Crossing from Honduras to Nicaragua

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What a day that was! We are not exactly inexperienced with border crossings, but this one took the biscuit!!

The ride down to the border went smoothly in relative comfort but all of that came to an abrupt halt when we reached the Honduras/Nicaragua border at Guasaule. Having established where we needed to be to get our exit stamps, we then had to wait outside in the blazing sunshine and 36 degrees. Luckily the queue was so long that we had some shade for some of the wait. The lack of progression meant we had plenty of time to find the toilets too. Not an easy task. Trish was repeatedly pointed in the wrong direction and in the end we had to go through the immigration building squeezing past the hundreds of people waiting for their entry or exit stamps. Crossing a road full of trucks wasn't difficult because they were as stationary as the pedestrian queue. Over a dusty car park and up some steps took us to a pretty rancid pair of cubicles. That, my friends, is what travelling is all about!!!!

Anyway, it took us two hours to get stamped out of Honduras. The queue we were waiting patiently in hardly ever seemed to move. Once we got some way towards the front it had somehow divided into two, and just like at the post office, we were in the wrong one when it came to expediency. It was so frustrating when, having watched countless people have their paperwork meticulously inspected, our passports were processed in a matter of seconds and our exit stamps issued. I'm not particularly in favour of two-tier societies but when they know a European passport will be dealt with that quickly, can't they open a kiosk just to process the four European passports in amongst the hundreds who were waiting?!

Next followed a hot, dusty walk over the river which separates the two countries. Our English travel companions for the day, James and Lewis, were by now some way behind us. It was a bit like Race Across The World to get to the Nicaragua checkpoint! We found ourselves at the back of a very long queue on the Nicaragua side but some friendly locals waved us to the front. Their reasoning was that with European passports we would be dealt with much more quickly than they would. Honduras take note! Their plan soon backfired. It took them half an hour or so to process us, and we wondered if we were going to be refused entry. Everything was scrupulously written down in legers and even the receipts for our entry fees were carefully (and slowly) hand written. We were not sure they liked teacher as our choice of profession and they seemed afraid we were here to stay. The subsequent security scan of our baggage revealed no problems and any fears Russ had over his camera gear were unfounded. Nicaragua is particularly fussy about anything that could be considered professional journalism kit or spy ware! Anyway, we finally made it into the country. James and Lewis were not so so fortunate. More about that later!

We had a 100m walk to the "bus station" and then our plans began to unravel. It turned out there was no way to get to Estelí at that time of the afternoon which perhaps explains why the border guard was so concerned by our plans to go there. Could that actually have been the reason for the delay in processing our passports? Instead we took the last bus to León instead. We tried to get the driver to wait just in case Lewis and James emerged from the checkpoint but eventually he had to depart without them. Luckily it was possible to get a SIM card with remarkable ease at a shack-like shop at the bus station. That meant we could let our hotel know and book a hostal in León. The bus driver then drove like a mad man in the dark for almost two hours but we made it safely to León. Today we felt like intrepid travellers!!

I know, I know, you want to know what happened to Lewis and James. Well, James is a talented drone videographer (see his work on Instagram) and drones are something that absolutely can not be brought into Nicaragua. Knowing this, he had sent his drone home. Sensible lad! Unfortunately the remote control and spare batteries were still in his pack. They were confiscated and James, and only James as an intermediary could not be used, could return to collect them the next day, travel back into Honduras, send them on, go through the ridiculous immigration game again, and then continue the journey to León. After a night in a hostel some 10km from the border, he decided to write them off knowing that a second hand remote and batteries would cost about the same as playing the immigration game and sending the offending kit home. It wouldn't have been free to retrieve them either, and no doubt an extra fine would have been found somewhere!!

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