I still have a few blog posts to come from Ecuador, but I have already crossed over the border to Peru. Just had to tell you about that epic trip! Yes, I finally sat down the other day and figured out a plan for Peru after procrastinating about it for a long time. I knew I…
One would think that taking a collectivo taxi (ie a taxi that follows a fixed route but takes more than one passenger) from Trinidad – Viñales would be faster than taking the bus. One could also be very, very wrong! I was the last person to be collected from my Casa Particular in Trinidad and…
There are no chicken buses in Cuba. There are many forms of transportation, but not a single chicken bus – I guess the United States embargoed the sale of their old school buses along with everything else. That being said, foreigners are very limited in which long-distance public transport they can actually take – and…
As I leave Nicaragua for El Salvador, some final Nicaraguan public transport observations. Micros I actually promised a blog post about this ages ago and am now finally getting around to it. On certain routes in Nicaragua (most notably around the Pueblos Blancos where La Mariposa Spanish School and Eco-Hotel is located) there are not…
I mentioned in my post about surviving a chicken bus trip that Nicaraguan bus drivers have a soft spot for either latin romantica or 80’s power ballads. To give you an indication of what I’m talking about, here’s the actual playlist for the 2 hour bus trip from Rivas to Managua (yes, I sat…
Central America is well renowned for its “chicken buses”, essentially old, worn-out school buses from the US that get a second lease on life transporting the good folk of Central America and their produce (including animals, hence the name) from one place to another. They are all dilapidated (though brightly coloured) without any creature…
My last night on the Río San Juan was spent in luxury in San Carlos – I had air-conditioning! Lapped that up for as long as I could (11:30am the next morning) and then headed out to San Carlos airport to catch my La Costeña flight to Ometepe. The airport building was quite literally a…
My original plan in coming to the Río San Juan was to travel the whole length of the river from San Carlos to San Juan del Norte (alternatively known as San Juan de Nicaragua or Greytown). What I didn’t count on was that after 3 years of drought, and at the end of summer, both…
Getting around in Nicaragua is both easy and difficult. What is easy: there is public transport to pretty much everywhere and it is really cheap What is difficult: said public transport is slow as a wet week crowded as sardines in a tin without aircon (Nicaragua is a hot country, especially in April) without a bathroom (or bathroom…