Thursday 29th August
We set the alarm for 5.45am this morning and were out walking around the street waiting for a taxi to come past by 6.30. It didn't take long at all, and he seemed like a nice guy which is rare for taxi drivers anywhere I suppose let alone in the places we've been. He gave us a good price straight away and had his daughter in the front seat who he dropped off at school on the way.
He got us right to where we needed to be, and we were on a micro bus heading on our way to Managua by 7am. It was nice to be on a microbus and not the chicken bus for our last journey in Nicaragua. I don't think I have explained much what the chicken buses are like despite us being on them several times over the last couple of weeks. They're typically the public buses the locals use, but they're old school buses from the USA from the look of them. They're the big yellow ones, and inside they often have old school stickers on the walls, signs up saying about the proper behaviour expected from the kids on the journey, and on some there has even still been the signs up at the front saying the name of the driver who drove it as a school bus. They seem like they're the ones that should have been taken to the scrap yard, with various holes here and there and a lot of rust. You catch them at "bus terminals" or just on the street if you see one coming past. You can just about get your big rucksack inside if you're early enough to get space, if not then they go up on the top which is a bad idea because 9/10 times something will go missing out of it. You don't pay before you get on, there a man with the job of hanging out of the door shouting the name of where it's going over and over again, and he also comes in time to collect money. Some of them are good and charge you only what they should, others seem to feel because you're a tourist they can get away with charging extra. You also get various people jumping on for a ride for a couple of stops selling various bits of weird looking food or drinks in plastic bags with straws. They've not been so bad, the windows are always open so you get a good breeze even though they're packed but its always calmer in the micro vans.
Liam was worried because of the trouble we had had the last time in Managua but I was set for a fight with anybody who tried to so much as try and rip us off this time!
An hour and a half later we were pulling into the bus terminal and we were set upon before the van had even stopped. We stick out like a sore thumb and they latch onto you as soon as the bus pulls in, they were shouting at us " taxi taxi" which we're used to now because you get hassled everywhere, but this time I had people reaching through the window and grabbing my arm as the bus was still moving. That didn't put them in my good books and I was already ready for trouble because of Liam being so nervous.
I promptly ignored the first 7 or 8 people without so much as looking at them even though they were grabbing and hassling. I saw Liam being harassed by one guy who was showing an ID,..which to be honest means nothing, they all have fake ones but at least he was putting more effort into looking legitimate so we gave him that! Because we had started engaging he was dragging us off and ignoring my questioning in poor spanish as to how much he was charging, after my 3rd time asking and still evading I grabbed HIS arm and demanded he answer me! 200 cordobes he replied. To which I adamantly refused and told him our price, making sure he understood I meant for 2 people not for just 1, and to my amazement he agreed quite quickly although didn't look that happy. He got us there safely and gave us the correct change so all in all we managed ok and seem to be managing ok with our limited Spanish.
Once in the airport it was the usual process along with a nasty processed breakfast and spent the last of our nica money on a souvenir and duty free m&ms!
and we were on the plane for the first flight of the day. It was about 2 and a half hours up to Miami for our connection, and the view going over Miami was great! It's like a little water city from above, lots of little water channels reaching out through the green like bolts of lightning. And long roads which look like just single roads reaching out to little islands across the sea. Then we went over the city and that was just as great, all squared and organised, with lovely looking houses with pools dotted about and palm trees.
The process of getting off that plane and back through customs was a drag but we managed it and had an hour or so to wait so found food and wandered about. We went up to have a go on the sky train which is like a monorail going from one end of the airport to the other so we could walk all the way back up. Miami airport is nice, it's big and got quite a lot to look at and keep you busy wandering about.
By the time we were back at our gate it was boarding time and we were on the plane and taking off by 8pm. On the way down the run way we saw the most amazing storm cloud, Liam thought it was was smoke to begin with because it was a big cloud sort or rising from the ground up and spreading out. Then we saw lightning bolts inside it, it was just unbelievable! It looked good when we were up in the air too because the sun was just setting making the skyline a brilliant bright orange as a back drop to the cloud and lightning.
After a fairly unremarkable hour and a half we were landing in cancun. The whole process of getting our bags and all that stuff took some time, then it was fun getting out because you had to press a button and it randomly came up with a green light or a red light. If it was green you could go if it was red you got your bag checked. We were both green, the person front was red. Then on top of that we had 45 minutes to wait for our bus into the centre. By the time we had got into the centre and got a taxi to our hotel it was around 11.30pm, we had been bitten to bits by mosquitos again, and by the time we had settled in and actually got into bed it was probably around 1.30am so we were both asleep very soon after the lights went out.
