Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Happy Holidays! We’re back on the road and back on the blog after a hiatus. To those of you who check the site often: we’re terribly sorry for the delay. We’ll do our best to keep you updated in these last weeks of our trip. We’re going to be back, state-side by the middle of January and with so little time left we’re starting to reflect a great deal on our trip. We’ll be sharing some of those reflections in the coming weeks. No doubt they will be immensely profound. But for now I will bring you all up to date…
Raegan and I are in the cute colonial town of Ruinas de Copan, Honduras very near the Guatemalan border and also, you guessed it, the ruins of the Mayan city of Copan. We won’t be seeing the ruins this time around. We’ll be back through these parts in a few weeks. Today is a day of rest. We’ve spent the last three days on what is affectionately known as the chicken bus. Actually, we’ve ridden on several chicken buses and a good percentage of them earned their title. We’ve crossed nearly three countries in three days with these modified elementary school buses as our primary mode of transport. We could have made it three borders in four days if we had it in us to push the last 15 miles to the Guatemalan border today, but we just didn’t. We’re saddle sore from three days on these crowded and bumpy busses made to fit little children. My favorite ride was on the bus which was supposedly luxurious because they removed their old seats which can fit three across and replaced them with old airplane seats which fit two across. The only problem was that unlike the other buses, regardless of comfort, if you were taller than 5 foot 8 you simply couldn’t cram yourself in there. At least it was a problem for me.
But I must give the chicken buses credit where credit is due. They are remarkably efficient. In every city where we’ve caught them, when we were ready to go we walked to the market and there is one waiting. It doesn’t leave until it’s full, but that has never taken more than 10 or 15 minutes. Also, they’re incredibly cheap and very accommodating. They will pick you up and drop you off at any point along the route. Sometimes this can be absurd with one passenger getting picked up or dropped off 10 feet from another, but the driver and mate never bat an eye. This sometimes makes for a slower ride, but the drivers all think their Mario Andretti so they make up the time.
So where have these buses taken us? From Leon we headed to the lakeside city of Granada. This city really surprised us. We arrived with thoughts of revolution and war and found a beautiful and somewhat cosmopolitan city. We didn’t do much there. Our theory is that this is symptom of traveling for a long time. Exhibit A was our British friend who had a few months on us who we never saw far away from his hammock in the hostal. We did a little better, but were no strangers to the hammock. We spent one day swimming at a mountain lake and spent the night drinking beers and talking to a Nicaraguan (Nico) and a Costa Rican (Tico) about political corruption. They are experts on the subject. The last Nicaraguan president, Aleman is now in jail (horray!) because he stole about a quarter of the $200 million in Hurricane Mitch aide donated to his country, one of the poorest countries in the world. What an asshole. Costa Rica has Nicaragua beat (mostly because they have had a justice branch with teeth for longer) with their last three former presidents in jail for having sex with an assistant and lying about it. Just kidding, it was for stealing lots and lots money from the taxpayers.
From Granada we headed to the largest lake island in the world, Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. This is a magical place. The lake, the largest in Central America was created when North and South America joined. It has fish found nowhere else on earth: saltwater fish and sharks living in fresh water. And the island was created by two volcanoes with spilt lava filling in the space between them. Sound pretty? It is. The islanders live a slow agricultural life. They are poor and are remarkably nice. Supposedly this is because the civil war never came to the island. Whatever the reason, we spend our time on the island talking to the locals, chasing howler monkeys, watching pelicans fish, reading in hammocks and drinking beers during beautiful sunsets. It was tough, to leave that is.
Since, we spent Xmas week in lala land, otherwise known as Flamingo Beach, Costa Rica with our families. We were really happy to get the chance to spend time with our families. It was fun and was needed. It was also a nice and unexpected pre culture shock. We hope they enjoyed their time, too. When they left it was hard to say goodbye, and even harder to get back on the chicken bus.
Comments-[ comments.]
Raegan and I are in the cute colonial town of Ruinas de Copan, Honduras very near the Guatemalan border and also, you guessed it, the ruins of the Mayan city of Copan. We won’t be seeing the ruins this time around. We’ll be back through these parts in a few weeks. Today is a day of rest. We’ve spent the last three days on what is affectionately known as the chicken bus. Actually, we’ve ridden on several chicken buses and a good percentage of them earned their title. We’ve crossed nearly three countries in three days with these modified elementary school buses as our primary mode of transport. We could have made it three borders in four days if we had it in us to push the last 15 miles to the Guatemalan border today, but we just didn’t. We’re saddle sore from three days on these crowded and bumpy busses made to fit little children. My favorite ride was on the bus which was supposedly luxurious because they removed their old seats which can fit three across and replaced them with old airplane seats which fit two across. The only problem was that unlike the other buses, regardless of comfort, if you were taller than 5 foot 8 you simply couldn’t cram yourself in there. At least it was a problem for me.
But I must give the chicken buses credit where credit is due. They are remarkably efficient. In every city where we’ve caught them, when we were ready to go we walked to the market and there is one waiting. It doesn’t leave until it’s full, but that has never taken more than 10 or 15 minutes. Also, they’re incredibly cheap and very accommodating. They will pick you up and drop you off at any point along the route. Sometimes this can be absurd with one passenger getting picked up or dropped off 10 feet from another, but the driver and mate never bat an eye. This sometimes makes for a slower ride, but the drivers all think their Mario Andretti so they make up the time.
So where have these buses taken us? From Leon we headed to the lakeside city of Granada. This city really surprised us. We arrived with thoughts of revolution and war and found a beautiful and somewhat cosmopolitan city. We didn’t do much there. Our theory is that this is symptom of traveling for a long time. Exhibit A was our British friend who had a few months on us who we never saw far away from his hammock in the hostal. We did a little better, but were no strangers to the hammock. We spent one day swimming at a mountain lake and spent the night drinking beers and talking to a Nicaraguan (Nico) and a Costa Rican (Tico) about political corruption. They are experts on the subject. The last Nicaraguan president, Aleman is now in jail (horray!) because he stole about a quarter of the $200 million in Hurricane Mitch aide donated to his country, one of the poorest countries in the world. What an asshole. Costa Rica has Nicaragua beat (mostly because they have had a justice branch with teeth for longer) with their last three former presidents in jail for having sex with an assistant and lying about it. Just kidding, it was for stealing lots and lots money from the taxpayers.
From Granada we headed to the largest lake island in the world, Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. This is a magical place. The lake, the largest in Central America was created when North and South America joined. It has fish found nowhere else on earth: saltwater fish and sharks living in fresh water. And the island was created by two volcanoes with spilt lava filling in the space between them. Sound pretty? It is. The islanders live a slow agricultural life. They are poor and are remarkably nice. Supposedly this is because the civil war never came to the island. Whatever the reason, we spend our time on the island talking to the locals, chasing howler monkeys, watching pelicans fish, reading in hammocks and drinking beers during beautiful sunsets. It was tough, to leave that is.
Since, we spent Xmas week in lala land, otherwise known as Flamingo Beach, Costa Rica with our families. We were really happy to get the chance to spend time with our families. It was fun and was needed. It was also a nice and unexpected pre culture shock. We hope they enjoyed their time, too. When they left it was hard to say goodbye, and even harder to get back on the chicken bus.
