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Published: July 27th 2008
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After Esteli I took a quick bus ride to Ocotal which is very close to the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. I stayed there for a night. While I was there I met a young woman who was from Ocotal and wanted to practice her english. She had learned her english from tourist and from music and her englishwas quite amazing. She has worked with both Lonely Planet and Moon Handbooks on thier Nicaraguan editions. She was very nice and graciously showed me around town to some different monuments and to the Parque Central, which is said to be the nicest in Nicaragua. The former Mayor of Ocotal was a botanist and created a very incredible and lush parque central.
I left Ocotal on Thursay. I didn´t qiute know what to expect from the border crossing and how many buses and how long it would all take but I knew I really didn´t want to spend the night in Tegucigalpa. The border ended up being a sinch I was through and had exchanged money in about twenty minutes which was really nice compared to the Costa Rican Border which took hours. I took five different buses that day but I
made it past Tegus and to a town in central Honduras called Comayagua. It was a beautiful town and I splurged a little on a nice hotel because I had been staying in some pretty modest hospedajes. I have to say that it was worth it for one night. The next day I left for Gracias but I was onlyable to make it to La Esparanza because there is only one bus from La Esparanza to Gracias per day. So I stayed in La Esparanza for a night and left the yesterday for Gracias. In the minibus from La Esparanza I met a girl named Jennifer who happened to be from seattle and she went to school at Western. We talked for a while and she gave me her number and told me that she would probably be going out tonight and to give her a call if I wanted to join her. When we got to Gracias I found my hotel, which is a very cute family run hotel. Then I did some shoping and went to the market and got six bananas for 25 cents. I was so excited. Later I was in my room relaxing a bit
debating wether I should call Jennifer or not. The lazy, boring, nonsocial side of me said to just hang out and go to sleep. The other side of me said to take this oppertunity. So I decided to go find the Internet cafe and if theyhad a phone that I could call from I would do it. I was about two blocks from my hotel and I hear someone call out "Jennifer". Jennifer was just across the street. Fate much? obviously I was ment to do it. We decided to hook up a few hours later. I met her at her apartment and from there we went to a really cute little cafe and had some incredible lemonade. It was alot of fun. We talked about Washington, and travel, and her work here in Gracias. Then a friend of hers joined us for a while. We stayed out for only about an hour and a half, which was perfect because I was pretty tired from traveling. Her friend ended up paying for both of our drinks and walking me back to my hotel. It was a great night. Today I explored a bit around the town. It has some incredible
chruches and a small castillo on the hill above the city.
I am really enjoying Honduras. It is interesting to try and identify the differences because there are many similiarities as well. The people have all been very nice and very helpful. The bus system is very good. And I am definately getting better at navigating the Central American bus system.
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