12:30pm – Teams B.R.A.D.Y and Arrow don our packs and daypacks, grab the food and instruments and leave Hotel Cocibolca to head to the ferry dock. We’ll be catching a ferry at 2pm that will take us to San Carlos, Nicaragua.
12:45pm – Arrive at dock and stand in line (with packs on) to get admission to ferry.
1:00pm – We’re told we have to go to the end of the line because we have to check all of our packs. All 13 Americans turn around and maneuver among the many other people standing in line for the ferry.
1:30pm – packs are checked; we are now standing in line for admission to the ferry…again.
2:15pm – All 13 of us are on board the ferry. We have tried to claim spots in the upstairs, A/C’d inside. But, some of the people who have tickets for the downstairs, non-A/C’d inside have taken residence upstairs. Joy.
3:15pm – The ferry scheduled to leave at 2pm, finally leaves the dock. We’re headed to Ometepe Island, roughly four hours away. The water is very rough and the ferry is rocking quite a bit.
4:00pm – I am nauseous. And the realization that (in total, to get to San Carlos) we are to be on this ferry for another 12-14 hours begins to really sink in. I’ve never taken Dramamine before and am quite certain it will knock me out. I don’t want to sleep the first leg of the trip only to be awake for the rest of it while everyone else sleeps…. I find that if I curl up, duck my head and close my eyes, I am fine. This is the position I remain in for the next three hours.
7:00pm – we dock at Ometepe. Lots of people get off. Lots more get on.
9:00pm – We are still docked. I take Dramamine.
9:40pm – I am out. Praise God for drugs!! Dramamine has kicked in and I am asleep! Keryn’s taken up most of the bench that she and I were sitting on. I end up taking up the rest of it.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
12:00am – 3:00am (intermittently) – I wake up to see my teammates sleeping in random places: on the floor inside, on the deck outside, underneath the benches, between the benches, in hammocks outside…basically wherever we can. The boat, however, is no longer rocking!!! Woohoo!!
6:45am – we dock at San Carlos.
7:15am – the ferry is unloaded; we are waiting for our packs to be unloaded and for word on how to get to Los Chiles, Cost Rica.
7:45am – Greg & Lindsey (fluent in Spanish) have returned saying we need to get to Immigration and catch another boat to Los Chiles from there. It leaves at 10:30am. For now, we’re chillin’ outside on some benches.
8:00am – we hear there is a bus to Los Chiles; Greg & Lindsey go to investigate. It only goes to Los Chiles, Nicaragua not Los Chiles, Costa Rica. Bummer.
9:30am – we head to wait inside the immigration office to get passports cleared and get on 10:30 boat to Los Chiles.
9:50am – we’re told to get on boat; everyone puts their packs on and heads to the door.
10:00am – everyone goes back to the immigration waiting room. There is not enough room on the 10:30 boat. We must wait for the one leaving at 1pm.
11:30am – one Immigration officer says for all of Nicas traveling on 1pm boat to head to the exit. Another one tells us to, as well. So, we grab our packs…again. Ohp, nope…gotta wait. We sit back down.
12:00pm – After standing in line for 30 minutes with a 43lb pack on my back and a 25lb daypack on my front, I am one of the last people loaded in the boat. I watch as all of our packs are loaded and shifted and shifted again. One (mine!!) almost falls of the edge of the boat. Oh dear. The boat is also sinking lower & lower into the water. No one has any idea how long we’ll actually be on this boat.
12:40pm – …still waiting to leave dock. Yes, we’re waiting in the boat. And the boat is full.
1:00pm – …still waiting…
1:11pm – …yep, still waiting…
1:20pm – the engine is started!! Oh…and the ropes are untied!! We push off!!
…I… have to pee.
1:22pm – I’m being “spit” on by the waves. Yippee.
2:15pm – We dock in Los Chiles; this is where I find out we aren’t actually staying in Los Chiles. The ministry we’re working with is located somewhere outside of Los Chiles. It is uncertain how we need to get to wherever the ministry’s located. Awesome.
3:00pm – we are through C.R. customs (literally a shed building with two desks brought out from some other local office. The men “checking” everything just ask if we have any fruits, veggies or whatnot with us. Um, no…. Okay, I am allowed into the country.). We have paid our $1/person entry fee to the country and are waiting at Immigration for passport checks.
I still haven’t managed to pee.
3:20pm – Greg, Lindsey, Mary and I leave to hunt down SIM cards for our phones. We ask a policeman for help. He drives his Nissan Frontier police truck ahead of us to show us where we can get one.
3:30pm – we grab tickets and wait (think DMV) for our turn to get telephone/communication needs met.
4:20pm – After the third degree from the woman at the telecommunications company, we leave with one SIM card in Greg’s phone. Apparently, the phones Mary & I have will not work with this service. Awesome. AIM will love this!
4:30pm – on the way back to the Teams, Greg has called the local pastor our ministry contact, Tony, gave us. The pastor’s going to help us find a place to convert our currency and negotiate a good rate for the bus to our ministry location (I still don’t really know where the ministry’s located). We meet up with the Teams, the pastor meets up with all of us, we grab our packs and hike to the bus stop.
….yep, still have not gone potty.
4:50pm – we reach the bus stop. Greg changes out the currency with a local guy.
5:05pm – the bus arrives. It is NICE! Think upscale greyhound (without A/C, but with great windows) and a double-decker, at that! We ask the driver if he can let us off at the Chimurrino stop. Yep.
5:07pm – depart bus station. Along the way, we make stops – um, several of them – to let people on and off.
6:00pm – The bus stops again. We are told this is the Chimurrino stop and proceed to exit the vehicle…
…into absolutely nothing. There is not even a make-shift wooden bench under a tin roof. We are literally being dropped off on the side of the road. I managed to puncture my foot with the sharp, dead, grass that I stepped on as I got out of the bus. Fortunately, Tony, our contact, is waiting across the street with his white Isuzu Trooper. He’s a chipper man with a warm smile and welcoming disposition. But, he quickly realizes there is no way he’s gonna get 13 Americans with all of our backpacks, daypacks, food and instruments into the Trooper. The decision is made to load all of the luggage and take it, along with the cook (Alejandro) to the ministry site. Then, he’ll come back for us.
Translation? He’s leaving the 13 Americans on the side of the road. In the dark.
…I begin to look around for a tree, bushes, anywhere I can find to relieve my bladder.
6:20pm – The Trooper is loaded. Tony & Alejandro leave. They expect to be gone about 30 minutes. We worship.
7:00pm – I am not the only one who’s had to pee for longer than they care to think. Becca, Rebecca (Becks) and I decide we will pee in the bush somewhere. We grab toilet paper & our headlamps and walk down the road Tony drove away on. A little ways down said road, we leave three pee puddles. Ashley has promptly followed us and begins to leave her own; midstream, however, we see the headlights of a vehicle ahead. Ashley cuts it off and runs back to the Teams with us.
7:15pm – the white Isuzu Trooper is packed with 10 American women and a Costa Rican couple inside, while the three American men are on the roof. Yes, on the roof. I am curled up, with my feet tucked underneath me, sitting on my heels, as we travel down a long, windy, bumpy dirt road for, roughly, 30 minutes. My left leg dies.
I believe that is, roughly, 32.5 hours of traveling.
