Today was a day when things started to finally flow. My favourite part of travelling is
when you let go of control and the the magic happens. I have not
been able to do this on this trip because I've been so stressed out about having a child
with me - but today, more through necessity than choice, I let go and it happened.
I have run out of cash and can't pay for anything with a card in the village where we are
staying, so had to go the the Island's main town, Moyagalpa. I thought there was a bus at
7am so we got up and ready for that. Turns out the bus is at 9:20. Now two hours is not a
lot of time to kill when you're an adult travelling solo, but with a 2 (and a half) year
old, it is an age. Plus keeping R off the beach and sand ready for our trip would have been
impossible - so I decided we would hitchhike.
We left at 7 and the first vehicle that passed us was at 7:35. Luckily we had two howler
monkeys playing across the road to entertain us. Fifteen minutes later the second vehicle
passed and it was a bus heading to a part of the island where we could transfer, so we
jumped on. You could definitely compare this bus to trying to get on a London tube at 8am
but the pushchair was thrown on top and somehow space was made and since I had a toddler
someone even gave up their seat for us. Thirty minutes later we were deposited at a very
strange looking bus shelter. There was some trash on the floor and R asked me why people
drop rubbish. I explained that it was because they were too lazy to get to a bin and two
French girls in the shelter nodded their approval at my answer. Another thirty minutes
after that a second bus came. R behaved perfectly throughout (if you count climbing on
walls and covering yourself in dirt as perfect behaviour).
When the second bus came. his little face lit up as it was one of the American school bus
type vehicles. He has been playing with toy versions of this since he was little and was
amazed to see real ones when we got to Nicaragua. So to get to go in one today was pretty
much like the return of Christmas.
It took us an hour to get to Moyagalpa (I think we only travelled about 20km but it took 2
hours) and when we arrived we went for breakfast. I thought I'd treat us so I ordered R
peanut butter on toast and a banana smoothie while I had granola and yoghurt. He necked
most of his smoothie (refusing point blank to share it even though it was far too big for
him to finish) and then only ate a tiny piece of toast. very frustrating.
Then we went to the bank. After a 15 minute wait, I was told I couldn't get any money out -
except from the ATM (which wouldn't give me any). I couldn't understand the reason why. So
I went to a second bank. Same scenario. They said I had to contact my bank. But I spoke
to my bank before I left and they knew I was going away and I have funds so there was no
need for this. I was getting desperate and quite frightened at the thought that we weren't
going to be able to get any money. I could feel anxiety but I was basically working it
becuase I knew it would get us more help at the banks. Anyhow, it turned out to be
unneccesary because the third bank gave us money 'no dramas'. And even smiled.
There were no travel agencies as such in the town but I asked a few different people about
options for the journey back to San Jose in Costa Rica, from where we fly home. I can
confirm it is impossible to get a bus ticket from Nicaragua to San Jose from the island -
even online. So my option was to get a boat (one hour) then travel 15 minutes to the next
town to try to find a kiosk that might or might not be open and might or might not sell
advance tickets for the bus. Then obvs the same return journey would have been necessary.
Now R was playing ball up to this point but I didn't know when that might stop.
My other option, when we leave the island, is to take the boat, then a taxi to the frontier
(sounds so much better than border), walk through the border, then try to get a bus to San
Jose - and two buses may be required. It looks inevitable that this will be the way we go.
Not ideal, not as comfortable as one bus, but seems like the path of least resistance. I
will make sure we set out very early from the island.
With that decided, we got on the first bus out of Moyagalpa which was vaguely heading in the
direction of 'home'. (Poor R is very confused about the concept of 'home' right now). R was eating an apple which he less than half finished. I sat there with the remainder in my hand and worked out that the apple cost twice the bus fare. In London, an apple is maybe a third of a bus fare, and elsewhere in the UK, a fifth - so apples must be relatively expensive for people here. So rather than chuck it, I risked offending a woman who was holding a girl about the same age as R - and offered her the remainder of the apple. She took it with a big smile and said thanks.
There were only 2 other tourists on the bus but they happened to sit next to us. When the
ticket collector came (yes they have ticket collectors and drivers here), the Spanish guy
next to me said they want to go to Ojos de Agua. Now as luck would have it, we had walked
there yesterday from our hostel, so I knew it was only just over 3km from our place. I had
also slightly had it in mind to go back there today so I asked for a ticket to the same.
One hour later, the four of us got off the bus and were told it was a half hour walk, but at
least I had company other than R. We worked up a good sweat on the way but also had a good
chat about life, the universe and the yellow lines in the middle of the road, which R has
developed an obsession with. He keeps asking me what it's for and what it does and why it's
there. So at least I got to enjoy answering with two other adults. And they got the joy of
the mind of a 2 year old. They laughed when I told them R was worried we were going to wake
the 'sleeping' volcanoes too.
We got to the gorgeous pools again and R and I had a good swim though he was a bit less
confident than yesterday. Then we had a late lunch and R got so angry when I tried to take one of his chips that he wet himself.
Back home, R went to play with his beach buddy amigas and I was finally able to speak to Eva, who is now on the island, on
the phone. She and her friend Dan came up on a motorbike to join us for dinner.
A quick note: I highly recommend the Viber app. You can make calls to any number in the
world from anywhere in the world, if you're on wifi and it costs around 1p / minute. It
also seems to not need as strong a signal as Skype does to work.
R spent the last of his energy chasing the girls up and down the beach and was quite clingy
when Eva and Dan arrived. I hope this is because he is tired and not because it is the
first time I've had decent adult company in his presence in a while.
They have invited us to go and stay with them in a community style living space so tomorrow
morning we are going to head down there. There is no internet at the place, only 1km away
so it may be I can't /won't post for the next few days as just getting the posts up takes me
about an hour.
NOTE ON YESTERDAY'S POST: My mum can access the back end of the site and she retrieved my lost post and posted it. So ironically, the 'same, same but different' post is up twice - but is same, same but different each time. Thanks mum.