The long journey to Nicaragua

Unfortunately the morning we were due to head from the jungle lodge on a 2 day epic bus journey to Nicaragua via the Honduras capital, Tegucigulpa, Caroline had a bad night with an ear infection. So we made a last minute diversion to the hospital in La Ceiba instead. After having had some rather scary discussions with a dutch couple who had given birth in Tegucigulpa, we somewhat feared for the quality of the healthcare system. Thankfully however, compared to our previous hosptital visits whilst traveling in developing countries, this one turned out to be pleasantly surprising! Gary got to see live on TV via optical probe the inner workings of Caroline´s ears and nose - quite the experience. We were out in less than 40 minutes with prescription in hands and only $45 worse off.

We "dashed" across town(picking up and dropping off other passengers as we yelled at the cabbie "mas rapido por favor") to see if we could catch the 10am bus and just made it in time. 3 hours later we arrived in San Pedro Sula, bought another onward ticket to the capital, and another 5 hours later arrived in darkness in what felt like the sketchiest place we´ve been yet....

Thankfully, our guidebook came up trumps for a hotel, which for only $15 was safe and had not only 2 bedside lamps, but also a glass showerscreen - pure luxury in the world of budget travel!

Next morning up at 4am to get to the bus terminal at 4.30am. Changed buses at 7.30am and arrived in Nicaragua´s capital about 1.30pm to then find another bus to Leon. Our Taxi driver however did not appear to want to take us to where we requested and took us instead to a local market and the stand of local "chicken buses" (and of course tried to charge us more). With some reluctance we hopped aboard guarding our belongings and fearing that a 1 hour journey would now probably take 5 hours. We´ve generally avoided the chicken buses where we can (because we can) but it was actually good fun. No-one tried to share our seats, sit on us, mug us or sell us any chickens - they played party music all the way (YMCA and the like), and they kindly told us when to get off, and it was the right place for a change!

So eventually after a marathon 48 hrs traveling we arrived in Leon and found ourselves a great hostel with swimming pool and free internet, appropriately called Lazybones. We found a local hostel serving roast dinners ! and then passed out.