Travelling Days...Not Fun!!

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20th MAY 2009 - I HATE BUS JOURNEYS!!!
I got up at around 6am after hearing a couple of others get up and potter about. Our bus wasn’t until 7am and so I took my time getting ready and sorting myself out so I was ready for the off! We had bought some jam and bread for breakfast however the kitchen was locked and Nat had to throw down some fisticuffs to get the night man to open the kitchen for us. Even then he only let us get our stuff…he wouldn’t let us actually use the kitchen. Looked like toast was out and jam sandwiches were on the menu!! The multi tool came in handy as I used the knife to spread the jam!! Bear Grills eat your heart out with my survival skills!! I stocked up for breakfast and we also made some to take with us for the journey. Sorted!!

We just wanted to get to Costa Rica now for our final days and to get there quickly we knew we would have to do some serious bus journeys starting today. The first bus was to San Pedro Sula. It was a big bus but pretty shabby. No reclining seats or aircon but still comfier than the little mini buses which have about as much suspension as a bucking bronco!! I managed to sleep for most of the 3 hour journey. Off the bus in San Pedro we went straight into the station and booked on another bus to the Honduras Capital…Tegucigalpa. We were really lucky as one was leaving in 5 minutes time and so we didn’t have to wait about. Tickets bought…we jumped on the bus. The lady also told us that when we arrived we should find the Tika Bus Station and they would sort out our travel on to Costa Rica. Sweet!!

The bus was in mint condition. Clean, aircon, recliners…just like in Mexico and we both managed to sleep in between listening to music and reading. Dan Brown had currently got my attention with Deception Point. Really good book!! Good job too as it was a 5 hour journey and I began to get very hungry and very tired as we hadn’t eaten anything other than a few jam sandwiches and travelling is very draining!!

Tegucigalpa was not the nicest place. It was pretty dingy and we were told to be careful as it wasn’t the safest place for tourists to be. We got straight in a taxi to the Tika Bus Station as we hoped there was a night bus so we could advance further towards Costa Rica. No such look. The only way to go was to spend 2 more days travelling in buses as there weren’t any night buses. We had no choice and so booked our tickets….picking up the following day at 9am to take us to Managua in Nicaragua, and then at 6am the day after to take us to San Jose in Costa Rica. I can’t say I was looking forward to another 2 full days on buses.

Buses booked, we had a walk into the town to find an ATM. We were well pleased when we saw The World’s Local Bank…HSBC!! Familiarity is always nice, however the bloody thing would not give us any money and we had to use a different ATM further us the road. I really did not like walking about and we got beeped and shouted at with very step we took. If I had been a celeb, I would have shouted ‘get me out of here!!’ We the headed back towards the bus station and found a cheap hotel just up the road. Very basic but cheap and ok for a night.

It was already pretty late as so we didn’t have loads of time to kill. Even so, we headed just around the corner to use the internet for an hour and the nipped into the only restaurant on the road for something to eat. It was a Chinese place and I ordered Chicken Chow Main. Oh my word…the plate was massive!! As the lady brought it down the stairs, Nat laughed and said “geez…look at the size of that” however as she placed it in front of me, my face fell! It was literally falling off the plate and looked like a meal for 4. I tried my very best and it was a good job I was hungry but even so I could still only manage half of it. It was a mighty mighty effort and my stomach was shouting at me to stop by the end. Sooooo full!!! We couldn’t move for a while and just sat there using all our energy trying to breathe. After we had calmed a little, we waddled back to the hostel and read/wrote our journals for a while before settling off to sleep.


21st MAY 2009 - ANOTHER DAY ON THE ROAD & SCARY NICARAGUA
We got up at around 8am and after getting sorted we headed to the bus station. I was not at all excited about another days travelling but I was glad to be moving on from Tegucigalpa and closer to Costa Rica. At the bus station we checked in, ate an overpriced and under tasting toasted sandwich and then boarded the bus. 9am we were on our way…Nicaragua here we come!!

