28th of july

the last day on utila was sheer madness. it was the climax of the carnival, which in our case implied no place where to eat!everything was full, there were fireworks non-stop, so one could barely hear what the neighbour was saying and every restaurant was packed. eventually we found a spot at the place which seemed good and some....1,5h later we even got our dinner. that was definitely the slowest service EVER but hey we got food. the waiter told the people that came after us that of course they could sit down but there was no guarantee they would even get anything to eat. impressive customer service. the carnival takes place every year and hence every year this particular night is insanely busy, but nevertheless no one bothers to get ready for it and e.g. hire some more stuff for the night. the carribean relaxed style :) don´t trouble the trouble before the trouble troubles you.

next morning on sunday at 6am it was time to abandon finally that island. marianne was saying how she was depressed there and i was quite glad to change the scenery too. after all that diving (not all that relevant for me but still) all of us felt quite sick. poor marianne suspects she has an ear infection and her ears are constantly blocked, i got sore throat and sincerely hope it will not progress and result in a full-scale flu. the harbour was full of last-minute-ticket-purchase still drunk or hung-over backpackers but nevertheless all that crowd made it to the ferry and left for la ceiba. from there people´s trips continued to different places. marianne and i grabbed the first bus to where else but san pedro sula (6th time there so far) in order to get a connection to tegucigalpa. that day was long. we were finally in tegucigalpa at some 6pm and it was dark and the place where the bus terminal is situated is dodgy according to lonely planet. not the best set up for two girls with backpacks. so, we stuffed ourselves in a taxi and gave the address of the hotel. 3 min later we were at the hotel. it turned out that the hotel was right besides the bus terminal!:D how typical is this situation in a new city?anyway all we did in tegucigalpa was go out to grab some food for a very good price (after utila everything seems reasonable) and hit the sack. the trip was exhausting but at least it was spiced up by wonderful views. first the carribean tropical climate with its palm trees and ladies selling mango with chile and salt and then gradually turning into hills and forests where the most predominant tree is pinetree. outside tegucigalpa it looked very much like home with rocks and pinetrees and a much cooler air. really nice!well, apart from the views outside the window we did also get entertained by "the devil wears prada" on tv which was hilarious :)

our hotel in tegucigalpa was this matchbox with no windows but with hot water!that did not really matter since all we did there was sleep and once again it was time to wake up like zombies at 5am in order to head to the bus terminal (a different one this time). along with some other backpackers we hopped on the first bus to las manos, which is right on the border with nicaragua and upon our arrival there, there was no other plan but to cross that border. now the question was to get that passport out of my secret pocket inside the pants. the only available bathroom turned out to be this primitive almost bio-toilet (latin america at its best) where all sort of parasites were almost visible with a naked eye. a few minutes later with a passport in one hand and US dollars in the other we approached the officials. 6 dollars in order to leave honduras and 7 dollars for the entry to nicaragua and not even a stamp in the passport!rip off bad time!one could have just crossed that border with the chickens a bit off the main road and no one would have ever found out that we were in honduras before entering nicaragua. however, once in nicaragua it was the whole "where r u going, where r u going, ocotal, esteli, managua quickly quickly, we´re leaving nooooow!" business and before we had time to figure anything out we were already in ocotal where our bags (and we too) were grabbed by those agile ticketsellers as if potatosacks to be thrown right into the next bus to esteli. no time to go to the bathroom or get anything to eat. it is all "we´re leaving riiight noooow" bus schedules here. in this sense there is no difference between honduras and nicaragua. same yellow school buses and loud music, but it´s got its charm too, one has to admit. so now we´re in esteli, a small hopefully safe provincial town in northern nicaragua. our plan for tonight is to visit a bar with sandinista symbols and themes in order to get some real flor de caña. tomorrow it will be the next chunk of our trip: journey to leon.