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The boat from Utila
Hot and sweaty already at 6amIt's been a hectic few days. After leaving Utila we spent a couple of days in La Ceiba figuring out our transport options. In the end we decided to leave Honduras for Nicaragua, and set off at 6.30 to catch a bus to the capital, Tegucigalpa. Seven hours later we arrived having had a relatively pleasant journey as seven hour bus journeys go, and immediately left by taxi for a different bus terminal about a 20 minute drive away. As soon as the driver said we were going to Choluteca we were pounced on by a few people, vying for our custom, grabbing our bags and heading for a bus. We made sure we got on the same bus as our bags which wasn't as easy as it sounds, and sure enough, the other bus left first, leaving us waiting on a hot bus for half an hour. After another four hours (and a quick ice cream stop) we arrived in Choluteca, a border town and the place we were planning on staying. Arriving at night in a strange town, we did the only sensible thing and got in a taxi to the best sounding hostel in the guidebook. The place
was very cheap, and looked it, the local Chinese restaurant was pretty miserable and all in all we were feeling pretty down.
The next day things improved considerably, the town felt more alive and friendly in the daytime, a nice taxi driver helped us find an ATM and took us to the market to pick up a micro-bus to the border. An hour later we pulled up with no immigration office in sight and were told that this is where we got off for the border. Slightly confused, we were met by two men who told us they would take us there. One of them changed some money for us whist the other put our bags, and then us onto a very battered rickshaw, not naming a price and insisting he only wanted a 'propina' (tip). Not having any other options we went along with him. He cycled away for a few hundred yards and delivered us and our bags to the Honduran exit point, where we gave him some money, but he didn't leave, instead he put us and our bags back on the rickshaw and cycled another hundred yards to the Nicaraguan entry point. There a rather
surly official checked our passports and demanded the entry tax. This was $14 for both of us, I handed over 300 cordobas, expecting a little change and instead getting a receipt for $4, the official fee for one person. Then our friend with the rickshaw took us over the bridge that marks the actual border, cycling straight past the armed guard checking passports and tax stamps. Fortunately he was only getting up the slope to the bridge, then he did stop and we didn't get shot. Another couple of hundred yards later and we arrive at the bus stop, where we went straight past a bus saying Leon Express (Leon being our destination) and he took us a different bus for Chinandega, a town on the way. We ended up paying more for the 500 yard rickshaw fare than the previous 100 miles bus journey but I think he earned it cycling in that heat with us and our bags.
The bus to Chinandega left when they said it would (unusual in these parts), and as soon as we arrived we got a bus going to Leon. It was also going to Managua (the capital) and we were expecting
to go into the bus station, so we were quite surprised when the conductor suddenly shouted ' Leon, Leon', the bus stopped abruptly and we were spat out of the back door and left on the side of the highway. Fortunately there were lots of taxis passing by and for a change the driver didn't try to rip us off, and we made it to Hostel Bigfoot. A clean room with a comfy mattress in a friendly atmosphere and we were feeling a whole lot better. A few 50p Mojitos helped as well.
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M&D
non-member comment
Thanks for the update Steve, sounds a pretty hairy journey!! Glad to hear you found a decent hostel in Leon - super paintings. love to you both xxxxxx