Day 29: Continued Travel San Pedro Sula to Leon

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This am we awoke in the 3's to Olly singing to us cheerfully 'You're a Trouble-maker!' Usually this is such a welcome noise but not this am!! We had had about 4 hours sleep and were not ready to get up so we waited until the last possible minute and threw on some clothes, packed up and off we went. Today is all a bit of a daze really and not very exciting so will just give a brief overview.

We all piled in taxis as we had done yesterday with our bags all tied on the bag of each card and we dopily convoyed to the bus station that we waited hours at on the way to Roatan so we knew it well. It was all shut up at this tie of them and so we all sat on our packs in a daze and waited about an hour for our bus to arrive. Great that we were there so efficiently early but also could have done with maybe half an hours more sleep! Evrey lil bit helps. Thankfully we didnt actually have to do anything today all day but sit and follow the crowd so was all good! We had been told the air con was a bit cold so had jumpers and I was wearing my ¾ trackies instead of shorts! And he was not kidding! It was absolutely freezing! We were so cold I was shaking at times. It was a ratio of about 1 hour air con blasting to 5 mins air con off for about 5 hours till our first stop! Everyone was so so cold and we couldnt get any sleep cos it was so ridiculous! We mentioned to jacob about asking the driver to turn it off and he kinda scoffed, laughed and walked away! Totally unhelpful! Matters were then made worse as we all piled into our breakie stop (a lil stall selling chippies and weird looking food), all freezing and grumpy only to find the intrepid group who seem to be doing our same route as we have seen them a few times, all sitting in there eating maccas!!! So unfair! When we asked where they got it from they just smirked and said their guide had jumped into a taxi and gone and got it for them all! Cant imagine Jacob ever doing that!

Ben and I got a wrap looking thing which had refriend beans, sour cream and cheese into and it was horrible!! Ben finished his but didnt enjoy it and I had 2 bites and couldnt do iit so we got a juice, skittles, m&ms and some corn chips as snacks along the way and got back on the bus again hungry! Thankfully it had got much hotter outside so we were actually thankful for the air con from that point on but maybe just at 5am in the am wasnt as necessary! We had about 5 hours before stopping again and watched 3 hours straight of Game of Thrones which was fab as it passed time quickly and now we are all up to date ready to download tonights episode when we get to the hotel! We snacked on our extremely healthy snacks we got at breakie and then had a random stop which looked like the middle of no where about 1.45pm. Ben asked Jacob if we could get anything for lunch here and he laughed and said well see what you can find – unhelpful yet again! His tip is going to be non existant at this rate! There was absolutely nothing to buy and it was a stop before the border where we could change our honduras money into nicaraguan money. So we did this and quickly got back on the bus again to ccross the border. 2Mins later we stopped again for customs. We had to queue up again and walk through this dingy room with our customs form and they didnt check anything! We then had about an hour wait while they checked the whole bus loads passports. We got an iceblock and some nuts for lunch! Greeeat! Ben bbraved it and bought some street food which he assumed was maybe pork and rice but just as likely to be cat or dog!! Though, the dogs roaming round were so skinny it was horrible so unlikely theyd get any meat of them! He said it tasted fine and isnt sick yet so meh! But I thought it was best I didnt get any knowing my stomach at the mo!

We all eventually got back on the bus and onlly had about another hour and a half till we got to Leon which was good. I feel asleep as did Ben and time flew! I woke up and Jacob was saying quick all off take all of your things! No warning at all! We had rubbish everywhere and our stuff was scattered so it was mad dash! We made it out and all piled into taxis again to our Hotel Balcones! It was def a step up from last night so we were stoked. We all headed into our room and had showers (still cold but actually refreshing cos we were all so sticky and hot!) and got changed for dinner. We had a quick tour of the town which looked nice and went to El Sesteo for dinner which was in the main square and known for its Nicaraguan dishes. It was outside the biggest cathedral in Central America and they were having a mass outside with singing and dancing and the singer was the worst singer EVER!! And it was loud and went on for about 2 hours! Was pretty funny but extremely cringy especially when he tried to hit those high notes!! The food to ages to come out cos there is 14 of us but when it did we were so stoked!! Ben ordered a Typical Nicaraguan dish with tasters of all sorts of things and it was gianormous!!! But really tasty! I got chicken with pineapple and bbq sauce and wok veges and it was delicious! I have been making some poor dinner choices lately so was so stoked with dinner tonight!! The 'singing' finally finished and we listened to our options for excursions tomorrow and paid deposits then headed back to go to bed! Cos we were all exhausted! We have to pay for air con in the rooms $15 a night if we wanted it so decided to try without it for one night to see. Ridiculous price but we'll see. We have chosen to do a volcano hike tomorrow where we can see glowing lava etc so cant wait for that! We closed in the day by watching a pretty crazy storm!

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Photos

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church service

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scary painting in the restaurant

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bens massive dinner

Comments

[Nola Hanson]

Hello from Nanny
Well done for keeping up with your blogs. I do not envy you your travels since you left the island. What dreadful starting times. Found you on map and see how far you have travelled. Enjoy tomorrow and remember - low risk adventures only! Lots of luv xx

[Frank Hanson]

Thanks for your ongoing reports. Very interesting. I now know a lot about what you have eaten but not a lot about the scenery or the people! Love Gramps