Traveling from Bangkok, Thailand to Ometepe, Nicaragua was long, crazy, beautiful, exhausting, frustrating, thrilling, and adventurous all at the same time. So let me see if I can explain it for ya. If you calculate from the time our plane left Bangkok to the time our plane landed in Managua, it’s about 50 hours. BUT there is soooo much more to travel days.
We left our hostel in Bangkok around 9:45 pm for a 40 min – hour bus ride to the airport. Bangkok airport is HUGE, so we walk in with our bags on carts to madness; people everywhere and check-in counters labeled by letter rather than airline, because apparently they change daily. I experience a bit of anxiety leading up to every flight because my pack has yet to be under weight. Also, I try really hard to “plan” my sleep schedule according to the upcoming flights and time changes we will experience. So I was ready to get through security ASAP, have a snack, then sleep for an hour or two before we got on our flight which was at 2 am. That didn’t happen. Luckily, they let my bag through (thanks to a teammate for putting my tent in their bag), but I swear there were 4 different points of security which took the entire time leaving us with only about an hour at our gate.
I slept most of the flight from Thailand to Korea (5 hour flight, maybe 4 hours of sleep). Upon arriving in Seoul, it was morning and snowing!! After crossing customs/security checkpoints, my teammate and I enjoyed coffee while we sat together and talked, admiring the winter wonderland. From Seoul to Los Angeles was another “afternoon” to morning flight, or 11 hours. I thought that was perfect and I would sleep 6-8 hours, waking up in LA refreshed and ready to go. Eh, wrong. My body was definitely still on Thai time, although I maybe got in another 4 hours, most of that flight consisted of me fiddling around with the TV, deciding if I should watch another movie, listen to music, play games, or try to get comfortable and sleep more. At one point I laid in the floor (yes, on an airplane) in front of my friend who had a row to herself, which was actually pretty comfortable, but my body was SO awake. I think you can get the jest of how that flight was…
Upon arrival in LA (15 hour layover), I expected of lots of places to eat, get coffee, relax, while talking to friends and family back home. After probably 4 more checkpoints (security arrival, domestic arrivals, getting baggage and taking it through customs, something else) I put my bags on a cart and headed out. Boy was I wrong about my expectations of LAX. There’s MAYBE 5 places to eat/get coffee outside security. There was a small hiccup in our booking and we weren’t able to check-in/check our bags until 3 hours before our flight. So for most of my time in LA I was at Starbucks. But it was a Starbucks with no seats. So drinking coffee and eating snacks from Starbucks sitting in those oh so cozy airport chairs 🙂
Luckily, that check-in/security process was MUCH faster, so I went through, got myself a juicy burger and fries then went to my gate to SLEEP! This was about 10 pm on the 29th. Oh and because of all the time zones we traveled, I think our 29th was about 36 hours long? I slept most of that flight from LA to Houston and almost fainted when I walked off the plane in Houston and saw a Cinnabon, right there, calling my name. My FAVORITE food is cinnamon rolls. And even more favorite when they are from Cinnabon or homemade like Cinnabon lol. This layover was much shorter (3 hours).
We were blessed with some beautiful sights over Central America, friendly latin flight attendants, and most of the squad was weirdly wired – up moving around and talking to everyone else. It was probably all the wacky hours of sleep we were or weren’t getting.
Geez… are we done yet? NOPE. Upon arrival to Managua, we had to go through customs and baggage claim again, then waited on our host to pick us up. They picked up all teams in 3 buses and took us to our 2 separate locations in Granada. Granada was about an hour or 2 drive from Managua where we were booked in a hostel for the night. Our final destination, Ometepe, is an island in the middle of lake Nicaragua where ferry’s stop running after a certain time of the day. In order to catch that ferry the next day, we woke up at 4 am to pack and check-out. We were ready by 5 am to walk to the bus stop (about 20-30 min) where a school bus or as they call them “chicken bus” was waiting. There’s some racks on top they throw your luggage on and pile you on. I was one of the first people on and noticed all the seats were full so I hesitated and started to go ask the driver if he was sure we could get on that bus. Yes, yes, he said, go to the back. We fit probably another 30 people on that bus, squeezing 3 butts on seats, standing all up and down the isles, some people with nothing more than the clothes on their body separating them. This is where my broken Spanish came in handy, asking a nice woman if I could sit with her for the coming 2 hour bus ride. Yes, two hours with people on people, standing, sitting, leaning, packed…
We made it to Granada and we had to then take taxis to the ferry port. They let us know there was a ferry about to leave so we rushed to get our bags in the trunks and hit the road. At this point we were also told to fit 5 people with each of our 40-50 lb packs, plus backpacks/daypacks in a 4 person taxi. With bungy straps and unlatched trunks it worked. So we arrive at the port, hurry to get our tickets and are walking on the ferry when they stop about 3/4 of our group and say we did not make it in time. They promised another ferry was leaving in about 30 minutes… which turned into an hour and a half, so we waited. We were pretty hungry and in need of coffee by that point so a teammate and I went to find more instant coffee and Doritos. The next ferry that pulled up looked like a toy boat in the bathtub, bobbing around, tipping every which way. That boat ride felt exactly how the boat looked – rocky, waves crashing over the sides, giving us refreshing splashes in the face and soaking the entire floor. Only one person puked and the rest barely made it with peppermint gum and motion sickness prevention oils or meds.
We exited the boat as fast as possible and waited another 45 min for our bus that brought us to the orphanage here on Ometepe Island.
So, with our overnights on the planes and overnight at the hostel, our total travel time was a whopping 71 hours. If you do not think it counts to include the hostel stay then we are still around 60 hrs. Wow, I do not know how I managed. Must have been the coffee, conversations, and opportunities of rest I could squeeze in.
It is absolutely gorgeous here on the island and worth every minute of travel. Please pray for our teams that we adapt quickly to the time change and gain energy getting over the jet lag!
“But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24
