We boarded our first bus for our great trip across central America in Tulum, Mexico on Saturday, May 17. The bus ride was pretty uneventful. We arrived in Cancun about 2.5 hours later. We had planned to take a bus from Cancun to Tapachula, Mexico, which we knew pretty much nothing about other than that it is a plantation town and that the Tica Bus departs out of there for Nicaragua. We had done our research on the buses and knew when they departed and how much they cost, but we weren't sure how long the bus ride was supposed to be. I had guessed that it would be about 3-4 hours, and Patrick was thinking about 8. Big mistake! The ticket lady proceeded to tell us it was a 24-hour trip. Since our Spanish is pretty rusty, we both thought we just heard her incorrectly. So, we asked again; nope, our Spanish (in this case at least) was just fine. That threw a wrench in the system for us. But, the price was right; so, we decided to buy the tickets. That is when we found out we had made another mistake and had incorrectly calculated the exchange rate (dropping off two zeros instead of one).
So, we decided to fly. Long story short, we messed around at the airport for too long only to find out that plane tickets had gone up in price and that all of the flights to Nicaragua and Costa Rica were booked for at least a week. So, we went back to plan A and the bus, but we had missed the 2:30 bus. There was a bus departing at 8 p.m., but that one wasn´t as nice, cost the same price, and took an extra 2 hours to get to Tapachula, which would have put us in some foreign city at 10 p.m. at night without a place to stay and no idea if there were many hotels there. So, we stayed in Cancun for the night. Somehow, I don't doubt that this is the first of many travel road blocks we will experience. It is all part of the adventure!
After lugging our bags around Cancun looking for a hotel or hostel for about 30 minutes, we finally settled into a roach hotel. Have I mentioned that we are going to pack lighter for the second part of our trip yet? Good thing we packed the travel sheets, shower shoes, and bottled water. The night was pretty uneventful, other than the fact that we stumbled upon a Mexican cultural exhibition with some great costumes, interesting dancing, and a little girl who looked about 9 but had the vocal abilities of a trained adult.
The next day we boarded the bus for the 24-hour trip to Tapachula. The bus ride actually went by pretty quickly. We slept a lot, tried to brush up on our Spanish, and watched a few English movies dubbed over in Spanish. At one point we got a little bored and decided to watch one movie as a silent film, adding our own plot. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. I still don´t know what Absolute Zero is actually about, but in our version, some guy makes the stupid mistake of falling through some ice in Antartica, which causes the entire world to freeze. Luckily, a middle-school aged girl (okay, she looked about the same age as me; so, maybe she was a bit older) predicted the world´s demise and was able to save about five other people. Truly a masterpiece. Also, if you haven´t seen this movie, I must note here that the special effects are absolutely remarkable, and you should definitely add this to your NetFlix order ASAP.
In all honesty, the highlight was actually the scenery. The mountains, rollings tree-covered hills, and lakes in Southern Mexico are beautiful and definitely rate up there with some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever had a pleasure of viewing. I have added a few pictures here, but I must add the disclaimer that they were taken with our point-and-shoot camera through a
dirty bus window on a speeding bus.
Tapachula turned out to be a pretty large city, but not a very nice one at all. The entire city looked like a barrio, and the poverty was very evident. We stuck out like sore thumbs. So, given that our bus actually got in about 3.5 hours late, we didn´t do much that night except sample the local cuisine. I had spaghetti, or at least the Mexican version of spaghetti, which is more like shrimp, hot sauce, and ketchup mixed with a little water over pasta. And, Patrick had the most tasteless fajitas I have ever tasted. Not only was there no spice added, but it seemed like the flavor of the peppers and onions had been sucked out somehow. Truly an art!
The Tica Bus departed Tapachula the next morning at 7 a.m. for the two-day ride across Central America. While boarding the bus, we met a nice guy from Switzerland, named Simon, who was also backpacking. We hung out with him quite a bit on the trip and learned all about sports in Switzerland. We also were lucky enough to watch a Jim Carrey marathon dubbed over in Spanish, which we must say was truly entertaining. If there is anyone who cannot be duplicated and dubbed well, it is Jim Carrey. But, they either love him in Central America or the bus line didn't have any other DVDs. We saw no fewer than six Jim Carrey movies on the bus ride down, and we were lucky enough to watch the Truman Show three times!
