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| Our beach! I liked the clouds being reflected in the water |
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| Sunset through my sunglasses |
Our first night here we lazily
sprawled in the hammocks to watch the sun set over the ocean, and I got an
opportunity to mess around with my camera. Everything looks so different when
I’m wearing my sunglasses, so I took a few pictures through the lens, which I
thought came out pretty neat.
Now about traveling! We’re becoming
experts. We woke up at 5 in Utila to catch the 630 ferry to La Ceiba. We ended
up traveling with two people from Amsterdam, one of which I went diving with a
few times. We caught a bus from La Ceiba to Tegucigalpa, the capital of
Honduras. Here we were accosted by taxi drivers, who were surprisingly
inefficient. After arguing amongst themselves for ten minutes and herding us
back and forth between taxis, we finally got in one to drive to a different,
safer, part of town.  |
| A little kid sweeping up the street in front of the family's shop |
Driving through the streets we were struck by the poverty.
There were poorly constructed houses everywhere. The streets were lined with
stalls where people were selling an assortment of things. I saw one lady
standing barefoot in the dirt selling socks. It is definitely a lot different
than back home, and makes me appreciate our standard of living. After setting
up shop in our hotel, we walked around a main street cut off from the cars. We
instantly felt much safer in this area and were glad we decided not to get a
hotel by the bus station. We indulged and enjoyed some McDonalds for dinner.
There really weren’t any restaurants in the area, not even small local shops;
just American fast food.
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| Sunset in Jiquilillo |
The next morning, we woke up early
and took a cab to the bus station, where we were planning to take a bus to
Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Unfortunately, it was full, so the four of
us got in another cab to a different bus station. Here we caught a microbus to
El Paraiso, a town near the border. We had to hop onto another bus to get to
the border, where we were met with tons of different fees we had to pay. After
getting through immigration, one more guy came up to us that we had to pay. We
only had to pay one US dollar, or 25 Cordobas. I still had Lempiras though,
from Honduras. He didn’t have change in Lempiras, but I could use the Cordobas
our Amsterdam friends paid with for change. Having to convert between the US,
Lempiras, and Cordobas, while talking in Spanish made my head spin. I didn’t
realize till later that the guy ripped me off! He only took me for 2 dollars,
but I was frustrated because if I had just taken a moment to think through the
exchange rate instead of trusting him, I could have prevented the situation. In
America, though, you can usually trust that cops and officials won’t be ripping
you off, but down here I have to be a little more aware. Oh well, lesson
learned.
From the border, we took a bus to
the neighboring town of Ocotal, and from here a bus to Esteli. I took a
bathroom break in Ocotal, and when I came out I didn’t see our bus anywhere!
Luckily a bunch of locals waved at me and pointed after a bus that was slowly
inching away. I had to run to it and hop in through the back door where Nate
was waiting with our things! This was another example of how locals here are all very helpful. From here we went to Esteli. We separated from our Dutch friends and then began our search
for a hotel. All the ones we went to were filled, or the prices had doubled.
One said there were rooms but the owner wasn’t around, so we went off to eat
pizza and wait. Eventually we got a room. Clean, for the most part, but not too
private. The wall dividing our room from our neighbors wasn’t flesh to the
wall, and there was a hole between our rooms that Nate put duct tape over. We
could hear everything, but luckily people went to sleep early. At 530 we woke
up to look for the bus. We weren’t too impressed with the town and we
were sick of cities and ready for the beach anyway, so we decided to go to
Jiquilillo, a quiet beach town that’s a little more off the grid. We took a bus
to Leon, and from here caught a bus to Chinandega. None of the minivan buses
wanted to give us a ride because of our big old back packs, but luckily Nate
found a big bus that would take us.
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| In our bike taxi |
In Chinandega we got a ride to our next bus
station by a little bicycle taxi, which was fun. I felt bad for the guy who was
dripping with sweat after biking the two of us and our heavy back packs around
town. The roads were filled with these bike taxis, but there were also cars and
horse drawn carts. Definitely not what you see back home! The bus ride to
Juiqilillo was just like all the rest. All the seats full, and every time we
stopped tons of people would come on the bus to try to sell chips, sodas, gum,
ice cream, the list goes on. They come on the front of the bus, yelling and
pushing past you, and then out the back. I caved and bought some fruit from a
little girl, but then instantly a couple of her friends wanted me to buy from
them to. They should be off in elementary school, not on a bus selling things!
I felt bad for them. I keep imagining how different my life would have been if
I had been born down here, and am grateful for all the luxuries we take for
granted back home!
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