4 down, 3 to go…

Central America continues to amaze me.  These last three days have been filled with new experiences.  We decided not to stay in Antigua; instead we caught a pus to Panajachel on the shores of El Lago Atitlan.  It was a good decision.  We got in later in the afternoon and found a quaint hostel called La Posada Sanchez.  It set us back 3 USD a peice and we each had a bed.  An improvement.  I finally found my grilled fish.  That set me back 2.50 USD.  We stayed the night and then the next morning got conned in to a 35 dollar bus ride to San Salvador for Friday morning.  We later found out that we could have taken the same ride for 25 dollars or just taken the local transport for even less.

Thursday we spent the morning in Panajachel and then bused it back to Antigua.  We found a nice place for 2.50 a peice and just hung out.  I found phone and internet cafe that offered phone calls to the states for 10 cents a min and incoming calls for 1 cent a min.  I called my family and tried to get a hold of a few friends in Central America.  I then called my girlfriend Laura and had her call me back.  After the phone call was over I went to pay and they charged me 6 dollars total instead of just over 1 dollar.   They said the rates for incoming calls had changed to 6 cents a min.  I was to tired to argue; it was very classic though.

We woke up early to catch the Bus to Guatemala City and then on to San Salvador.  It went smoothly.  Oddly the bus driver from Guatemala City to San Salvador drove annoyingly slow.  I am used to the chicken buses of Guatemala that would scream around every corner and make three lanes when there was probably not even enough space for two.  In San Salvador we decided to just catch a bus to San Pedro Sula in Honduras and not spend a day there.   We were to leave at 3 but were held back by a snake that had stowed away in the luggage hold of the bus.  I have never seen eight men so excited and afraid at the same time.  It was a small garter snake and it took eight of them twenty minuets to decide who would go in and kill it.  It then took them another 10 minuets to finally kill the thing.  The women in the terminal would scream and run away occasionally when they saw anything move close to the bus.

El Salvador is gorgeous.  It was breathtaking driving though the mountains; it was also surprisingly fresco through the entire country.  The drive was great, I had time to sit and think and not sweat.  We got in to Honduras with out a problem until about 10pm.  There were only a few of us that went all the way to San Pedro Sula, maybe 20.  Well I had dozed off and was dreaming of beautiful beaches and scuba diving when I was awoken by a very loud bang.  I heard glass shatter every where and someone was screaming.  The men on the bus all got up and started to the front of the bus; except Josh.  Like a good ROTC student Josh hit the deck.  He was lying down in his seat thinking that we were taking fire from some unseen enemy.  The bus driver just kept on going. I thought that we had crashed or that the front window had been shattered.  It was neither.  Someone had thrown a stone at the bus window hoping that we would stop the bus so they could then board us.  The bus driver and the ticket man seemed unfazed.  After the attempted robbery I could not sleep.  We got in to the bus station and found a taxi to the Hotel San Jose.

I got up early this morning and did some writing and we then ventured out to find a bank and finalize plans to get to the Island.  On Utila we should be doing some diving and general relaxing.  Although Hurrican Dean might throw our plans for a loop if the winds are to high to boat out there today.  We shall see…

Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama are the last three.  Hopefully my funds will last until the Canal, if not I might go home one country short of the goal.