The scenary continued to be amazing, especially in Guatemala, but the poverty was also overwhelming at points. We saw people living in nothing but tin shacks and eating food out of the trash. We also saw trash everywhere. Throwing trash out your window or pretty much wherever you want appears to be second nature in much of Central America.
The border crossings were also quite an experience. The bus drops you off and you must travel by foot across each border and pay taxes on both sides, usually while being harrassed by no less than 30 to 40 guys wanting to change your money and waving around massive wads of cash and at least 3-4 other guys begging for money.
We got to San Salvadore, El Salvadore at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20. We found San Salvadore to be a much-less impoverished, cleaner city. And, the people were some of the most friendly we have encountered thus far. Strangely, though, there are still security guards armed with shotguns, automatic rifles, and beating sticks in front of almost every storefront and many of the houses. Our night in El Salvadore was nice. We hung out with our friend Simon, ate some pizza from Pizza Hut (we know, we know, but we were dying for a normal meal with some semblance of taste).
And, then, the next morning we boarded our final bus at 5 a.m., headed for Nicaragua. This was probably the most uneventful of the trips. We arrived in Managua at 3:30 (early, for once), and began trying to figure out how to get to Granada. We hopped in a taxi and were taken to another "bus station" in town. I suppose you can call a bus parked under a tin roof a "bus station". We were hurried onto the bus, which turned out to be more like a large van with no fewer than 30 people in it at all times. There were people sitting on people, and the bus driver didn´t even come to a full stop before people were hopping on or off the bus. He would simply honk the horn several times and slow to about 5 miles per hour before speeding off again. We rode with the side door open the entire way to Granada.
But, we soon saw that we were actually traveling in luxury when we passed by several "chicken buses", which are basically old school buses that have been converted to general transportation vehicles with bright colored murals on the sides. They are called chicken buses because passengers often transport their chickens with them, right on their laps. These buses were so packed full of people that sometimes people were standing three abreast in the aisles - bent over in strange positions so as to pack as many people on the bus as possible. Others were hanging out of the back emergency exit, and at one point we saw one slow down to about 10 or 15 miles per hour while 4 teen-aged boys grabbed onto the back ladder. A few of them climbed up on the roof, and the others merely hung off the ladder. We still aren't really sure whether this is a normal method of transportation, or if the overcrowded buses are in part a result of the huge transportation strike going on in Nicaragua right now. We will keep you posted on that.
Alright, sorry about the long post. They will get shorter with time. We will try to update you all on what is happening in Granada soon.
Melissa
So, we decided to fly. Long story short, we messed around at the airport for too long only to find out that plane tickets had gone up in price and that all of the flights to Nicaragua and Costa Rica were booked for at least a week. So, we went back to plan A and the bus, but we had missed the 2:30 bus. There was a bus departing at 8 p.m., but that one wasn´t as nice, cost the same price, and took an extra 2 hours to get to Tapachula, which would have put us in some foreign city at 10 p.m. at night without a place to stay and no idea if there were many hotels there. So, we stayed in Cancun for the night. Somehow, I don't doubt that this is the first of many travel road blocks we will experience. It is all part of the adventure!
After lugging our bags around Cancun looking for a hotel or hostel for about 30 minutes, we finally settled into a roach hotel. Have I mentioned that we are going to pack lighter for the second part of our trip yet? Good thing we packed the travel sheets, shower shoes, and bottled water. The night was pretty uneventful, other than the fact that we stumbled upon a Mexican cultural exhibition with some great costumes, interesting dancing, and a little girl who looked about 9 but had the vocal abilities of a trained adult.
The next day we boarded the bus for the 24-hour trip to Tapachula. The bus ride actually went by pretty quickly. We slept a lot, tried to brush up on our Spanish, and watched a few English movies dubbed over in Spanish. At one point we got a little bored and decided to watch one movie as a silent film, adding our own plot. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. I still don´t know what Absolute Zero is actually about, but in our version, some guy makes the stupid mistake of falling through some ice in Antartica, which causes the entire world to freeze. Luckily, a middle-school aged girl (okay, she looked about the same age as me; so, maybe she was a bit older) predicted the world´s demise and was able to save about five other people. Truly a masterpiece. Also, if you haven´t seen this movie, I must note here that the special effects are absolutely remarkable, and you should definitely add this to your NetFlix order ASAP.
