Bus Travel

I keep asking myself.....¨why are you doing this?¨and the answer is.....I have no idea. Why have I spent the last 2 days on a bus? Well for one it´s the cheapest way to get from Costa Rica to Guatemala. However, how I ever thought seeing almost every Central American country in 7 was a good idea, I don´t know. I know it will be worth it, but it´s basically making me want to come back for much longer. We´ll see. Maybe that´s the point.

The trip yesterday from San Jose to Managua, Nicaragua was 10 hours and was mostly uneventful. The worst part was sitting in the back near the bathroom that had a great stench. I couldn´t bring myself to actually use it myself because of the smell. However, when I went to use the bathroom at the Nicaragua border station I had a fun experience. All the women started rolling up their pants. I realized the floor was a little gross and they didn´t want to get their pants wet, so in great fashion I did the same thing. I´ll spare the other details, but I almost missed the bus because of the venture. Today went much better, but another 10 hours and 2 border crossings and I am beat. I met a nice guy from El Salvador who sat next to me and he helped me with the border crossing process, which wasn´t much in Honduras or El Salvador. The police just came on the bus and asked to see your passport. Nothing much. I´m getting to be a pro. The Ticabus isn´t too bad. The seats are comfy and today there were actually subtitles in English versus yesterday when there was just a picture and not enough sound.

Anyway, bus travel is mainly for dozing, thinking or just existing. I can´t really read well while moving and writing isn´t easy. There are many worse things. Last night I had a great blessing. I stayed just down the street from the station in a hostel-home. The area isn´t the safest. The lady who owned it was very sure to point that out to me. I wanted to walk and get some food before dark. I asked the guy at the computer about it and he jumped at the chance to go with me. He was just there for the night from Holland. So we did the buddy system for safety and went to a place my book recommended. When we got to the spot it didn´t look like much from the outside. But a lovely lady grabbed some chairs and a table from inside and set them up on the walk and welcomed us. We had a great pasta dinner for $3. So we had a nice conversation and then went back before dark. He was leaving at 5am the next morning so we walked to the station together. The lady arranged a guy to even walk with us.

Anyway, I´m now in San Salvador and I leave tomorrow for Guatemala. I´ll make it to Antigua but 1pm hopefully. Then It will slow down and I´ll be there at least a week. I´m looking forward to a slower pace and unpacking for a bit. Loving life...