Thursday 11 July - Monday 15 July

TICA BUS Mexico to Costa Rica

By the time we left Mexico, a deadline had been set for us to catch a boat from Panama for Colombia on the 29th July....deposit paid. That left us with about 2,5 weeks to do Central America.....not much time, so erring on the side of safety we thought we'd push on through to Costa Rica for about a week and leave ourselves a week in Panama.
First stop was the Mexican/Guatemala border.........not a good start. I'd done all the research before about leaving Mexico and crossing into all the Central American countries making 100% sure we had all our tee's dotted and our eyes crossed, and no visa surprises. Also gaining any information that might help us get through these corrupt encounters. I was prepared, I got this! With our Mexican tourist cards safely in the passports we handed them to the official only to be told we had to pay the visitor visa fee (295 pesos each). I gruffly told her we'd already paid this upon entry into Mexico, thats how we got these visitors cards. "Recibo?" came the response, no english available here. She wouldn't budge until she saw the receipt. Panicking, we started searching for a piece of paper amongst all our other pieces of paper to no avail.........we keep everything like this, it had to be here, but it wasn't. I was not prepared to be rushed by this chica specially after all my pre-planning. With the bus waiting on the Guatemala side for us and us only, and no receipt to prove we'd paid, we had no choice but to pay...again, aaargh (US$50 for nothing), we've heard about these buses just leaving people behind if they take too long.

Guatemala and El Salvador visas were hassle free and we arrived in San Salvador for a compulsory stop over, on schedule but in a seriously dodgy part of town at night. Haggled with the taxi driver, saved a dollar, and got to our guesthouse safely, still thinking we'd been ripped off.....turns out we paid the right fare, still hellishly expensive at US$6 for a 6 minute ride. Showered, without getting electrocuted, and bed. In the morning had breakfast at the guesthouse, cooked by a sweet lady with one arm (thought it rude to ask what happened), feeling terrible while we sat and she brought out our meals one by one. Donna did later help her bring in the washing she'd expertly hung up just as the rain came in........nice touch Donsy. Spent the rest of the day in the safety and wifi enabled zones of the guesthouse researching, planning and booking for Costa Rica. Finished up with dinner at a Uruguayan grill restaurant close by called El Charrua.....braai platter for 2; steaks, chicken, pork ribs, sausage, garlic bread, potatoes and salad washed down wish freshly made lemonade. A welcome break from taco central.
Onto the bus again at 3am and off to the Honduras border, but this time in Executive Class......not much difference to Tourist Class except for the immigration service they offer, and a couple of free meals. The 'onroad' attendant will take your passport, along with everyone else's, and handle the visa process while we sit in the comfort of the bus. Probably paid a little more than we would have had we done it ourselves, but we also stood the chance of being ripped off by corrupt officials, again.

Sailed though Honduras in no time, but only 30 minutes into Nicaragua and the bus breaks down who knows where, not surprising after the way these guys push these buses. Everyone off the bus onto the filthy embankment...and wait. During our 3 hour "layover" I took a photo of a 3 horse cart pulling a large load of wood trotting down the road passing the immobile bus, seemed amusing, only for the horses to start veering dangerously off the road down a steep embankment and rolling the cart of wood and themselves along with it. One horse managed to break free and ran away, the other 2 were folded awkwardly and trapped under the load of wood unable to move. Broken legs and maybe a neck for sure. Luckily though they cut the horses free and both stood up with no apparent injuries but, to our horror, only to be poorly harnessed and loaded up again with the trailer of wood and off down the road they went. Also had four bandito looking individuals, stop and size us up and considered stealing our daypacks - luckily with safety in numbers, they seemed to abandon the idea and just laughed at our frightened faces. Phew - that would've been laptop, cameras and money all gone. TG the mechanics got the bus working again, in the daylight hours and after no less than three different baggage searches for the entire bus by border officials as we left Nicaragua, and as we entered Costa Rica and then by police on the side of the road in Costa Rica we eventually got to San Jose, Costa Rica at 2am nearly 24 hours after boarding the bus.