In all honesty, the highlight was actually the scenery. The mountains, rollings tree-covered hills, and lakes in Southern Mexico are beautiful and definitely rate up there with some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever had a pleasure of viewing. I have added a few pictures here, but I must add the disclaimer that they were taken with our point-and-shoot camera through a
Tapachula turned out to be a pretty large city, but not a very nice one at all. The entire city looked like a barrio, and the poverty was very evident. We stuck out like sore thumbs. So, given that our bus actually got in about 3.5 hours late, we didn´t do much that night except sample the local cuisine. I had spaghetti, or at least the Mexican version of spaghetti, which is more like shrimp, hot sauce, and ketchup mixed with a little water over pasta. And, Patrick had the most tasteless fajitas I have ever tasted. Not only was there no spice added, but it seemed like the flavor of the peppers and onions had been sucked out somehow. Truly an art!
The Tica Bus departed Tapachula the next morning at 7 a.m. for the two-day ride across Central America. While boarding the bus, we met a nice guy from Switzerland, named Simon, who was also backpacking. We hung out with him quite a bit on the trip and learned all about sports in Switzerland. We also were lucky enough to watch a Jim Carrey marathon dubbed over in Spanish, which we must say was truly entertaining. If there is anyone who cannot be duplicated and dubbed well, it is Jim Carrey. But, they either love him in Central America or the bus line didn't have any other DVDs. We saw no fewer than six Jim Carrey movies on the bus ride down, and we were lucky enough to watch the Truman Show three times!
The scenary continued to be amazing, especially in Guatemala, but the poverty was also overwhelming at points. We saw people living in nothing but tin shacks and eating food out of the trash. We also saw trash everywhere. Throwing trash out your window or pretty much wherever you want appears to be second nature in much of Central America.
The border crossings were also quite an experience. The bus drops you off and you must travel by foot across each border and pay taxes on both sides, usually while being harrassed by no less than 30 to 40 guys wanting to change your money and waving around massive wads of cash and at least 3-4 other guys begging for money.
We got to San Salvadore, El Salvadore at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20. We found San Salvadore to be a much-less impoverished, cleaner city. And, the people were some of the most friendly we have encountered thus far. Strangely, though, there are still security guards armed with shotguns, automatic rifles, and beating sticks in front of almost every storefront and many of the houses. Our night in El Salvadore was nice. We hung out with our friend Simon, ate some pizza from Pizza Hut (we know, we know, but we were dying for a normal meal with some semblance of taste).
And, then, the next morning we boarded our final bus at 5 a.m., headed for Nicaragua. This was probably the most uneventful of the trips. We arrived in Managua at 3:30 (early, for once), and began trying to figure out how to get to Granada. We hopped in a taxi and were taken to another "bus station" in town. I suppose you can call a bus parked under a tin roof a "bus station". We were hurried onto the bus, which turned out to be more like a large van with no fewer than 30 people in it at all times. There were people sitting on people, and the bus driver didn´t even come to a full stop before people were hopping on or off the bus. He would simply honk the horn several times and slow to about 5 miles per hour before speeding off again. We rode with the side door open the entire way to Granada.
But, we soon saw that we were actually traveling in luxury when we passed by several "chicken buses", which are basically old school buses that have been converted to general transportation vehicles with bright colored murals on the sides. They are called chicken buses because passengers often transport their chickens with them, right on their laps. These buses were so packed full of people that sometimes people were standing three abreast in the aisles - bent over in strange positions so as to pack as many people on the bus as possible. Others were hanging out of the back emergency exit, and at one point we saw one slow down to about 10 or 15 miles per hour while 4 teen-aged boys grabbed onto the back ladder. A few of them climbed up on the roof, and the others merely hung off the ladder. We still aren't really sure whether this is a normal method of transportation, or if the overcrowded buses are in part a result of the huge transportation strike going on in Nicaragua right now. We will keep you posted on that.
Alright, sorry about the long post. They will get shorter with time. We will try to update you all on what is happening in Granada soon.
Melissa
2 comments:
Just when I thought I was getting over my phobia of airports and missing planes -- I am now right back where I started! I like the part about making up your own plot to a movie -- perhaps you should of tried that the 3rd time you watched Truman - Love you tons! Thanks for the posting! The scenery looks awesome! Take care! Have fun! Hope the fajitas are better in Granada - Love Mom and Bernie
I knew the saying ¨Mother´s know best¨ was true! Where were you when we were watching Truman for the third time
Melissa
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