The bus journey was as good as it could be. It even had an English speaking film on though I may have actually preferred it to be in Spanish!! Beverly Hills Chichiwawa…not exactly a quality film and one I doubt I will be renting from Blockbuster when I return home. As the film was on the drivers buddy came around and collected all of our passports and border fees. Once we arrived at the border we just stood off the bus and waited whilst all our passports were taken to the desk to be stamped. Not really the strictest way to pass through immigration. I had always assumed that passports had photos on so that the immigration people could check that you are who you say you are. Not in this case!! Made it easier for us as we didn’t have to queue but it did mean that we got pestered for a long time by the money men!! On this occasion, we did have some Honduras money left over and so volunteered to get ripped off by changing it into Nicaraguan money. Honestly…I almost gave one of them a straight shot to the face as he kept stepping right in my personal space!! I kept saying “back off money man” but he took no notice and continued to waft his notes under my nose!! I was really glad to get back on the bus!! We then continued on our way through Nicaragua until we arrived in Menagua at around 5pm.Eight hours on a bus….I was tired, hungry and very glad to get off.

Managua seemed pretty similar to Tegucigalpa!! Not so friendly and very run down. Off the bus and outside the station we got mobbed once again by loads of men...some taxi drivers, others selling beds in hostels and hotels. Far too many of them know and we didn’t know which way to turn at first. Eventually, we managed to seek out an English speaking Nigaraguan guy who said he could take us to a cheap hostel. We told him how much we wanted to pay (pittance) and he told us to follow him. Oh my word. Where he took us was the worst place we had seen on our travels so far and my first comment as I walked in to the room was “is this a hostel” as I stared around in disbelief. The bed looked like it had just been slept in. There were a few empty beer cans dotted around the room and it was really dirty. A guy was walking around outside in a pair of boxers with a fag in his mouth and it wouldn’t have shocked me at all if this wasn’t his house/bed that he was trying to rent out for a quick buck. In no way was it a hostel and there was no way we were going to stay there!! Really unsafe!! We told the English speaking guy who had taken us there that we needed somewhere a little cleaner and he said he could show us another place for a little bit more money…as in double!!

The second place wasn’t much better but at least it was an actual hostel and the beds didn’t look like they had just been slept in. It was still a dirty room and had a dodgy shared bathroom between our room and another but it was closer to the bus station and it had a tv which was a big fat Brucy bonus for us!! We decided to make do and just stay there for the night…after all, we weren’t shy to roughing it!! Once the room was sorted we asked the guy who had shown us the hostel where the nearest ATM was. He looked horrified and told us not to walk there as it was unsafe for tourists. Nat and I looked at one another and then back at him. Surely not in daylight? The answer was yes…it was unsafe for us to walk 6 blocks to the ATM even in broad daylight. What kind of place were we in?!! We needed cash for the border fee tomorrow and so he walked us back the 1 block to the bus station and from there we asked inside about the ATM. The bus station staff said the same thing and told us not to walk the streets at any time of day and we would be guaranteed to get mugged. Geez…I was beginning to feel a little scared and uncomfortable by this point!! We got in a taxi outside the bus station and asked him to drive us to the nearest ATM.

The ATM was at a nearby garage which luckily also sold food.. We figured that if it was too unsafe to walk 5 blocks to the ATM it was unsafe to go out for food too. We both ordered a hot dog and bought a couple of cereal bars. The hotdogs took a while as there was a bit of a queue and the taxi driver kept on tapping his watch as if to say “get a bloody move on” and he looked pretty angry. I was anxious as I hadn’t heard such good things about taxi drivers either and this guy blatantly knew that we had both just got money out of the bank. I slyly hid a note in my secret trouser pocket and shuffled my bank card into my bra just to be safe. I also put my multitool in the front pocket of my bag. The knife on that baby was pretty sharp and if that failed I thought that I could always use my tweezers as a not so lethal weapon!! I really wasn’t taking any chances in this town!!

The taxi driver (thankfully) took us straight back to the bus station, though when we gave him the money which we agreed on prior to the journey, he began chuntering in Spanish and he was not a happy chappy!! Nat and I made a quick exit and scuttled back to the hostel with our hot dogs. Looked like we were set for a fun night in!!!

