Road to Tegucigalpa

Despite the late night, still managed to wake up early, about the same time as Josh and Marisa; before leaving, I had to take care of a few last minute chores, packing, rushing to the post office to buy stamps to mail postcards. We checked out of the hostal, took the quick walk to the minibus terminal that would take us to Managua, which left a few minutes after we boarded. It took about an hour to arrive in the Nicaraguan capital, and even though we asked the driver to drop us off at Metro Central, since it was closer to the TransNica terminal, he either forgot or couldn´t be bothered since we got off at the end of the line. Having heard bad things about not only this, but all the capitals in Central America, we didn´t want to take any chances and hopped in a cab that took us directly to TransNica, where we had a few hours to kill before our departure time. We passed the time playing cards, reading and watching a movie before our bus pulled into the terminal. As we left the city, we watched with amazement at the number of trucks and buses filled to the brim with people, all waving flags, chanting and honking along the way; eventually we clued in that it was a very important day for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Dia de Libertad, and they were all heading to massive rallies and demonstrations to show their support. Once we left Managua, the ride was uneventful but very scenic, especially the portion of the road where we had huge mountains on either side of us (Cordillera de los Maribios on the left, and Cordillera Isabelia on the right).

By the time we reached the border with Honduras, at Las Manos, it was already dark and rainy; on the Nicaragua side, the driver picked up all our passports to have them processed, while customs officers opened the luggage compartment and ´selectively´chose items to be screened. I am putting that in quotations because just like before, none of the backpacks were even pulled out, only the luggage of the locals. On the Honduran side, the crossing was even easier as we did not even have to get off the bus, though presumably a search was performed as well. For the rest of the ride to Tegucigalpa we watched movies or simply dozed off, and just after 10pm we arrived in the Honduran capital. We had made reservations at Hotel Alameda, adjacent to the bus terminal, and even though it was a bit pricey, it was worth it as we heard the city does not have a good reputation, especially at night. All we had to do was walk for a few meters, then we found ourselves inside a nice, spacious room and had the benefits of hot water and TV (luxuries that often do not exist in hostels). Needless to say, after such a long day of travel, we all had a really good night´s sleep.