Things I have learned from riding on Central American Buses

A lot of this blog has to do with all the cool things that we have done on the trip...but one of things we haven´t spent a lot of time writing about, but have spent A LOT of time doing is riding on buses...here are a few of the valuable lessons I have learned on this trip.

1) Do not go out drinking the night before a 5 hour bus ride...no matter how good that 3rd glass of wines tastes at the time.

2) If you do have that 3rd glass of wine, try try try to get it out of your system BEFORE you hit the road....you do not know when the next bathroom will be!

3) If you do happen to make it to the roadside bathroom, don´t go in there in an attempt to alleviate any sort of nausea. These bathrooms tend to induce such feelings.

4) When the bus stops at a local rest area, stick with the typical truck stop foods (burgers, fries, etc). Yeah, the menu says they have a green salad, but trust me, it ain´t green and you probably can´t identify any of the vegetables.

3) Never ever say, at the end of a particularly bad bus ride, ¨Man, that was the worst bus ride ever¨...trust us, it wasn´t the worst ride ever...bus rides can always get worse.

4) Have you ever heard the quote, ¨I once felt sorry for the man who had no shoes until I met the a man who had no feet¨? Well, it applies to riding buses in Central America...except it goes like this...¨I once complained about sitting in a smelly uncomfortable seat in a rundown old school bus, until I didn´t have an actual seat but had to sit in the dirty aisle for 5 hours.¨ Yep....

Ommmmmmm-tepe...the Isla of

On our whirlwind tour of Central America we have managed to visit three islands (could that be do to the fact that Jess herself is an islander dweller?! For two nights we stayed on The Isla of Omtempe. This is an island that fairy tales are made of (although we surely weren´t staying in a castle and there were no prince charmings to speak of...only frogs in our toilet). This island is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua and has two volcanos connected by an narrow land mass. It is very rustic but so peaceful. Our plan was to do a gruling 12 hour steep hike up the tallest volcano, but unfortunely (wink, wink) it rained the night before and was too muddy to climb (bummer). One of the volcanos had a small eruption, so it was a good thing that we didn´t risk it. Instead we decided to take a kayak trip around the lake. Jess and I were a great kayaking team. We managed to stay ahead of the Isralei army girls..woo hoo. We saw lots of monkeys and birds, and we tried to find an animal called a Cayman(it is a reptile similar to an alligator). The guide did the mating call, but no such luck. We finished up the day with a nice cool Toña (Nicaragua´s national beer). It was a nice relaxing couple of days!

Tearin it up in Nicaragua!

As Jess and I are quickly discovering, Nicaragua is awesome! We have had so many adventures here that we have barely had time to keep up with the blog! Expect some posts in the near future!

We have finally made it to the coast, San Juan Del Sur (thanks to Annamarina and Mike for the suggestion)! It is so pretty here! Today we took an hour long surf lesson and then surfed all day. It was great! It was totally exhausting (and at times totally frustrating) but soo fun. We had this great instructor named Alfredo (his nationality and exact age are unknown- I am guessing French and in his mid 40s). I had trouble at first. As Alfredo said, ¨Zum peezple need zhree hourz of lezzons, you may be one of those peezles¨....but at the end of the day I was riding waves like a pro...well not like a pro, but you get the idea...I was able to paddle out and catch waves all by myself...at the end of the day Alfredo said, ¨Zhere is one more zurfer in zee world now, Christine¨....wooo hoo! Christine is a surfer...we´ll see how I do in Costa Rica... Jess on the other hand was truly tearing it up ( I guess all those early morning VB sessions with her dad helped prepare her). She was the shining star of our surf class...way to show off Jess!

Also of note to any of you who, like me, are also obsessed with E! Entertainment Television (or The News as I call it)- Jess and I hung out at the Iguana Bar, where just a few weeks ago Matthew McCounahey drank himself into a stupor, lost his flipflops, passed out on the beach, and was then robbed by the locals...don´t worry I got pictures of the place. Forget churches and important monuments, I am on the lookout for stars or at least places that they have visited!

We love Nicaragua....Granada is Great

We have been so into Nicaragua we have been neglecting our fans (sorry Mr. Kully). Granada has been enchanting vistors since 1524 and she has cast her spell on us. The city was beautiful even in the rain (it is the first full rainny day we have had and it is rainny season). We had a great time in our carriage ride and our self walking tour discovering all the amazing churches and colonial buildings. We even managed to discover the main street with all the wonderful bistros and bars that were set outside, perfect for people watching. Chris and I even got a few marriage proposals! The next day we conquered the zipline tour. We had three strong guys to help us wiz through the air upside down and supergirl style. It was amazing just Chris, me, and the howler monkeys. (Video soon to come)

MMM....street food!

At the beginning of the trip Jess and I stayed away from street food because we were listenting to the advice of our doctors. However, after a few days we couldn´t resist the delicious fruits and gave in. So far, so good in terms of not getting sick. And the fruit is so fresh and so sweet and soooo cheap. Our favorite so far has been the white pineapple in Nicaragua...mmm, mmm, good! There are vendors set up on all the streets. We have mostly stuck to fruit and popcorn, but there are soups, fried foods, and even whole pigs for sale! In Guatemala, we even saw a boy selling live chickens on the street!

After sitting at the computer for an hour Jess and I cannot figure out how to delete the sideways pic...we are tired and hungry and we can´t find the Spanish word for delete..so sorry. we´ll fix it later.

Volcano....Masaya, Nicaragua

The Spaniards described this place as the gates of hell, I think hell looks pretty cool then. Chris and I are staying in a small town called Masaya and took the tour yesterday evening. We got to see Crater Santiago smoke and steam. We got to go in the lava tunnels and you could see the roots of the above trees. The tunnels were also home of three kinds of bats. We turned off all the lights and you could feel the bats fly right past you. Chris and I even sat in front of the tunnel as the bats flew out. The last part of the tour you went back to the top of the volcano and were met with toxic gas so we got to put on our gas masks and look down in the crater to see some of the red lava. The locals used to throw the maidens off the rim...Chris and I are past our prime, so we have been spared.

Hellish Honduras!

In an earlier post, Jess talked about our hellish trip to Honduras via the ferry, the city bus, and finally the luxury bus....this video clip was taken on the local city bus in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We had just gotten off the ferry (and I am using the word ¨ferry¨very liberally as it looked more like a Cuban refugee boat- the only two options were to sit in the covered area and smell the puke of the other passengers or sit on the outside and get drenched as giant waves splashed over the sides- 4hours of pure hell for $50.00 per person), and were looking for a bus to La Ceiba. We thought we were in heaven when we found the bus. It was empty, had airconditoning (VERY rare in Central America), had window shades to block the sun, and cost about $.50. Well, our celebration was a bit premature. The bus would not leave until it was completely full. Once all the seats were filled up we figured we´d be on our way. Oh no...there were jumper seats that filled the aisles. Once almost every nook and craney of the bus was full (we were sitting on 1 backpack and the other backpack was in our lap) we began the trip. However, a minute later the bus was stopped by the cops. Yes, Jess and I thought...they are pulling the bus over because the 15 person capacity bus now has 41 people(yes, 41!) and they are going to remove some people. Nope...it was just a weapons search. Every man (only men) on the bus had to get off (with thier luggage) and get frisked by the police...check out the video and see if you can count all 41 of us!