Buses, borders and bony dogs

The day of buses and borders was as little fun as predicted. The anticipation provoked a restless night so after only 4 hours sleep I was wandering the streets of Jinotega to get the bus to Esteli. The guidebook predicted that would take 1 3/4 hours so I thought I'd get a coffee and something to eat once I arrived there. 3 1/2 hours later I arrived in Esteli and the bus for Somoto was just about to depart. I ran to make it to that bus and another two hours later arrived in Somoto, starving. I was told the bus to El Espino (la frontera) was about to depart so I got lunch to go then got on the bus, only to be told that the bus was going sin passengers and I had to wait another 50 minutes for the next bus. My lunch was some greasy barbequed pork, rice, chopped tomatoes and a couple of tortillas. I ate a bit and gave the rest to a poor old bony dog that looked like this might be his last meal. If I had have seen how bony he was beforehand I'd have given him the lot!

Eventually the bus for El Espino arrived and we were off to the Nicaragua/Honduras border. We arrived at the border at 3pm and I was a bit worried that we wouldn't be in El Salvador before dark. There are not many places you want to be in El Salvador after dark, particularly not at a busy bus station with a big backpack on. At the border I met two English girls, Sam and Julia and we stuck together. We got a minibus for a short while before we got on another bus that took us close to the Honduras/El Salvador border before it kicked us off and told us to jump on another bus. It was now just after 6pm and dusk by the time we hit the border crossing and Sam got chatting to a local who offered to drive us somewhere. I was planning on making it to San Miguel and the girls to Perquin but we abandoned those plans and had Jose drive us to the nearby town of Santa Rosa de Lima for the night. There we found a tidy little hotel with A/C and cable tv and had another meal of greasy pork and salad before calling it a day.

12 hours of travel, 6 buses, one car, two borders - buggered!