June 21, 2008
Managua, Nicaragua We are up early this morning to catch the local bus from San Juan del Sur to Managua. The bus is scheduled to leave at 5 AM which seems like an extreme hour. From our experience you can count on the driver waiting as much as a half hour to make sure he gets all the passengers he can before leaving. But this time the bus left on time; actually 5 minutes before 5 AM. The bus to Managua costs 130 córdobas for the both of us. We arrived at the Managua city bus terminal about 7:30 AM, in plenty of time to catch our Tica Bus to San Salvador which is supposed to leave at 11 AM. The Tica Bus terminal is in a different part of town from the local bus terminal and we are forced to take a taxi. The taxi driver quoted us the price of 100 córdobas which seemed high but we had no way to judge so we agreed; when we got to the Tica Bus terminal this jerk tried to charge us 100 córdobas each. Early in our trip we might have fallen for this, but not now. Arvid told him to call the police because we were only paying the 100 córdobas we'd agreed to. We just left him standing at the curb and he soon left. We had plenty of time to stow our bags and check out the neighborhood before our bus leaves. It appears that Tica Bus Company has been busy, since we came this way in March of 2006, upgrading their offices and terminals. Back then the terminal was in a questionable area of town, it's in a much nicer area now. At 12 noon our Tica Bus leaves for the long trip to San Salvador. We arrive at the border of El Salvador around 6 PM. Apparently some of the governments in Central America are cooperating on visa formalities. We hand our passports to the Tica Bus assistant along with $7 US each and while we carry our baggage thru costumes he takes them to immigration. After we get across the border he gives our passports back with no stamps from either Nicaragua or El Salvador. He tells us that we will not get anymore stamps in our passports until we get to Mexico. We arrive in San Salvador late at night, around 10:45 PM. We are leaving again in the morning at 6:30 AM, so take a room at the Tica Bus hotel attached to the bus terminal. It is a nice room but costs us $32 US which seems expensive for such a short night. June 22, 2008 Guatemala City, Guatemala Exchange rate: 7.45 Quetzales = $1 Six pack of Gallo Beer = 9.45 Quetzales Our bus arrives at 11 AM in Guatemala City. We are going to meet Tony and Lily here. We met Tony and Lily when we were here in March 2006 and we've kept in touch since. They want to show us around the country and they will take us to their home in Quetzaltenango also called Xela. Xela is 3 hours from here on the way to the border of Mexico which is where we are headed. There's no point in returning to the capital, we'll go on to Mexico from Xela. So we cash in our Tica Bus tickets from here to Mexico. We had told Tony and Lily that we would take the bus to Xela from the capital but Tony and Lily like to come to the big city from their provincial town. Also, they have planned a party for us here with their friends, Fernando and Julie. In fact it is Fernando and Julie who pick us up at the Tica Bus Terminal; Tony and Lily are still on their way from Xela. Fernando, who prefers to be called Paco by his friends, is about 60 and his second wife Patty looks about 18 but she is really 35. They take us to the Apartment Hotel San Benito where each two bedroom suite is like an apartment. Paco and Patty speak good English and are very interesting people. Paco is a businessman with contacts in the government. While we were with him he received a couple calls from the minister of commerce. Even at his age he is still energetic and they have a 14 years old son. We had a good time with them. Tony and Lily arrived shortly, as well as Claudia who we had also met before, and it was a nice get together. We participated, but we went to bed early and let the others carry on.
Where I stayed:
Tica Bus Hotel
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