Manic Border Crossing With The Crew

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  Leon, Nicaragua
Thursday, November 8, 2007

We have stopped taking malaria tablets now we are out of the zone. Started the day with a good Honduran coffee with Chris who is going to meet his New York boyfriend in Managua, Nicaragua. We set out to get a chicken bus to Choluteca, then on to Guasaule border crossing, on to Chinandega then onto Leon all in one day, possible yes. We briefly met an English girl named Emma and an Irish guy named Fred who have been on the road for two years and another Englishman named Dan at the terminal at Tegucigalpa. They had all had jack of Honduras too. When we boarded the bus with my pack in a grain sack again, the three of them came dashing out and ran after the bus which stopped for them to board. A man came on board and tried to sell those stencils from the eighties which allow you to draw kaleidoscopes using different coloured pencils. He demonstrated this technique for a long time then sold a couple and got off. The bus was stinking like mould and wee and i wished i had some vicks vaporub for my nose to stop the stench. So there was Benita- Germany, Satoshi- Japan, Dan- England, Emma- England, Chris- London, Fred-England and us two making up a crew who had been bottle necked together for the ride over the border

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. A bonding session and long strange trip it was.

We departed from the good bus at Choluteca and all hired a shuttle to take us to Guasaule where we would change again. The ride was pot-holed and bumpy but easy with all of us chatting about amazing adventures and volunteer work. There was alot of people in the van and some sat on the little plastic stools all the way. I was squished in the back with Emma and two Hondurans who played bad music on their mobile phones.

Next, the fun begins.

As soon as we get to the border, a pack of men run at the shuttle bus yelling and remove our backpacks before we get out. These guys could see dollar signs all over our faces. The pack of men was made up of street dealer money changers and bicycle pedi-cab drivers fighting for business, both of which we would need their services. There were so many of them and children begging for our small change. We screamed at them to show us where the backpacks were then changed all our unused Lempiras into Cordobas at a fairly bad rate. We would have been stuck with the notes if we hadnīt. My dealer tried to rip me off by short changing me but i was onto him

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. Then we realized we would all need the bicycles with the umbrellas to ride us the couple of kilometres to the border post further on. The whole ordeal was bollocks, chaotic and unorganized. We tried to negotiate a price for the bicycle but the driver insisted that he would take a tip for the hot and heavy ride. Some peopleīs baggage was inspected and we showed our passports along the way from the bicycle. The driver stopped at the exit window where we paid US$3 to exit then US$7 to enter Nicaragua. Some of us were scammed and asked for more money. When we arrived at the bus stop the bicycle guy asked us for 200 cordoba each which was about US$17 each. We were hounded for this cash until we gave in a little more. The chicken bus wouldnīt leave with us till 6:00pm and we negotiated with two more shuttles to arrive at a US$3 fee from all of us to get us to Chinandega. More people equals more bargaining power. All the way there the German girl argued about the price with the driver. I was just happy to be out of Honduras.

We arrived in Chinandega just before dark and got on a waiting chicken bus headed for Leon. The change in the people was immediate. This was friendlier and safer. We sat in traffic that passed a major accident and the bus lights flickered on and off. Most of us checked in to The Bigfoot Hostel in Leon which is owned by an Aussie guy who offers tours boarding down Cerro Negro, an active volcano. Nadine, Chris, Dan and I all signed up immediately then i had a flor de cana and shared a massive plate of pasta. We leave at 9:00am. This crew of people were all tops with great stories to share and now we are all part of one another's. An exhausting day but we all agreed that we would do it all over again together as it was more exciting then an easy crossing and satisfied adrenalin addiction. Volcano tomorrow. We are insane iīm sure.

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