Day 26 - 13 Hours of Bus Joy

Correen was none to happy about getting up at 3am to catch this bus to El Salvador. The news that it is an 11 hour bus trip didn't make her smile either. Frankly, the kids and I weren't thrilled about it, it is just one of the sacrifices that go along with traveling between Central American countries. Lucky for us we were mostly packed and ready to go. The taxi ride was only 10 minutes to the Tica bus station. Nothing much was happening when we arrived at 4am. Correen and the kids went and got some breakfast for themselves. Eventually we started making lines to drop off our bags and get the documents needed for crossing the borders. Today we would be exiting Nicaragua for a short ride through Honduras and eventually arriving at the El Salvador border later in the day.

I sat next to Elliot and Tegan sat next to Mom in the seats across the aisle. All of us slept for the first 2-3 hours on the bus. Elliot was keen to play games which he did while the rest of us still slept. We reached the Honduras border around 11am and left our passports with the Tica bus representative to process us through the border. There was an $8 each exit fee associated with this crossing too. We were able to get off the bus here, stretch our legs and grab a treat from the local vendors selling their food stuff at the border. We then had to board the bus and travel to the Honduras side, where we went through a similar process but this one included a baggage check.

Once this was completed we boarded the bus for our passage through Honduras. A few hours later we reached the El Salvador border, but this time we didn't get off the bus. Instead we waited there in the highly air conditioned bus while our documents were checked over. The a quick cross of a river to go through another document check. Then we were off... to the narcotics department down the road escorted by the police. One person was asked off the bus and he and his bags were given a work over by the dogs. Nothing was found on him, so back on the bus and bound for San Salvador. At this time it was just after 2pm and given we were 200 kms away from San Salvador we should make our 4pm'ish arrival. Or so I thought!

Also we were near starvation as there was no stop for food at the border. It was another hour before we stopped and the crazed hungry people from the bus marched into the gas station to get food from the comida inside. We grabbed some fried chicken, fries and a sandwich for Tegan and I to share. The food was far from delicious, but it did the trick.

We arrived at the first bus stop at 6pm and since it was closest to our hotel we were out of the bus, gathering our bags and hailing a cab for the ride to our hotel. The Holiday Inn was really nice and Jorge the concierge was very nice and helpful. Our room was perfect and we had a pretty good view from our 6th floor room. We decided to go across the road to a plaza that had many different restaurants and settled for some sushi. The sushi was a little different and Correen and the kids had some of the safer choices from the menu. I thought I might be able to handle some beef soba noddles but the sauce they used was too strong and I couldn't eat much of it.

After we walked down to an ice cream shop, Tegan and I shared a banana split, Elliot had a cone and Correen ran into McDonald's for an apple pie. Back to our room to watch some TV and finally sleep and look forward to a sleep-in the next morning.