Waiting for the bus...

Location: San Carlos at the mouth of the San Juan River, Nicaragua, approx. 1154 local time. So, here I am in a restaurant using their WIFI waiting for my bus back to Granada which leaves at 3pm. I took the boat in from Sabalos which got in at 10am. The way the boat schedule runs one has to wait for most of a day for whatever transport they take to get out of San Carlos: flight, ferry, bus. Unless you have your own vehicle you are pretty much at the mercy of public transportation. So this San Carlos to Granada bus is supposedly 7 hours. What used to be a 12 hour bus ride as reported by the Lonely Planet is one hell of a bus ride especially for those with weak bladders. Apparently there is a new caratera(highway) so the trip has been cut by 4-5 hours. Uh oh, my bladder almost exploded on the 2 hours boat ride over this morning. I hope I can it hold it for 7 hours. From what I have read online, the bus does not have pit stops, it is mostly open area stops. So guys no problem, females god knows what happens. Anyway we shall see. I wasn't about to take the 11 hour ferry back to Ometepe again. No way jose. I was flippin freezing on the deck all night when I arrived in San Carlos 7am a week ago. And the flight to Managua is not in my budget. I am a backpacker not a luxury comfort traveler. You meet both type of travelers. The family with private guide and private boat. The solo western traveler with their own guide. Then you meet the others who may be in Central America for a few months, or just passing through as part of their 1-2 year trip. Solo travel in Central America is so easy especially if you know some Spanish. It probable makes sense to organize everything if you have limited time since public transport can eat up most of your days. I met an a American couple who are in Nicaragua for 2 weeks on the ferry. And the first thing they told me was that they felt that was all they were had been doing since they arrived 5 days before: spending time on public transport. So as we chatted I helped them out a little. They were really nice folks. Wander what happened to them since I didn't see them on the 8am boat the next day after I got into San Carlos. I only saw them 2 days later in Sabalos as I was getting into the boat for a day trip to El Costillo. Apparently they couldn't get a seat on any boat the following day. This amazing thing, and rather funny one happened to me. The day I got in on the ferry it was 7am. The big boat arrived late. In this part of Nicaragua, unlike San Juan del Sur or Granada where it is gringo town, here you have to speak Spanish. There is no way around it - locals do not speak English. Great. I love it. I am forced to speak Spanish. So after asking around on the day of arrival, I found the old man who sold the boat tickets out front of the ferry building. All sold out, he tells me. So I told him that I would be back for the 8am boat the next morning. So I show up at 625am the next day. The waiting passengers all tell me 'no hay' 'no hay mas boletas!' Oh great. So I wander out front and this muchacho approaches me and tells me to go find the old man who sells the tickets. Feeling a little annoyed by now of the possibility of missing the 8am boat, I go back in. I find the Senor himself. He ushes me into his back office and shows me the clipboard. In these parts since the border with Costa Rica is nearby, there are military fellows all over the place, and also on all the boats, every passenger has to provide their name, points of embarkation and disembarkation, and passport or national identification details. So the Senor shows me his clipboard with names on every single line filled in. I groan in Spanish, 'pero Senor, que hago ahora? Y el siguiente bote ho hay mas boletas tambien??' Oh god, I was pissed now. Then the old Senor directs my attention to Line no 17 where it is blank, he tells me please put your details here. I saved you a spot on the boat. Did the young man I told to show you in greet you at the front of the boat terminal to tell you to come find me? Wow, what a nice surprise! Later on the muchacho tells me he had instructions to wait out front and look out for the Chinita with the mochila to go find the ticket man when she shows up at the ferry terminal. This was too kind! So in the end I got on the boat. Great way to head towards Navidad. Sometime during the day in San Carlos, I get an email from a traveler mate whom I met in the Corn Islands telling me that they would be in El Costillo and that we should meet up. Wow, to see a familiar face at Navidad was great. So I headed to El Costillo after 3 nights in Sabalos on the boat to look for my mate. Now in these parts, you would see at most 4-5 white people. But at waves you might see 10-11. So finding my mate wouldn't have been a problem. It is not like San Juan del Sur or Granada where every other person on the street is a gringo. So I got to El Costillo, dumped my bags at a hotel and walked out. And there, my mate walked by. Timing was just too weird. It was a good season to see a familiar face. Most mochileros were staying at the Huesped Chinandegano. Everybody was german except for a couple of Swiss girls, an Aussie fellow and a rather odd older Englishman who traveled over to Nicaragua with his bicycle to cycle around Lago Nicaragua for a month - his annual leave. The Swiss girls were on their annual leave too. The Aussie is on a year trip starting in Central America and ending in Canada- all the way up the continent of North America. The Swiss girls and Aussie were also on my ferry from Granada so it was cool to see more familiar faces. Overall it was a good chilling time and Xmas hang out. Most left to go to the other end of the San Juan River to San Juan del Nicaragua with the plan on catching a boat in the open seas up to Bluefields and onwards to the Corns Islands. Although that was my original plan, I changed my mind and am now headed back to Granada for the New Year - partay. The Cubanos I met 5-6 weeks ago in Granada are going to be in town and we have a rendevouz for a mojito, well, maybe mojitos. Like everyone else, my travel plans change everyday and I am thinking of heading up to Leon after Granada. I am in need of a hamburguesa, badly.