December 19th, 2012 San Juan del Sur and Granada, Nicaragua

7AM  I went in the water and used the small sheets they had in the hostel as a towel.  An old man who was opening a hotel here told me go to the edge of the beach to see the apartment by opening the white gate.  He told me there I would find the rich homes of San Juan del Sur.

8AM  I had a garlic grilled lobster for 260 NIOs and a pineapple juice for 20 NIOs.  It was excellent.

9AM  I left the hostel.  The bank only wanted to give 23.96 NIOs per USD.  Fortunately the lady at Banco Lafise was nice enough to give me 80 NIOs when I gave her 8 NIOs and 3 USDs and not .88 NIO in change.

10:30AM  I am on my way to Rivas.

12PM  I arrived at Rivas but it was taking much longer than I thought.  I would get to Granada at around 1PM, walked around for about an hour, where I saw the Canadians that I saw yesterday at the Costa Rica Nicaragua border.

Granada, Nicaragua

2:30PM  I took a bus to Managua, where there were supposed to be transportation to Honduras.  There wasn't.  Nicabus and Ticabus were both sold out until next week and January.  The car driver finally listened and sent me to a local bus station, where I took the bus to the border.  I gave the cab driver 3 USDs plus 0.70 USD and 35 CRCs in change.  That is almost 4 USDs.  I overpaid.  At the bus station, my cab past a young blonde in her mid to late twenties with hair braided on one side and an Indian styled shirt.  That caught my eye and she later came up, with her husband.  Apparently they are caretaker of a vacation home in Chinandega.  He gave me 10 NIOs for the supposed 40 NIOs I would need for the bus to the border.  I told they are a beautiful couple together.

6:45PM  We arrived at Chinandega and the driver dropped me off a gas station and told me to wait for another bus that would take me to the border.  That couldn't happen because the people working there told me the last one left at 6PM.  I had no choice but to either bargain for a ride to the border and hope that it is still open or spend the night here.  I chose the former and paid 5 USDs for a shared cab ride.  Those are possibly the longest hour of my life.  Imagine yourself sitting in the middle of the back between two men, and one more in the connecting trunk looking over you the whole time.  You don't understand a word except you can only think of a treacherous plot.  At any one moment you can imagine your life end with a knife striking your vertebrae.  You won't even scream or react.  It would just be 2 days before the Mayan doomsday.  How fitting?  The man in the trunk left after an hour and I became less alert.

Rach Xia II 

9PM  They dropped me 3 kilometers short of the border at a hotel and told me it wasn't safe.  I checked around and they seemed to be right that the border opens at 6 and close at 7.  I had nochoice but to buy a Gatorade for 1 USD and give the 95 NIOs in change with an additional 20 NIOs for the room.  At least there was one power outlet.  Like the one in Rach Xia, it didn't work when you try to plug in other things.  The room looked identical, even the color of the walls.  Deja Vu and last time four years ago I also was there for the morning market at 5AM.