Day 37 16.08.15
We woke up really early to have enough time to get to the border before 12:00. We only stopped at a petrol station for breakfast, where I managed to pick up a passion fruit juice and a surprisingly tasty pastry with ham, cheese and egg.
We got to the border and handed all our passports and exit fees to our guide who quickly got us out of Honduras. Getting into Nicaragua however, is a whole nother deal. First we went to a place where our temperatures were checked to see whether we had a fever or some sort of diseases. We had to fill out our immigration forms and then after having our temperatures checked received a little stamp (on the back of a magazine cut out :) ) attesting us that we were healthy and then we moved on to the next station. (Meanwhile the bus got disinfected!) The whole money changing began again, including haggling and happy faces if you got closer than others to the official rate.
Our immigration forms and our passports, as well as our entry fees were collected and then the waiting began.
We waited for 2 hours! Then we were handed back our passports individually and got back on the bus. 5 metres after entering Nicaragua we were stopped one more time to pay about a dollar to the town hall as a fee for the entry into their district. Apparently this is a very common thing and we willingly paid the lady in order to quickly get back onto the road.
The first song we were listening to came from our favourite Israeli, Ricky Martins Maria.
It is impressive to see the difference between the roads in Honduras and those of Nicaragua! Nicaragua’s roads are very even and smooth and hardly have any holes and bumps in them, not like the Honduran roads. It seems though, that even though the roads of Nicaragua are top notch, the poverty begins straight at the roads edge towards the housing. Many horses are lined up on the side walk right next to bus stations, dealing as some sort of “park and ride” scheme.
We stopped for some dearly needed lunch at a small buffet place alongside the road. I had a tamale, and also some chorizo, rice and beans and a bit of coleslaw. It was quite good, especially the tamale was very flavourful.
On our way to Granada we were even stopped and woven over to the side by the police. Our driver got out of the van to discuss what the problem was. It turned out, after our imaginations had been flying from instant arrest to heavy money fine and bribery, the actual reason for being pulled over, was that there had been an accident only a couple of days prior, and that the police wanted to school him in how to best use the lanes. Quite ridiculous, taking into consideration that the car has a Honduran licence plate…
We eventually got into Granada and enjoyed our first view of the colonial city. After a short catch up on the Internet, we headed out for dinner at a lovely Mediterranean place called El Pizzaiol, an Israeli run restaurant serving Mediterranean food and some great pizza. After a fun meal we headed back to the hotel to get some rest for the next day.
