San Carlos to El Rama

So off to El Rama today, which is the last stop on the road, before you have to get a boat to the coastal town of Bluefields (named after the Dutch pirate Blewfelt, who raided the Spanish ships in the 1500's full of gold!)

Was an early coach, popped into Heidi's bakery to say bye, ate several pastries cause they are sooo good! Then attempted a new Spanish sentence!

"Por Favor, diga " adiós" a Heidi de mi"

- please say bye To Heidi From me (she wasn't there)...the Señorita understood atleast! So I think I'm getting somewhere...I used the imperative form of "to say"! :) not bad for a week of learning Spanish. Basically every situation I come across I don't have the words or vocabulary for, I look up later and learn how to say what I need!

The bus station was fun. I love how everyone, it seems , in San Carlos ( or maybe Nicaragua, wants to sell you something. They either make food for your breakfast, or sell homemade biscuits for snacks, or have bags of coconut milk, or mango juice, or they sell watches, hats you name it, whatever. Basically everyone is a little shopkeeper, they don't have much other than themselves and what skills they have learnt, but they use them to make food or whatever to sell. I guess most of the inhabitants have had no or little education or opportunities to leave the town for a better life. So all they can do to survive is to sell what they can make.

People waiting for the bus

Sellers with the totally hidden ticket office behind!

Our bus to El Rama

Thing is amongst the chaos of these places is order, things just work themselves out...Also bus travel is amazingly cheap, I thought a bus ticket was 750 cordobas, more like 150 or $6....its a 6 hour journey...

You gotta watch your stuff 

So this nice Spanish couple had their bag stolen on the bus!? They'd got off to go to the toilet...the bus driver almost left without them! We had to shout him to stop, basically they don't give a shit. Then they got back on and the woman was in a panic,her bag was gone. Basically what happened was that loads of food sellers were getting on and off the bus all the time.

You can buy, crisps, fruit, rice and beans, knives, sweets, chocolates...literally just a constant flow of them...

This guy was selling everything from pens to pineapples in his bag!

 At this particular stop loads had got on, and in the confusion they had snatched her bag from the overhead rack. Poor woman, it had her passport, cards and money in...what beggars belief though is why you'd leave that on the bus!? I mean I wouldn't do that in England, let alone in Nicaragua! I mean I don't even 

Met the sweetest, funniest lady on the bus. Funniest thing she said to me was that to be secure she keeps her money down her bra, as if she is going to get mugged she wants to enjoy it :)