The second longest day ever

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I´ve learned 2 things in the past day or so.

1. 2 backpacks, a travel pillow and a sarong make excellent bedding at a bus station at 5 in the morning

2. Never trust information from a bus station in Mercedes, even if they work for the bus company which apparently goes to your destination.

So after the excitment of the border crossing yesterday we got on a night bus from Colon to Mercedes, smelly and exhausted. We managed to get a bit of sleep which was good, and set an alarm for 3:45 just in case we were sound out and missed our stop.

At 4:30 we both woke up and the bus was stopped by the side of the road. One of the drivers´ sidekicks was frantically running up and down the bus (double decker) asking everyone where they were going to. Several other buses passed us outside and they started then putting us on these buses depending on where we were going. We had no idea why and no explanation was given, whether it was a flat tyre or what who knows. We were delighted with our new bus which had fully reclining leather seats and was ultra comfy, we were hoping the ride there would be a long one!

Didn´t turn out to be so and we arrived into Mercedes around 30 minutes later, around 5a.m. We´re heading to a national park area for a few days and found the ticket office which apparently sold tickets for the bus. The guy seemed to be completely clueless and pointed John in 2 different directions each time he asked. We decided to get some sleep and approach the tourist desk when it opened at 9a.m. I fashioned quite an impressive bed out of my backpacks and sarong, so much so that when John tried to wake me an hour or so later he said he had major trouble doing so! We sought the comfort then of the only indoor space which looked more like a jail cell, but at least had 2 benches for us to doze on.

By 9:15 the tourist office hadn´t opened and didn´t look like it was going to, so John asked a different bloke about the bus who told us yet another story. He then asked at the telephone shop and the woman there seemed to be the most informed (random!!!) John came out of the shop with a look of disbelief and fear as he broke the news "there are no buses today, people always come here on a Sunday and get stuck"!! So. Booked into the nearest Youth Hostel and had a great sleep. Nice little quiet place with a beautiful courtyard. We were supposed to get a double room with private bathroom but the people in the room we were to get decided to stay, so they just made up a bed for us in the kitchen/bar area and gave us a discount - could be interesting tonight as all the bottles of expensive drinks are at our disposal! Just been relaxing and checking out the town, which has less than any other we´ve been to, with the added laziness of a Sunday and nothing being open! Have seen a lot of great cowboy outfits tho, more at the bus station than we saw in the whole of Tacauramba!

So looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight and a look at the national park and some funky animals tomorrow.

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