OK, I admit it. I am a stubborn independent traveller. I never look up recommended restaurants in the guide books. I rarely stay in the popular youth hostels. And i almost never get on the spiffy tourist buses to get from A to B. I prefer the challenge of local buses. I like hanging with the people of the country i'm travelling in, instead of backpackers from who-cares-where. Sure it takes a little longer and sure it can be more of a pain, but that's half the fun. So, while in Tegucigalpa, Honduras i had the plan to cross the border into Nicaragua. Aspirations were to make it as far as Leon. I figured the tourist bus takes around 5 hours to do it, so it might take 6 or 7 bus local bus. At least, that was the hope.
Things didn't start off too well. Leaving Tegucigalpa is a bit of a 
nightmare. Easily the worst intercity bus system i have ever seen, there are no terminals. There are about 100 different companies leaving from 100 different places scattered about the city. There are no schedules to confirm either, so you sort of drive around and hope you find something. Nobody knew about a bus that went directly to the border, so i was set on a path that would have me transfer a couple of times. No big deal really. The first connection, in the town of Danli, was easy enough and a bus left as soon as i arrived. So far so good. Alas, the second connection, in El Paraiso, wasn't as smooth as i ended up waiting around for the better part of an hour in a dirt lot in some sort of remake scene from Deliverance. But i finally made the border at Las Manos.
nightmare. Easily the worst intercity bus system i have ever seen, there are no terminals. There are about 100 different companies leaving from 100 different places scattered about the city. There are no schedules to confirm either, so you sort of drive around and hope you find something. Nobody knew about a bus that went directly to the border, so i was set on a path that would have me transfer a couple of times. No big deal really. The first connection, in the town of Danli, was easy enough and a bus left as soon as i arrived. So far so good. Alas, the second connection, in El Paraiso, wasn't as smooth as i ended up waiting around for the better part of an hour in a dirt lot in some sort of remake scene from Deliverance. But i finally made the border at Las Manos.Border procedures were more difficult than they had to be, visiting one window then another then back to the previous one... But i finally go across. Luckily there was a bus waiting for me. Without knowing how long it would be there i opted to pick up a few pastry type thing to stave off the on-set of hunger. Only to see the bus pulling away as the pastries were being heated. With some sort of combination of screaming and arm waving that would have most certainly resembled an epileptic seizure the bus stopped. Then it was only a matter of sweating to death while waiting in the town of Ocotal. I was considerably behind schedule, but "things could have been worse", i thought to myself. NEVER jinx yourself.
The bus lurched, chugged and sputtered it's way along. I thought he was just a crappy driver. But about half way into the trip to the town of Esteli, it became clear that the bus was dying. 
Soon after, it died. Middle of nowhere i stood with about 40 other locals all looking around thinking, "ok, now what?". Some circling taxi drivers, sensing the taste of blood like some sort of shark, offered to bring people the rest of the way for an extortionate amount of money. I had tried to remain optimistic about making it to Leon, but that wasn't going to happen now. About the best i could hope for was to not be the first one to die. Luckily the others sort of adopted me. Eventually they managed to wave down a passing pick-up who offered (for a price) to bring us to Esteli. So 20 of my newest friends and i loaded up in the back of the truck, huddling rather closely together for warmth.
Soon after, it died. Middle of nowhere i stood with about 40 other locals all looking around thinking, "ok, now what?". Some circling taxi drivers, sensing the taste of blood like some sort of shark, offered to bring people the rest of the way for an extortionate amount of money. I had tried to remain optimistic about making it to Leon, but that wasn't going to happen now. About the best i could hope for was to not be the first one to die. Luckily the others sort of adopted me. Eventually they managed to wave down a passing pick-up who offered (for a price) to bring us to Esteli. So 20 of my newest friends and i loaded up in the back of the truck, huddling rather closely together for warmth.Esteli is like the heartland of the Sandinista-led revolution of the
'80s. The Contra wars were not good to the city being bombed far too often. And i was there on "Revolution Day" when essentially the whole town headed to the capital, Managua, to take part in demonstrations (and taking all the buses with them). So the normally sleepy town was positively dead. But, with a comfortable temperature due to the elevation and one of the premier cigars industries in the country, i filled my days with smoking stoggies and admiring the Che Guevera murals. Really that's about all there is to do in town.
'80s. The Contra wars were not good to the city being bombed far too often. And i was there on "Revolution Day" when essentially the whole town headed to the capital, Managua, to take part in demonstrations (and taking all the buses with them). So the normally sleepy town was positively dead. But, with a comfortable temperature due to the elevation and one of the premier cigars industries in the country, i filled my days with smoking stoggies and admiring the Che Guevera murals. Really that's about all there is to do in town. Getting out of town was a piece of cake. This is the transport hub on the region with buses pretty much anywhere you'll need to go. Namely direct shuttles to Leon. In my travels i've been stranded in some pretty remote and back water places. And while Esteli may not be worth a special trip unless visiting one of the nearby national parks, it's not a half-bad place to be stranded.
0 comments:
Post a Comment