So my entrance into this lovely country of Nicaragua wasn’t exactly delightful (clues in the blog title??). We packed up and left Guatemala on a Tuesday morning. We drove an hour and a half or so to Guatemala City from our contact’s home in El Tizate. There we met up at the Tica bus station with another team or two also heading to Nicaragua. The Tica bus was already sold out. (Side note: they told us we couldn’t buy/reserve seats in advance only the day of the trip. However, arriving hours before departure to a mostly empty station didn’t help us get seats either. Curious.) So, they sold us seats on another bus that would take us to the same end destination just an hour later than the Tica bus. They arranged 4 “taxis” for us to get to the other bus station before they left. At this point there were 2 teams travelling together with 14 people total & all our luggage – a HUGE backpack and a day pack for each of us. They squished it all in to 3 cars the size of Camrys and one mid size SUV where the married couple had to sit 2 people in the front bucket seat (the luggage took up all of the rest of that vehicle). I think the “20 minute” drive took 40 and the other bus ended up having to wait for us to arrive since we were then late.
Maybe it’s the late start that the driver wanted to pay us back for or maybe he drives like a lunatic for kicks. All I know is that there was more swaying & bouncing than any hooptie I’ve ever seen. Oh my. It was like a roller coaster ride that went on for hours…at least for me. I am prone to motion sickness but I’ve never actually gotten sick until today. I did take a dramamine once we were on the road, but too little, too late. And for some horrid reason these people want to keep the front windows all closed with curtains-to block you from seeing the road?? It certainly didn’t help the cause. I cannot tell you how badly I wanted off that bus to never ride another again forever. I will spare some of the charming details, but I will say that I was loved on by friends & strangers. My squadmates and teammates prayed over me, gave me more dramamine, offered anything to help-water, snacks, etc. And the quintessential World Race moment was asking a teammate to hold my (fullish) barf bag in customs so I could get out my passport. Bless us all. Yuck. One of the strangers offered ginger pills (which I do take regularly to help keep my stomach happier with foreign foods-thanks, Doc for the advice). Another who was a local bought me a lime with lots of salt at the customs stop in El Salvador. I knew the salt would help but I had never heard of lime before; she was convinced it would help me. And I think it did. She didn’t speak English & I barely speak any Spanish, but at the end of the trip I knew enough to thank her for her kindness. Her response to me was “praise God”. She was so sweet. And bless her heart, she was sitting directly across the aisle from me for the whole ordeal. Such a kind momma.
At this point, I’m thinking I will either blow my personal money to take smaller (taxi like) transportation from one country to the next or I’m going to have to be seriously doped up to not be so sick. We arrived at the hostel in El Salvador sometime that night and I passed out soon after dinner. I got up at 3:45 the next morning to shower before catching the next bus at 4:15. The bus was due to leave at 5 and I had researched the maximum dosages of dramamine. So, I started taking the pills early on & just kept them coming every few hours. I slept for almost all of the bus ride and was thrilled not to be so sick. I don’t like being so spaced out but it’s a million times better than puking the whole ride. So, dramamine is my new BFF for travel days. Unfortunately, it took me a few extra days once we arrived in Nicaragua to sleep off the final effects. But, I’m good to go now.
Our bus ride the 2nd day was through the remainder of El Salvador, through all of Honduras and then into Nicaragua. It was interesting to say the least with a shady character sitting up front across from me. The bus driver chatted with some folks along the road too. Interesting. We arrived too late to catch one ferry to Ometepe Island, so we hopped 4 cabs again and tried for another one. We got there about an hour and a half too late (the cab ride was maybe 3 hours). So, we paid the man at the gate of the ferry & the sailors about $10 total & to let us sleep on the morning ferry…we really are trying to stay on budget. We popped a few tents and called it a night. Interesting. Most of the group went to a local dive for dinner while a few of us stayed with the packs on the ferry. Evidently there were monkeys chained up in trees on the walk back to the ferry; we saw the pictures to prove it.
