3:30am is early. But, that's what time we got up and moving on our big travel day...attempting to go from San Salvador, El Salvador to León, Nicaragua. Check a map if you need, or just take it from me: it's a long way.
We got to the bus terminal the ridiculous 45 minutes early that they require for 'check-in', and predictably sat around for 43 minutes wondering why we weren't still in bed with zzzz's coming out of our necks. Who are they kidding: this is the Ticabus station in San Salvador; not exactly LAX style security lines!
Anyway, we piled on and the bus pulled away at just after 5am and we were on our way. Like all other "1st-Class" (non chicken-bus) services in Latin America (so far for us, at least) the A/C was cranked to maximum keeping the air temperature at frigid levels. We tried to sleep for a few hours, but then abandoned the effort when the intra-ride entertainment kicked off on the TVs and blaring out of the speakers.
The highlight, without question: 'Mr. Popper's Penguins' starring Jim Carey and a half dozen animated penguins. Not sure how we missed this gem in the theaters, but we both sat captivated for 2 hours. Partly we were stupidly tired and so sitting with drool coming out of our mouths was about all we could muster at that point. But also I think that our brains were melting just slightly from being subjected to 2 hours of such a ridiculousness. Damn, Jim Carrey: either times are really tough or you need a new agent, bro.
The film following 'Mr. Popper's Penguins' was another gem starring Harry Conick Jr and a Dolphin with a prosthetic tail...you gotta draw the line somewhere; and although the prostetic tailed dolphin was intriguing, I couldn't hang with HC Jr. Instead we put on a Podcast, turned up the volume and tried not to look at the TVs. And so the journey went...
2 border crossings and 12 hours later we pulled up to the side if the highway where we hopped out, grabbed our bags and were hustled onto a waiting chicken bus that was headed East from San Isidro to León. We hadn't realized how quickly the stop was coming and so weren't able to hit the restroom on the nice bus before being crammed into the chicken bus. It made for an excruciating ride...full bladder, bumpy, cramped, hot and made even more frustrating by the super obnoxious sound of a Nicaraguan baseball game being blasted on the speakers. Imagine a mixture between a soccer match being announced in Spanish (Gooooooooool!!!!!) and a circus with all sorts of ridiculous sound effects being played again, and again, and again, and...well you get the picture.
We were about fried by the time we got to León- 3 hours later. We took a cab to a hostel we had emailed, but hadn't heard back from. Thankfully they had something for us, eventhough it really wasn't much...we weren't in the mood to mess around looking for something better, so we just took it and collapsed into a heap on the bed.
When we finally were able move, we did leave the room, but only briefly to find something quick and easy to eat. We didn't find anything quick, or easy...but we did find sushi. Sushi in Nicaragua you say?? Sure, why not.
I got one of the 'Nica Rolls' - Nica style gallo pinto and queso fresco, wrapped in seaweed, dipped in egg and fried. For the uninitiated: gallo pinto is Nicaraguan or Costa Rican style black beans and rice and queso fresco is a semi hard cheese sort of like Feta. To finish it off, the Nica Roll was served with it's own special dipping sauce: ketchup. While it was interesting and even tasty to me in my half starved state, I can say that I don't think we'll see that roll popping up on Nobu's menu anytime soon.
For the record, G got a Veggie Roll so neither of us actually ate fish, so the jury is still out on real Nicaraguan sushi...
Finally, we were done with all obligations for the day and we could go back to the room and crash, which, after a cold shower with literally water coming out of a pipe with no shower head, is exactly what we did.
We had a full day in León with which we had very little planned except for cruising the town. Step 1: coffee, we found a good spot at the café in Big Foot Hostel. Once caffeinated, we headed out to take on Leòn: we cruised the plaza, and into the markets on an unsuccessful mission to find Gina a visor.
We checked out and snapped photos of a few different old churches, before making for the art museum which has allegedly the best collection of art in Central America; including several Picassos. In the museum we had a run in with a lady who took her job way too seriously. It wasn't enough for her to sit in silence to make sure nobody touched anything as her colleagues managed to do without issue. No, she took it upon herself to make sure that we all went around the open planned exhibit in the correct order. She flipped out when G went the wrong way...2 times. I also accidentally, on purpose went the wrong way once just to make sure she was paying attention.
After the museum we headed back to the Cathedral where we paid a few Cordobas and were allowed to go up onto the roof. The views were pretty sweet from up there. The old colonial city (and former capital of Nicaragua) laid out in front of us with several volcanos standing off in the distance. Worth doing in León, for sure!
With all that tourist stuff behind us, we decided to get out of the heat and to find a cold drink. We ended up with an ice cold Toña beer at a little bar/restaurant and it suited us just fine. One the way home we stopped by the grocery store for a few items where we saw the guy who worked at our hostel getting stuff for dinner: a small bag of pasta and ketchup...taking eating on a budget to new, disturbing lows. We bought a few more Toñas at the supermarket and settled into the lounge at the hostel for a beers and cards session.
We ended up back at the same restaurant for dinner that night as we'd stopped into earlier for refreshments. We jogged through the streets in attempts to beat the impending downpour and slid into our seats under the protection on the restaurants roof just as the rain started; by the time we ordered it was dumping rain with crazy thunder and lightning to add to the show. Perfect timing. Food was less then memorable, except that G's Garden Salad came with mostly cooked vegetables and watermelon...not sure if they mixed up the red watermelon for what they thought was red tomatoes, but it was strange, in any case.
Another morning, another pack up...we got our stuff together and then headed to the Big Foot Hostel again for coffee, before coming back to grab our stuff and making for the bus station.
With León in the rearview we were headed for the other Colonial city in Nicaragua's arsenal: Granada, here we come.