3 Countries in one day
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2005
1
98
126
Trip End
May 26, 2008
Alegria - A mountain town,
El Salvador
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Why? Well, the reason was simple enough, and
at first, seemed like a good idea. There was nothing in the South of
Honduras that we wanted to see, so we figured, we will head staright to
El Salvador, travel to the north, then enter Honduras further north.
Plus, we wanted to travel through 3 countries in one day.
It went a little like this:
After
what seemed like a lifetime of chicken bus rides, I have landed in
Alegria. A little moutain town in the highlands of South Central El
Salvador.
A lifetime of buses may come close to describing what we
had to do to get here but it really was hell. We left Esteli at 7am, in
the very north of Nicaragua. It was super hot and we knew it would be a
tough day. We rode a bumpy chicken bus for 3 hours to this little town
calle El Espino, then changed to another bus and headed to the Honduran
border. An hour or 2 later, we arrived at the border. A very laid back
border, where we ambled across an old bridge with a filthy polluted
stream below. On one side - Nicaragua, on the other was Honduras.
3
heavily armed and fully decked out border patrol guys were waiting at
the other end of the bridge. The sun was ditching behind a few hills
and were were drenched in sweat. Its so damn hot here!
The border
guys asked where we were from, I said australia, australia and
england, as I pointed to Cousin Jenny, myself and English Trevor. Ahhhh
Australia they said - KANGUUUUURUUUU!
and laughed out loud as they inspected out passports.
Yep, Kanguruuu we replied, and hopped into Honduras.
Not much changed across that border. We jumped staraight onto a
waiting bus and took it 3 hours to a little town on the way to El
Salvador, where we changed buses yet again and continued the journey.
These
chicken buses are so entertaining. You never know what you are going to
get. This bus started with mangos, a bag of sweet mangos for 10 cords -
thats around 50 cents. We bought a bag each. Then the Avocado guys came
on, and we bought a bag of them too. Then this old woman came on with a
bag of caramel stuff that looked like cow dung, so with the philosophy
of (when in Rome) when in Central America, dont say no - to
anything. We all had a bag and ate ourselves stupid all the way to the
El Salvadorian border, arriving just as the sun was setting.
We were a little worried at this borer for 2 reasons;
1
- They say Aussies need a visa and nobody can confirm or deny this as
it seems to be dependant on how good a day the border guys have had.
2 - The border apparantly shuts at 5pm and it was around 5;10pm when we arrived.
But
all our worries were instantly wiped away as we dawdled through and
without even a stamp in the passort or even a KANGURUUU comment we were
in El Salvador!
It was still hot, and we were tired. Jen was sick,
Trev had and ear infection after swimming in the filthy waters in
Esteli and then something blew in his eye. My ankles were broken from
hauling a massive pack and we were all tired, dehydrated and over it.
But we still had a leg to go.
This would be the final chicken bus of
the day. A 2 hour chicken bus to San Miguel. We chose San Miguel for
our last stop as we wanted to make it as far as possible in one day and
timed it perfectly. At around 8pm, we pulled into the bus station in
dodgy dark and deserted San Miguel.
It was still hot and the 3
blocks to a hostel were hell. But the room has air con and tv, so we
turned down the heat, turned up the tele and slept like dead homelss
dogs until the morning.
We woke up shivering. Shivering for the
first time in months! The air con was set to 16 degrees C. Thats pretty
chlly. but we loved it. Outside, it was only 8am and the temps were
already in the mid 30“s.
The one and only thing we had to check out in San Miguel was the
gun shop. A full on gun shop, Team America style. They had shot guns,
rifles, pistols, an UZI, machine guns, sniper rifles a huge collection
of knives and other random hunting gear you would expect to find in a
place like that. It was unreal. They let us pickup every gun in the
shop and wow did we have some fin. It was the first tme in my life,
that i had a real gun in my hands. I had no idea they were that heavy.
And
the best part - El Salvador has no gun control, so all we needed to do
was hand over the 700 dollars, and there you go, heres a semi automatic
and a box of ammo - have a nice day!
INSANE!
Then we left and
headed for a place called Alegria (spanish for happiness) where we have
found a little corner of paradise here in the highlands of El Salvador.
Its much much cooler than the cities and towns we had passed through on
the 2 days to get here. Finally a breeze is blowing and were having to
pull out our jackets for the first time in forever.
Situated on
the slopes of Volcan Tecapa, Alegrķa's claim to fame is Laguna Verde
(Green Lagoon),a sulphurous, jade-green lake in the hollow of the
volcano's crater.
Hiking to the lagoon, we passed through acres of coffee bushes. The crater itself has original
forest
growth, with abundant orchids, flowering trees and shrubs, apparently
thriving on the aroma of rotten eggs emanatingfrom the lake.
More soon.
