Central America

the last few... days? weeeks? hours? i dont even know time anymore. it just flows by.. has been amazing. ben and i have been having a blast wandering around and having all kinds of adventures. last i updated, we were in San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador. That night we went out to eat at a restaraunt and had to get patted down before entering the building. Needless to say, that left us wanting to just go back to the hotel before it got too dark.

The next morning we took a bus from San Salvador to a border town and the name is escaping me at the moment. The bus dropped us off and we had to walk across the El Salvadorian/ Honduran border. Then we jumped on another bus to head out to Choleteca , Honduras. We stayed the night there as the towns near the Honduran/Niacraguan border are quite small and we wouldnt want to arrive too late. Choleteca is basically a transition town. It was quite small and dirty and we were glad to leave there.

Its always quite an adventure going to the bus terminals. If there arent a million people tying to sell you food, water or assorted trinkets then people want some change or they want to take you in their taxi or they want to change money for you.
Someone always wants something from you. There are two other things about the buses. One is the buses will pull over randonmly and pick up people who will ride the bus for a little bit selling food or drinks and then drop them off and they cross to the other side and ride back and forth all day just selling to people on the buses. And the second thing is what Ben and I call the Hold It Game. Someone will get on the bus selling something, anything (from pencils to Bibles to medicine) and they will give everyone to hold while they talk about WHY you should buy this product. They speak so fast and so loud and they have SO much to say about it. Ben said that he doesnt ever have that much to say about anything. So you hold this pencil or gum or candy until he goes all the way to the back passing everything out, walks to the front gives more of a speech and then comes back and collects it back if you dont want to buy it. To me it is always quite entertaining but I think Ben is a bit annoyed of the Hold It Game.


So from Choloteca to Nicaragua we went through a tiny border crossing that is rarely used and thereby giving Ben his first taste of how Nicaraguans operate. We also had to walk across this border. Once arriving at the boder station the guards took forever to process our paperwork and get change from our money. Then we walked and waited for a bus. This was the first time we ever had to wait for a bus all of our transitions whad been pretty smooth until here. We waited at this hot bus stop and decided to buy some food. We shared a plate of the typical fried chicken, rice and beans. When we were done eating Ben looked around for a garbage and asked someone where to throw the plate. The guy just looked at the ground and said there. This is so typical. Everyone just throws everything everywhere. No matter where you are. People throw pop bottles or plastic bags out the window of the bus all the time.

We finally arrived in Condega, Nicaragua which is where my good friend Claudia lives. It was so awesome to see her and her little boy, Diego. It was awesome. We did some chatting and some catching up. We went and visited her mom. Also, one of the little boys (he was 10 at the time) that lived with us in the house in Bluefields is now living with Claudia. It was awesome to see him and see how much he has matured in four years.

We ran into an ex Peace Corp worker that I had met before and chatted it up with her. We made arrangements to go to the Deaf school the next day to see Tomasa and another girl that I had taught before. It was so awesome to see this school. They are doing much better and have a better director. I am so happy for my friends and the kids. It was so sad to say goodbye to them again. After Condega, we headed to Esteli. We wanted to tour a cigar factory because they make cigars with cuban seeds and its one of the things you do in Esteli. We tried to get in but I guess you need a reservation. One of the workers gave us directions to a place where we could go buy some cigars for cheap. After strugggling to find this place, we realized we were not looking for a store but a persons house. That was crazy. We walked in and there were four people sitting and hand making cigars right there. I somehow negoiated this deal for Ben and he bought about 50 cigars for about $25. From there we explored Esteli and decided the next day to head out to Matagalpa. This town is beautiful and mountainous.

We ran into a German guy when we were waiting for the rain to stop and we made plans to meet up with him and his girlfriend the next day. We took a bus to the town of San Ramon and wandered into a Coffee Co-Op office and asked if we could have a tour. The lady called two young girls over about aged 18 and 21 and we walked with them to their Co-Op and they took us on a crazy hike up in the mountains and showed us some old Gold Mines with lots of bats... eeeeek! The girls were super nice and fun. They took their time explaining everything in Spanish as me and Hogar (the german guy) were the ones who spoke spanish. We had an awesome home cooked meal with them and then they showed up their coffee farm and how they harvest it. Their knowledge of everything was so detailed. I cant wait to post pictures of the hike.

We took a bus back to Matagalpa and then ate dinner at this amazing Italian place. It was so good. The next day we decided to head to Leon just in time for a festival of the Acension of the Virgin Mary. We had a tour of the Somoza Palace that is now a Sanadista building. And this guy giving us the tour fought in the Revolution. I have so much more to write but alas, there is a huge festival here in Granda and I dont want to miss the horse parade! So this shall be it for now but more to come!