Up at 5:30am (ouch), just a cheese sandwich for breakfast because the kitchen hadn't opened yet, and on the bus by half past six. Thankfully it was our private air conditioned mini bus, and I managed to sleep for a while. We had a long drive to the coast, where we got our passports stamped (bye bye El Salvador) and boarded a boat that would be our means of entry into Nicaragua.
Augusto had already warned us that the border crossing into Nicaragua can sometimes be difficult, and had photocopied our passports and sent papers ahead several days ago to try and ease the process. Unfortunately a Canadian woman and three Belgians who were also on our little boat had managed to make a few mistakes, so we got so far out into the water and then had to turn back SEVERAL times so that someone could wade back and forth in the water with their passports trying to get missing stamps and sorting out various problems. We also had to go back once or twice for some unknown reasons, too. Sometimes, we just had to sit in the water off shore and wait - no one was sure what for.
Once we finally got going on the boat, we got quite wet. The wind was really strong and we were splashed quite a lot by the waves, so I spent most of the journey with my eyes shut unfortunately. Our backpacks were already safely secured under a large tarpaulin, but we were also given bin liners to put our smaller bags and valuables into. We had a good laugh as the Belgian man attempted to WEAR his, making a hole for his head in the top and fashioning a kind of black straight jacket. Haha.
We were apparently about two hours late when we stopped at a small island for lunch, but for some reason the people there claimed not to know anything of our reservation and had no food prepared, so we moved straight on without eating. More time on the boat, until we arrived at a small beach. We then had to wait until the Nicaraguan border control decided we could get out, and because of the lack of a pier we had to wade to shore. It felt like we were refugees in some weird film scene, emerging from the water with our bags held high. (Thankfully someone else brought our backpacks to shore - I don't think I could've lifted it above my head.) It was the strangest entry into a country I think I'll ever have.
More waiting, then finally our passports were stamped, we paid our entry fees, and next was the bag inspection. Augusto had warned us that sometimes they have made people take literally everything out of their bags, but was hoping that this time they might just ask one of us to do this. Instead, they had each of us stand by our bags, open them, had a little poke around and then said "okay".
We got onto our new bus - just benches in the back so were riding sideways, sadly without air con - and off we went again. Shortly after this we hit a chicken; seeing it spinning as we continued down the road wasn't a nice sight. Cue lots of "why did the chicken cross the road" jokes...
We stopped briefly at a petrol station and bought a few snacks, on the understanding that we would eat when we arrived in Leon. This was at about 4:30pm. Little did we know that ahead lay blocked roads due to some kind of protest involving the sugar cane farmers. We hit a traffic jam, and were at a standstill for the next five hours. Dear me. I read until it got dark, played a few games with Natasha and chatted, but all in all it was pretty dull. We finally arrived at the hotel at about 10pm, hungry but all too tired to go out to a restaurant to eat, so we all went straight off to bed. I felt quite ill once up in our room, but I expect that's just from not eating.
All in all, not the best day, but at least we're in Nicaragua now!
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