Nicaragua to El Tunco, El Salvador, 19th – 20th December 2017

Having heard about political unrest, demonstrations and road blocks in Honduras, we decided to book onto an international bus to San Salvador, capital of El Salvador and skip Honduras with the intention of returning when things had calmed down. Having made a 5am start, we waited for over 3 hours at a petrol station on the outskirts of Estelí keeping eyes peeled for the red, white and blue of the Ticabus. With hope failing the staff from the petrol station kindly let us use their phone to call the bus company. It had been cancelled due to road blockades in Honduras. And having booked online, of course it was impossible to have let us know by email, wasn’t it? It was also far too easy to issue a refund to a credit card having booked online wouldn’t it? Or over the phone? No chance. No, no. You’d have to take a bus to Managua 2 hrs away and speak to the manager there. The local staff can’t do anything. Great.  Muchas f*%#ing Gracias.

Our home for 16 hrs and 470km – yes, that’s an average of 29 km/h

Luckily the staff as Hostel Sonati, our base in Estelí let us hang out there to plan the next step. Indeed the local Ticabus office were useless, and had no clue if the bus would be running the next day or not. The other option was to take a tourist shuttle bus from León. Annoyingly these shuttles ran to the surfer resort of El Tunco rather than the capital, but at least it was the right country. I hate backtracking, but we headed back to León and booked a shuttle for 2am at the city’s “party hostel,” Bigfoot. With 7 hrs to kill, we had plenty of time to see the new Star Wars film at the cinema and enjoy some cheap and delicious street food. Then a long, painful wait at Bigfoot, listening to the pumping tunes from the bar and feeling decidedly tired. And old. 2am came and went without any sign of a bus. Every sound of an engine raised the hopes of a small and tiring group of backpackers. When a truckload of half-naked, drunken adolescents arrived back from a beach party, I feared for a second this was to be our “shuttle.” Fortunately not, but it was 4.30am when it showed up with an even more weary group of backpackers than ourselves. They told us of roadblocks, things set on fire, and mishaps with trees and ditches, where the minivan appeared to come off worse. This was going to be a long journey. But it felt like the right call not to be making it by public transport, or so we thought at the time.

Border #1: Nicaragua to Honduras at the Rio Guasule

Fighting against unnecessary music and cramped conditions, we managed a little sleep before arriving at the border with Honduras at El Guasule. We enjoyed a last authentic Nicaraguan breakfast while the driver took care of formalities before driving across the river to the Honduran side where there was a long queue. The drive through Honduras revealed a country strewn with litter and seemingly in need of some investment. But it was quick. There wasn’t a sign of any blockades, and on our tail was the constant damned presence of the Ticabus.

Border #2: Crossing the Río Goascorán from Honduras to El Salvador

Having reached the border with El Salvador at El Amatillo in good time, we were hopeful we could get to the transport hub and seaside town of La Libertad by nightfall and make a connection to San Salvador. That was until some idiot Australian guy in the group was told by immigration that he’d overstayed his visa. We then had to wait in the heat at some godforsaken border post for 2 HOURS while he messed around sorting it out. He may have lost $175 but we all lost time and patience.

The nightmare journey unexpectedley allowed us to spend a few hours at this tourist resort

We might have made it to San Salvador in one day had we been prepared to wait on dark highways for a connection in the middle of nowhere, but not fancying that in one of the world’s most dangerous countries, we decided to continue as far as the surfer and tourist resort of El Tunco and find a room ASAP.  Unbeknownst to us, the driver had other plans, i.e. driving beyond El Tunco to an expensive and mediocre restaurant on the side of the road (from which he was probably earning commission) with little else nearby.  We couldn’t even walk into town.  This was a new low.  Eventually we reached the town centre, with its abundance of appealing restaurants and accommodation options, angered by the fact we weren’t dropped here earlier.  We took the first affordable room we could find.  After a 16 hr bus ride and almost 39 hrs since first leaving our hostel in Estelí we didn’t bat an eyelid at the fact it had a bat squatting in it (pun intended).

Pelicans in formation over Playa El Tunco

The silver lining was a brief unexpected visit to one of El Salvador’s most popular beach resorts, during which time we paid unsuccessful visits to all three of its cashpoints, had a stroll along the black-sand beach, and fortified ourselves with an expensive coffee and brownie before facing the next bus journey.