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The Tica Experience
Entry 16 of 269 | show all | print this entry |
The best way to get through Central America in a hurry is probably the Ticabus. Hurry is a relative term, but it certainly beats chicken busing your way south.
We started in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and purchased a ticket through to Panama City, Panama. The trip would be a total of three days with an overnight stop in Managua, Nicaragua. The nice thing about Ticabus is that you reserve your seat on the next bus when you get into the city, so if we had had the time we could have stayed a few days in Managua or in San Jose, Costa Rica, and gotten back on the bus when we felt like continuing our travels. Ergo, you can book it through Central America or you can get a ticket all the way down and sample every country at your leisure on the way. We booked it.
Our trip actually started when we left Utila on the ferry to La Ceiba, Honduras. Once we got to the mainland we, along with two Australians who had been staying at the same Dive Center, decided to scurry to the bus to Tegucigalpa so we wouldn't have to stay another night in La Ceiba. The ferry got in at 3 p.m., the bus was supposed to leave at 3:30, and we all had to go to an ATM because Utila is pretty much the smallest town in the history of the planet and has no functioning ATM. (Really there are smaller towns, but, seriously, two ATMs on the entire island, neither of which ever worked...ridiculous.) The first ATM we found was literally pulled out of the ground for maintenance...it was 3:15. The second ATM was sooooooooooo sloooooooooooow...it was 3:23. Whew! We made it to the bus station at 3:28 and discovered that the bus left at 4! We were champions!
We arrived in Tegus at night (so awesome because it is SUCH a safe city...and by safe I mean the exact opposite) and decided to stick together for the time being. The four of us got a cab to a hotel recommended by Lonely Planet (it was actually a nice hotel - Plaza Real), which also happened to be close to the Ticabus terminal. Travis and I knew we wanted to go to Panama, the Australians were not so sure, so we thought we would part ways. As it turned out, we all got on the Ticabus. The tickets from Honduras to Panama were just under $70 per person, in case you're shopping. The bus left at 9 a.m.
The first leg of the trip was relatively uneventful. We went from Tegus to Managua, Nicaragua, taking a total of 8 hours. The boarder crossing was SWEET because the bus dude took all our passports and got them all paid for and stuff together. Also, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua have a deal where one stamp suffices for all the countries, so we got stamped into Guatemala and didn't have to worry about getting stamped again till we left Nicaragua, making boarder crossing just a little simpler. We just stood around and watched the boarder patrol people open about 25% of the bags before deciding to be done and leave. At this point I learned an important lesson. Do not travel with small children. They are fussy and get antsy and, when they get off the bus to cross the boarder, are liable to wander away from their parents. They also apparently quadruple the amount of baggage necessary for travel.
Managua is also not the safest city. Basically, capital cities are not safe. When we got off the bus we were accosted by the usual taxi and hotel people, but before those got to us this little, old lady with one eye snagged Travis. Apparently she and her husband, who was quiet and sat back while she talked and reminded me of one of my grandparents' friends, though I can't think of who, ran a hotel not too far from the bus station and were looking for boarders. Travis and I chatted, but I was a sucker for the little old couple, so, slightly mindful of the fact that it was entirely possible that this old couple was actually a pair of con artists about to steal all our earthly possessions, we decided to room with them. My confidence was inspired when we got out of the building with them and all the annoying hotel people said it wasn't safe, but then a little boy said it was and so did a crippled old man, both of whom did not have an agenda, whereas everyone else did. I stuck with my old couple and we crawled in their car to find out where we would end up.
We ended up where they said we would. Their house-hotel was located in a residential area about 5 blocks from the bus station and about one block from a shopping center. At first glance, Travis and I suspected that we might be staying in an old-folks home. That would have been weird. But we went in and it was a perfectly normalish hotel. Kind of. It felt like a house, but the couple's actual house was on the other side of the building, partitioned from the hotel side. We weren't even the only people staying in the hotel, so I felt good about sticking with this couple who, for all appearances looked like a kindly couple making ends meet. We even got our own bathroom. Woot. We went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies for the bus and out for dinner just down to the corner. The old man said he would take us to the bus station at 5:20 a.m. the next morning so we could catch the 6:00 bus. We didn't even have to pay for a cab. Nice.
Erin
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