December 2008

Before heading to El Salvador we decided to have a short look at Nicaragua’s oldest colonial city, Granada. So we jumped in a bus and got there just in time to have a nice lunch in the sun. The city was quite a mix of beautiful restored colonial buildings and some really slummy areas with dirty houses in really bad shape. The city centre was very beautiful with colourful houses and nice restaurants.

We didn’t waste much time because we only had that afternoon and evening to spend there, so we jumped on this mega touristy horse wagon thingy and took a mega touristy sightseeing tour around town. It was a blast. That’s about all we had time to do, because our bus was leaving the next morning at 5 o’clock from Managua. We agreed with a taxi driver that he would come and pick us up at 3:15 in the morning. And he promised he would be there. No way we wanted to miss our bus from Managua to San Salvador.

At 3:10 we wanted to get out from our hotel in order to catch the taxi. The door was locked and we couldn’t open it. What the hell? The doorman had told us that it would be possible to exit any time of the night...Great. We banged and banged on the doors and walls until finally some guy came to open the door for us. First he had to look for the keys for five minutes, though. Nice. What if there was a fire? Nobody would get out!! These people never seem to stop amazing us...

I guess I don’t even have to tell you that the taxi wasn’t there. And it never came. We started wandering the empty streets. Everything was dark and everything was closed. Greeeeeat. Even our plan B, the fancy hotel at the plaza was all dark and locked. No people or cars, not to even mention taxis could be seen...What to do what to do..... Suddenly we saw the head lights of a car that approached us. A taxi! We couldn’t believe it! Nothing else was seen or heard, and suddenly there was a taxi! We waved happily to stop it, but it just drove past us! Damn it! So we were back in the dark street again with no cars around. What to do what to do.... Suddenly the same taxi came driving again. This time he stopped. Yesssss! He was a bit amazed that we were going all the way to Managua at this time of the night, but agreed to take us. And even though he seemed half blind and didn’t know the way to the bus terminal we arrived just 2 minutes before the bus was to leave for El Salvador.

After riding the bus for a couple of hours new passengers came on the bus. Selma (from the San Blas trip) was one of them. So now we were four. Once in San Salvador, we headed to Playa el Tunco on the Pacific coast. Let the Christmas celebrations begin!

Christmas dinner

Last night we were watching the news and we saw a weird piece of news:
Peculiar things are afoot in Playa el Tunco, El Salvador. There have been reports of small funny looking creatures similar to gnomes moving around in the beach area. We have had many reports of glimpses of red pointy hats and rapid movements in the bushes. These sightings have been linked to various events of mischief and monkey business that have taken place in the recent days all around the Playa el Tunco area. The red hats have especially been associated with disappearing Finlandia Vodka bottles from Christmas dinner tables. Any information concerning these strange incidents will be highly appreciated.

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Summary El Salvador:

SCORE (4-10)
8- Gnomes!

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