King Quality

We got up at 3am to get everything packed and check out of our hostel to get on our bus to Nicaragua. We had to transfer from a small tour van to a large, double decker, "King Quality" bus in Guatemala City. As usual, there was some confusion and miscommunication between us and the driver but we finally figured out how to get our tickets and where to wait.

One we got aboard the bus, we were able to pick seats next to each other because the bus was nowhere near full. This is supposed to be a very good bus company to take in Central America but I was a little disturbed by how dirty everything was. They gave us blankets that were covered in other people's hair (Alyssa's blanket also had some disturbing white stains on it) and the seats were clearly dirty. The bathroom on the bus is just a non-flushing hole that towards the end of the ride was completely full and overflowing. In both Belize and Guatemala, you cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet so you are expected to throw it away in the trashcan. I guess this is ok in theory, but the trash is always overflowing so there is soiled toilet paper everywhere in most of the bathrooms (although they rarely have toilet paper in there for you to use and definitely never have soap).

We had read blogs beforehand about taking these buses and everyone said that they are really cold so we made sure to wear jackets and bring whatever we had to use as a blanket (I brought a towel and Alyssa her beach coverup). Cold is an understatement. It is so utterly freezing in those buses that you can see your breath and can't move your fingers. We had to really bundle up to stay warm.

They fed us three meals on the bus. For breakfast, it was a black bean and egg sandwich, for lunch stuffed chicken and rice and for dinner it was bread with cheese and lettuce (the dinner was so gross that we ate none if it). We had also brought fruit, cheese and bread in case the food was inedible. Most if the food was ok; my real issue was the environment I was eating it in. I felt like I dealt with it pretty well though (if you know anything about my food issues/phobias you have to agree that this is a big step). The hardest thing for me was the food we brought for ourselves though. I had cut up a pineapple and put it into a ziplock bag that Alyssa had. The kitchen at the hostel in Antigua was so disgusting that I was using my own knife and trying to practice aseptic techniques with whatever I could find that was not a part of that kitchen. It was a sheer act of will to not vomit while I was in there. I rinsed out the ziplock before I put the pineapple in but Alyssa told me later that she had been keeping a pair of shoes in it. While I was trying to deal with this disturbing news, she had saved her fork from lunch and had wiped it off to eat the pineapple with. I noticed while we were using it that it still had salsa remnants on it and that was my last straw. I could not stop gagging. The food has not been too much of an issue thus far but when I have so little control of my environment, things are sure to go awry.
We had to stop in El Salvador to pick up more people and restock the bus. There we met another English traveller name Hugh. Hugh had spent two days in San Salvador and said that we had definitely made the right decision in deciding to pass through. We had originally planned to go to El Salvador and Honduras but after our extensive research left us clueless on what to do in these countries and a Dengue Fever warning was issued for Honduras, we decided to forgo the stop and spend more time in Nicaragua.
The bus was a little warmer during the day time, most likely because of the sunlight etc but once the sun went down it was literally a survival situation. The 15 hour bus ride that was supposed to arrive at 10:00pm did not arrive until 1:30am, so we spent the hours from 7:00-1:30 bundled with every scrap of clothing we had, using our breath for warmth and trying to keep our appendages moving. I not kidding- this was one of the coldest experiences I can remember in my whole life. I was truly afraid that we might die (or in lieu of death we'd just have to make them let us out in some random area in Honduras which would likely also equal death). In addition to this, the heat of people breathing in this super cold environment created condensation on the windows (since it was warm outside the bus) and the water would pool on the floor wetting anything it touched with a 1/2" of human breath water. Worst experience ever!
We finally got to the Nicaraguan bus terminal at 1:30am, but since we thought we would be in earlier, we hadn't reserved a hostel yet (we had emailed some but they never responded). Luckily Hugh hadn't gotten a hostel yet either. Once we emerged from the terminal, it was clear that Managua was not a safe town. Hugh had his travel book ready and after we got some Nicaraguan cordobas from the ATM, we grabbed a taxi to Hostel Santos. Thank god there was someone working and they had a room available. The room was $7 USD each and was VERY bare bones. The shower didn't even have a shower head. Alyssa's face was clearly sending a distress signal because it was the worst place we had stayed in yet but there was no way I was going back out into Managua at 2am without Hugh in the hopes of finding another hostel after one of the worst days ever. I was thrilled to be warm and safe in my bed.

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