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A little splurge after a nightmare bus ride
Entry 16 of 95 | show all | print this entry |
Every so often, while traveling, you experience one of those hellacious travel days that bring into question your decision to travel. Our trip from Leon to El Salvador was just one of those days.
Not wanting to backtrack to Managua and catch one of the 1st/2nd class international buses, we opted for the less expensive ($20 for both of us) option. Expecting to leave the bus office at 10am, we finally were shuffled off into a taxi around 11:15, which took us to a small home (the proprietor's casa) just outside the city center where we waited another 45 minutes for the bus to arrive. Sure enough the Blue Bird especial arrived around 12pm wearing some of the most dramatic colors to ever adorn a school bus. Purple, green, blue, red, and yellow streaked across the side of the bus with "Rey de Reyes" (aka King of the Kings) painted in all caps; "Jesus Cristo" stylized on the bug guard with a chrome silhouette of a naked woman on the grill; and neon lights down the side of the hood. These buses are more commonly referred to as "chicken buses" and are not known for their comfort.
As the bus had originated in Managua, there were only two seats remaining. I found myself in a lovely seat where chicken fat had conveniently dripped from the luggage rack above. Alex was situated between two borrachos (drunks) who carried on obnoxious conversations. Oh well, this is all part of the experience. We thought the bus was at its full capacity, but when there is money to be made improvising is king. Sure enough, a few stops later, plastic lawn furniture had filled aisle in order to meet the needs of our recently joined companions.
Did I mention there was no air conditioning? And with the temperature reaching above 90 degrees, it's amazing the concoction of smells that are created in such an environment, it's really indescribable.
After 10 stops [most of them due to immigration...on the bus, off the bus] we arrived in San Salvador at 1am where we were kindly dropped off on the Pan-American highway in the suburbs of town. They pointed to a gas station and with rucksacks in tow we ran over the 6-lane highway and luckily found a cab. This cabbie had either been up for the last 24 hours, and we had just disturbed his slumber, or he was still lit from earlier that evening.
With no other options we hopped in the cab after all he was certain of the location of our hostal. After about 30 minutes he finally admitted to not knowing exactly how to get there. We stopped and asked for directions and continued on our way.
At 2am we found ourselves in a rather sketchy part of town (which at this time of night is most of San Salvador). We were cresting a hill when we noticed a police officer in full swat gear, barring the helmet, with both hands on his pistola down by his side, and creeping around the corner. At this time, we advised the cabbie to please speedily proceed through the intersection. After going about two blocks, the cabbie, completely bewildered, proceeds to turn around and drive back through the intersection which by now was populated with 4 fully-equipped swat members all with pistols down by there side approaching a Mexican restaurant.
Immediately, bits of memories from my Lonely Planet readings earlier in the day began to find there way back in my head. Things like, "there is a lot of crime in El Salvador", "tourists are rarely targeted", "just don't get caught in the crossfire".
Our brilliant cabbie then decides to stop and ask one of the swat members for directions. Surprisingly, the cop obliges or does so until his attention is disturbed, gun goes up, and we see all the cops converge upon the restaurant. At this broken moment, we are yelling, "Vamonos, vamonos...take us to the Inter Continental!".
And so we spent the next four days in this lovely 5-star hotel. Much deserved indeed.
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