head south

El Salvdor to Honduras border.

We left El Tunco for San Salvador expecting to find an express bus to Leon, Nicaragua.  When the lady at the counter explained that Logan would need to pay, even though he wouldn´t take a seat because ït´s the policy, we ditched that plan.  Cab ride to another bus terminal, bus already left, cab ride to another terminal that was actually within walking distance but we paid 5 bucks to get to, and we found a bus that was just rolling out of the station.  Ali jumped on with the boys and I loaded the bags underneath while it was in motion.  Comfy aircon.  Boys travelled well. 
 We arrived in Santa Rosa de Lima in the afternoon and it took a while to find a decent hotel.  First of all, no one even knew where a hotel was.  There was however, a Burger King with a playground.  Random. Logan was in heaven.  Definitely not many foreigners roll through this town, and probably none with kids.  We wanted to eat dinner in the central park so that the boys could play and run around, but there were too many beggars so we left.  A lot of people were missing limbs and a lot spoke English - effects of the American funded war.  Sad, sketchy town. Crossed the border into Honduras by 8 am and snapped the above photo from the bridge.  

Leaving Honduras

 Immediately noticable was how clean the country was in comparison to El Salvador.  All the ladies on the minibus loved the boys and shared loads of food with them.  Ali and I hadn´t the time for breakfast yet, but at least the boys were fed.  Snapped the next photo on our way out of Honduras while looking back.  These borders were the hairiest ones of the trip.  At least 15 touts swarmed our minibus and started unlashing our bags from the top of the bus asking if we want taxis to the border.  Our driver got out and yelled at them.  We haven´t heard anyone scream in Central America yet since everyone is so chill.  We repeatedly said no to them.  Logan caught the vibe and followed up with his own no´s.  Awesome. We walked the border in the heat with a stroller and style.  The guards hadn´t seen this before. The Family of Four from Canada, they said.  We chicken bussed it from here to Leon.



border town bus terminal in Nicaragua



Despite the loud Latino beats, a nap on the chicken bus

Nicaragua, in contrast, looked very dirty, but man, the people are very friendly.  When you get doing something - whatever that thing is - for a while, it becomes routine, so you think it´s normal.  But then you realize there is no such thing as normal, only our different routines.  We love our routines so much that we think they are normal to have.  We are moving south, closer to the more affluent parts of Central America and it broke our routine.  It´s not that people were all triste like a French mime back in El Salvador, but just that they didn´t have that extra...what the French call: ¨I don´t know what¨  Here in Nicaragua they have the ¨I don´t know what.¨ 
The boys have officially been trained as travellers.  They know how and when to sleep on buses, for the most part.  We also know when to get them on a bus, and how to keep them amused on a bus and which snacks to keep in the bag.  Sleeping backpackers? how do they even complain about a bus ride?  We sometimes want to shake them and explain to them that they DON´T KNOW, because they are not travelling with a child, nor child(ren). Maybe add some fire and brimstone for emphasis.

We are now in Leon, Nicaragua.  A beautiful colonial town that is clean, has friendly people and working Internet - finally!  It´s like an even cleaner version of Antigua.  At this point, I think we could for sure maybe go around the world with these boys.