movie literally 20
times! The whole thing was just SOOO bad, all we could do was laugh. when faced
with the option to laugh or cry, laughter seemed the better choice.
We got back to Managua late that night-- after having spent 17 hours on 2 buses
to go NOWHERE, wasting a total of US$150 in the process. The next morning we
went to the immigration office...which was CLOSED! It turns out that Thursday
and Friday are some kind of public holiday. And government agencies are closed
on weekends-- so we have to wait until Monday to go to the dang office again.
So instead of letting the whole thing be a bummer, we decided to go and visit
the historical city of León, about 2 hours from Managua. That is where we are
currently, taking a break from the scorching sun and touring the various
ancient Churches (the oldest in the country). That is the beauty of not HAVING
any travel plans: they can´t get screwed up! The only issue now is the fact
that we will have to pay US$75 AGAIN to take the bus back to Guatemala--
(hopefully we will MAKE IT this time!) where our stay will have to be shorter
than we had intended. But whatever. It´s definately an adventure! At least we
are safe, healthy, and together. So I´m happy. That´s my update: g2g, my comp
time is running out! ttyl:
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