I did not even want to sit on the bed but the floor was not an option. There weren’t any sheets except a mattress cover and that to me screamed “I have never been changed”. It was so damn hot too and the fan on the roof didn’t work unless I stood on the bed and pushed it around with my hand. Honestly…it was like a comedy sketch!! Eventually I gave in and laid on the bed in a pool of my own sweat watching tv. Nat did the same!! The tv truly was a gem. We had to spend way too long in that grotty room and it was only bearable because we had some English channels. 1st up we watched Shrek 3 followed my friends, followed by One Tree Hill and finished up with Snatch. Quality film and at one point I almost forgot where I was. Following Snatch, it was pretty late and we tried to go to sleep though we both felt very uneasy. So glad to be getting out of there early the following morning!!


22nd MAY 2009 - FINAL LEG....ARRIVAL IN COSTA RICA!!!
The alarm went off at 4.30am. Another early start…am I really on the trip of a lifetime?!! I didn’t mind so much this morning as I could not wait to get out of the hellhole that was Managua. After getting dressed and packing up we set off on the short walk to the bus station. After all the chat about how unsafe the streets are, I was not so keen on walking even one block in the dark but we had to do it if we were going to catch the bus. I played it safe again and transferred a bit of money and my bank card to my bra just in case, whilst making sure my multitool was within fast reach if needed. Talk about living on the edge!!

Thankfully, we got to the bus station safe and sound. After checking in and filling in all the immigration and flu forms for when we arrived at the border, we sat and waited to board the bus. I was hungry after my unsubstantial hot dog meal the previous night and so I tucked into a cereal bar from the shop and crossed my fingers that we would stop en route.

On the bus it was the same drill as the previous day. Good service with all the benefits although the films were in Spanish again. A guy came around for all our passports and fees again to do the border stuff on our behalf and I slept for most of the journey until we arrived at the border at 8.30am. Whilst waiting to get our exit stamp I bought some mango and changed my remaining Nicaraguan money with the money men for some Costa Rican Colones. Such a funny currency. £1 was equal to 885 Colones so we would literally have to draw thousands out of the bank!! That would be a first for me…it’s the fist time I had ever had thousands in…and probably the last!!

Next up was the entry border to Costa Rica. We actually had to queue up with our own passports this time. Costa Rica must be a little stricter than the rest of Central America. The queue was huge and did not move at all for about 15 minutes. 3 American girls from our bus were behind us in the queue and we got chatting to them. Turned out that they had been robbed a couple of days ago in Nicaragua. 2pm in the afternoon, they had jumped in a taxi to take them to a hostel. 2 random guys jumped in too and said they would split the taxi cost. The driver then drove them to the middle of nowhere, all 3 guys (including the driver) put guns to their heads and said they could either hand over all their belongings or die!! The men then gave them their passports back (federal offence if they steal passports and more chance of getting caught) and left them in the middle of no where. They literally took everything they owned and all they had were the clothes they had on!! I was so shocked!! 2pm in the afternoon. So glad we listened to all the advice and stayed in our room when we went to Nigaragua. I would have been traumatised. The girls seemed in quite high spirits considering what had happened, although one of them had decided to cut her trip short to go home and have counseling!! Not the only horror story we had heard either and Nat and I were just really thankful that nothing like that happened to us!!

Eventually we got to the front of the border queue and passed through. Stupid lady behind the desk and she stamped all our passports with the wrong date so we had to go through again. Honestly…women!!! Back on the bus after what seemed like an eternity, we had another few hours to go before we arrived in San Jose. I watched Swordfish in Spanish and dozed on and off. So hungry too, I was tempted to eat my own arm. All I had eaten was a cereal bar at 5am and a bit of Mango. Not enough at all!! Nat had some emergency lime flavour crisps that she was saving for stray dogs however my need was greater. I can’t say they were tasty but they stopped me gnawing on my arm for a few hours until we arrived in San Jose at 5pm!! Hallelujah!!

*Sorry for the lack of photos on this entry, but there really weren't anything to take photos of unless you have never seen a bus before!!

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