Today is the beginning of an adventure. Our ultimate objective is to get to La Reserva Indio Maiz, which is the home of a native tribe named Rama. To get there, we have to bus from Granada to Managua, then take another bus to San Carlos, then sleep there and get on a boat on a tiny river sitting between Nicaragua and Costa Rica up to El Castillo and then try to find another boat for a 6-hour ride to San Juan Del Nicaragua. Finally, we have to hire a inhabitant of the reserve who will be our guide and get on another boat. All that, without much information so we don't know if we will make it or not but no matter what, it will be a fun adventure that should take something between 5 to 6 days. And we will, if everything goes well, most likely be remote with no internet and nothing for a few days. But let's start with today...
So when we woke up, I had a little talk with my dear friend Youppi. After he was gone for such a long period of time, he was nervous about going out of my pocket and enjoy the moment. I told him that as long as he would not have a stupid idea to leave us without letting me know, it would not happen again. So he promised to be more present.
We left our hostel and walked to a bus stop nearby. I asked a woman if it was the right place for the bus to Managua and she said yes. We followed her as she was getting on the same bus. She also told us when to get off the bus. This was to bring us to the main bus station in Granada. We then jumped on the first bus to Managua but it dropped us off at the wrong station so we took a taxi from this station to the other one as it was 10km away. The 44km ride from Granada to Managua including the 2 buses cost us 3$ in total and our taxi cost 4$!
Then we asked a few people how to get on the bus to San Carlos. We found the ticket counter and asked for 2 tickets. There was finally a schedule by the counter and the next bus was leaving at 1:10 so in about 30 minutes. But the only tickets left on the bus were standing places and it was a 5 to 6-hour ride with our backpacks the day after a rough hike! But fortunately, there was another bus leaving at 3:25 and they had seats available. So we decided that waiting 2 hours was worth it.
So we waited on super comfortable plastic chairs with a metal bolt right in the middle of your back for 2 hours. But seriously, it was not bad at all. I love watching people in their regular day-to-day life and see how they can manage to eat empanadas topped with salsa, coleslaw, fresh cream and tomato sauce without making a mess… because clearly, Steve and I have a lot to learn from them on this topic… but I must admit that Steve mastered the art of drinking a juice from a plastic bag with no straw!
Our bus arrived on time and we were even able to put our backpacks in the luggage compartment for 50 cordobas each so 4$ in total. It is expensive if you consider that we paid 200 cordobas each to sit our bums in this bus but it was a 4$ well invested in our comfort.
This bus had all kind of people!
Wait a minute! Is this a clown?! Hey Youppi, you have to see this! There is a clown on our bus!
I knew he would be too curious and would finally show up his cute little face! Your fans missed you Youppi! And isn't it cool to get some fresh air in your orange fluffy hair!
Oh, and the good thing about buses in Nicaragua is that you don't have to be prepared for a long ride with food and water. No, they stop on their way and embarks people selling cold water, fresh fruits, pastries, enchiladas, nuts… and each time we stop for a street light (which is quite rare tough) or stop signs or just because of traffic, you can buy everything you want just by pulling out your arm by the window.
We arrived in San Carlos at 8pm. We quickly found our hostel, left our stuff in our room and went out for dinner. We walked by El Malecon, which is a boardwalk and a cool man came to us and invited us in his restaurant. We sat on the patio. He couldn't speak English but he was very friendly and probably a bit drunk too so we had a great time. We asked him to bring us a good traditional dish and we got a great "filete de pescado". It was really good!!!
Thank you to our friend for this fantastic night at the Restaurante La Fortaleza!
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