Berta’s Travel Shenanigans

I have had an interesting introduction and orientation to the Nicaraguan bus-system this phase.  Last travel blog entry saw me in the small town of Yali, which we almost did not get out of later that afternoon…After spending the day eating ice cream, having coffees, and being ´shown off´and paraded around (due to our ´celebrity´statuses!) by our community leader, Lolo, who accompanied us into the town we attempted to head back to La Fortuna.  Unfortunately, the buses here pay little or no respect to such things as a schedule – so we missed our bus despite being half hour early.  After some panic-inducing conversations (at least for some participants) r.e. possibility of needing to combine a different bus ride with a 2 hours walk, we discovered that indeed two more buses would be arriving to take us to La Fortuna. 

Good news in theory – but the buses were promptly swarmed by hundreds of people.  It being a holiday is responsible for the bus reaching a dangerously high capacity (and since sitting on the roof doesn´t really fall within Raleigh rules…) we decided the bus was out.  Instead, we approached the local police.  The police had gathered to supervise a bar fight that had spilled into the street @ 3pm on Easter Sunday (very Bridget Jones in that people, including me, running into cafes to exclaim that a ´real fight´was happening).  Us 3 project managers sorted out that 15 of us + 6 Nicaraguans would pile into the SUV and pickup truck of (what we decided must be) the local drug dealer. 

Quite an adventure … and just over a week later, here we are in Esteli for a second day after being stranded due to yet another bus fiasco.  Esteli is about 1.5 hours from La Fortuna and is one of Nicaragua´s biggest towns (or cities?) – it is known for its grafitti/murals and was a key hub during the revoluntionary era.  We arrived for a day off, which involved a tour of a cigar factory, getting one of participants a rabies shot after a dog bite courtesy of his host family´s dog, and (and here´s the hilight) getting on the wrong bus.  Although Lorien, our 3rd project manager and interpreter, was assured by the driver to get on this particular bus we eventually realized that we weren´t going to La Fortuna. 

This required us to negotiate a reduced ´bus fare´, flag down a bus going back to Esteli, screaming Bon Jovi´s “Always” at the top of our lungs (much to the chagrin of our Latino co-passengers), and finally arriving back to Esteli – where, that´s right, no more buses to La Fortuna that night.  We got hooked up with a great ´hotel´- Miraflor (highly recommended!) – and, yes, we were soooo disappointed to have proper mattresses, showers, and a restaurant nextdoor! 

The next day we returned to La Fortuna @ noon and to start working hard.  The community centre, which will also double as a school, is done and needs paint and finishing touches.  We are also starting work on a well in nearby La Perla tomorrow.  Only FOUR DAYS LEFT and back to Field Base…can´t believe its all almost done.  Have been loving things so far but Sian, Lorien, and I are mostly in agreement that we are ´Raleigh-ed out´…haha. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Raleigh phase. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.