16/1/10 - day 38.

up at 5, when it was still dark outside. not a good night´s sleep as the mattress was saggy, i could feel the springs in it, the pillow was very thin and the sheet i had over me was damp near the edges so i had to strategically place it so the dry bits were over me!

walked to the bus station and caught the first bus (6am) north to ocotal, 2 hours away which is close to the honduran border. upon arrival there, i was able to get straight on another bus which took me to the border crossing of los manos, another hour away. borrder crossing was very simple, took less than 10 mins as there was hardly anyone there. i did have to pay $2 to leave nicaragua though and then another $3 to enter honduras. these 2 countries and el salvador and guatemala are all part of something called the CA-4 which i thought meant you pay once to get into 1 of these 4 but you dont have to when going between them. but there were far too many people with guns lurking about, so i wasnt about to kick up a fuss over 5 bucks.

next bus was to a little place called el paraiso, where you have to go in order to get your connection, once you cross the border. i was getting pretty sick of them by this point, but from there i got on yet ANOTHER BUS to the capital, tegucigalpa. depending on what time i arrived here would determine whether i spent the night there or moved on up to where i actually wanted to be at lago de yojoa.

got to the capital about 1pm, but unfortunately this bus didnt stop at the bus station i needed. so i got a cab there. except i didnt have any money, i told the cab driver this and he said it was ok and that he would go via an ATM. the one we stopped at, for whatever reason, didnt like my card though. taxi driver was not happy when i returned to the car with this news, and neither was i, as i was wasting time i did not have if i wanted to get to the lake that night. i had no idea when the buses go, if id missed it already or anything, so just wanted to get there asap.

so he took me to an actual bank. there was some fault with their ATM as luck would have it so i went inside to see if they could do the transaction for me themselves. i was getting increasingly tired, hungry and frustrated and was relieved when the girl behind the counter accepted my visa card, though she did look at it like i´d shat in her hand. all the while by the way, i´d left my big bag in the boot of the taxi, hoping he and my stuff would still be there when i came out the bank. he was thank god.

we pulled up at the bus station just as the bus was pulling away up the road. the driver saw me jump out the cab, and i guess it must have been obvious i wanted the bus as he flung the door open and called for me to get on. i thrust 100 lempira into the taxi drivers hand (he´d only asked for 80 but he´d been pretty decent and had neither robbed nor assaulted me, so i felt he deserved it) and jumped on the bus.

relief! several minutes later, i thought it might be a good idea to check with the driver that we were not only going to the right place, but that he´d drop me off a la guama which was where i needed to be to make my next connection. fortunately, this was fine.

someone came on the bus after an hour or so selling cookies, which wasnt exactly what i wanted but was starving so i bought 4 and 2 were horrible. and they made me thirsty. and i had no water left. it wasnt until about another had passed that we stopped at a rest stop area where i necked a load of water.

there were lots of roadworks on the highway and one of the workers had gotten injured (i saw some people carrying his bloodied body away) which slowed everything down 10 times more. eventually got to la guama about half 5. when i got off, i saw somebody i recognised get off the bus just in front of mine. it was an american girl, jen, who i had met in granada. she was going to the same place as me by the lake - the D & D bed and breakfast and micro brewery.

we waited about 30 mins for my SIXTH bus of the day to come along to take us to peña blanca. this took about 20 mins, and from there we were offered a lift in the back of a ute by some guys who owned the place next door to the brewery. they seemed genuine so we hopped in the back. 10 or so very bouncy and fairly uncomfortable minutes later we arrived. door to door it had taken 14 hours, 6 buses, 1 taxi and a ute. dont think im gonna try and do so much again in 1 day, but i was very happy i´d made it.

had a (hot!) shower, and went for dinner at their little restaurant they had there (had hoduran tipico and tried 2 of the home brews). met a fella from ipswich who works there and takes people out on bird watching trips on the lake and stuff.

went to bed about 9pm, VERY tired.