Advertisement
Published: March 7th 2007
I left El Salvador days ago. Five buses, and two borders later, I arrived in Leon, Nicaragua with my thoughts still in El Salvador. I think it was the people, interested and curious, or the fact that, when there, you’re witness to the momentum of change occurring in a country many find too dangerous to visit. Definitely a policed country, mostly present to combat the issues between gangs of bordering towns, not because travelers are a target for anything more than petty theft.
Nevertheless, while in their national parks, police officers escorted me, one in front and one behind the entire way. Even while in San Salvador, after having asked a couple officers on bikes for directions to the bus station, they thought that rather than telling me where to go, they’d just go ahead and bring me. You can imagine my surprise seeing the sirens from the corner of my eye, jeep pulling up next to me in the middle of a busy intersection, telling me that I only had 5 minutes to catch the last bus and get in, we’re taking you. Two officers in front, militia armed with riffles in trunk, white girl in back seat, sirens and all, I caught the last bus.
I stayed in Leon a of couple days recovering from the long commute out of El Salvador, over the border and out of Honduras, into Nicaragua to Leon
From the border of Nicaragua, I rode in the back of a bus with a couple
of rather large Nicaraguan women lugging back duty free goods in massive garbage bags. Perched a top their bags like chickens on eggs the women rode, while the rest of us pilled, 4 to a seat, in the overstuffed, aging school bus for over 4 hours in the heat of the afternoon.
Everything is so much closer on a map.
From Leon I traveled back up north to the most northwestern point of Nicaragua, Jiquillio. Such a slow, peaceful spot, a fishing village, flat, on the Pacific Ocean, bordering an ecological reserve.
I slept on a ranch, in a wooden bunk, open to the ocean breeze. In the morning I was guided out on a canoe through estuaries, to a tiny, uninhabited island of white sand, and blue water, no civilization in sight. Think about all those tiny, hidden spots out there on earth, which never in our lifetime we’ll have the time to visit.
I thought about it as I rode on the bus, leaving town, with the intelligent 12 year-old who rode the buses, 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, selling tortillas. He was amused by my mispronunciation of his town, and even more humored by my basic language skills. Although he only goes to school on Sundays, and may never have the opportunity to discover places further than his neighboring village, he still has more human skills and brains than our leading men in the developed world.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatimih/sets/72157594578031080/
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0401s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mark
non-member comment
Thank you for all of the wonderful images and adventure!!! I even had a small cameo appearance. Glad to hear you are well. Everything is good here, Kira is growing so fast. We send kisses and hugs, travel safe!!!