I’ve been in some pretty strange situations in my life, but this one… this one certainly is near the tippy top of the list.
The day began early in the morning. Like, 3:30 AM early. I wake up in a cheap hotel room. 5 of us ladies together, I was content as a coconut to have my own bed for the evening… even if it was only for a couple hours sleep. (Prior to this I’d been in a place 4 to a room and 2 to a bed.) Our team had just combined the day before with team LOVEBOUND to make one very powerful force to be reckoned with. Already we are like familia.
We board the infamous TICA bus, known for traveling all throughout Central America.
Hours pass, and now its time to catch a ferry.
We pull over to an gas station to use the ATM, and discover we have to go to a different port than originally planned.
We arrive at our new location at 7.
The last boat left at 5.
We are already beginning to be over budget for travel due to unexpected taxi fares.
We cannot afford a hotel.
Bri talks to some evening shift watchmen, and we make a deal.
They agree to let us sleep on board the ferry.
We drop off our bags, and a few people stay behind to watch our stuff. The rest of us head to dinner at a little place about a block away. We finish eating and head back to the boat when something jumps out at us from the trees. We shine our lights and see that there are two monkeys, chained up in the branches. One is frantically swinging back and forth. The poor thing was probably blinded from all the photos we attempted to take of him.
And now, back on board, it’s nearing 10:00pm. I find myself in my tent for the first time on this trip. On a Nicaraguan Ferry.. go figure. Che Guverra pained on the side of the boat, there’s a symphony of life around me; the sounds of dogs howling, monkeys chattering, the snoring of my teammates peacefully asleep, and two men upstairs in hammocks, watching Spanish television.
The next chapter of the World Race has begun…
