What an adventure it had been. Let me start by saying that I
don’t have the words to describe my trip to you so I will do my best to give
you at least a sliver of what happened and of what I learned. I think breaking
some of it in parts will be helpful too. So here it goes…
Friday, March 27th Kristie and I headed out at
5:30 am to begin our voyage to the Corn Islands of Nicaragua. After taking two taxis, one 7 hour bus
ride, and a 2 hour water taxi we would end up in Bluefields, Nicaragua just
before dark. Why did we not take a plane you may ask? We paid approximately $21 to travel the way we did across the country, a plane ride cost $150. Uncomfortable,
yes. Cultural experience, yes! Cheaper, oh ya! Kristie and I are all about
taking the rougher, cultural path rather than the money laden tourist track ;)
 |
| Here is a look at our route of the trip that ended up happening. Hope this gives you some perspective as I tell my story through the upcoming posts. |
We chose to travel to Bluefields because this is where the
boat to the Corn Islands departs from. The boat we were to catch was leaving
early the next morning. To our
great delight we rested in Bluefields at a clean and comfortable hostel
($17/room/per night). We woke up early the next morning, as advised, to get in
line for our tickets for the boat.
Tickets were to be sold at 7am, so we got in line
approximately 30 min before. If
there is anything about Nicaragua that I have learned when traveling it is A)
you can’t plan too far ahead, B) order is existent, and C) things always
change! We were about to experience all of those things real soon. The line
that we were standing in was only about 30 people long. It took however 1.5
hours to sell tickets to these people. And then it all happened…when we finally
arrived to the ticket window the lady asked to see our passports. So we pulled
out the copies we had taken with us. She shook her head and asked, “los originales”
(the original ones)? This time
when traveling we didn’t bring our original passports because we had heard that
in Nicaragua traveling with a copy only is accepted. We hadn’t had any problems
thus far without them. The lady then said I could talk to the Immigration
police. So knowing me, I couldn’t simply stop with an initial no. I was ready
and prepared to knock hard on that door until it would open the door! Lol.
A kind and helpful taxi driver drove us around town to find
the office of immigration. No official was there so we headed back to the boat
dock. The lady at the ticket booth did allow us to buy a ticket and said we
could return it if the official rejected us. So we took our chances and got on
the boat. There is when we finally found the Immigration police. He asked us to
show us our passports. We showed him our copies. He too shook his head. I then
began my door knocking. All in Spanish, I explained to him the situation. He
wasn’t having any of it. I explained how we had heard and seen from authorities
in Managua (capital city) that for travelers to carry copies was an ok thing. I
told him next that our friends Rebecca and Auntie Joyce were to be on the Big Corn
Island in the next couples of days and would have our passports on the other
end (this was in fact true). I explained to him that we were volunteers in
Dolores here to serve the country of Nicaragua and that we simply wanted to
enjoy more of Nicaragua. He
started to listen to me when I told him that our friends would have our
passports on the other end. He called his boss over. To the Jefe I also began explaining our situation.
After a long and tiring plead, all in Spanish mind you, neither
official would let us ride the boat. We walked away with our tails between our
legs. All that way, with a boat ticket now in hand, and now we weren’t aloud on
the boat. No Corn Islands?
Our trip would take a soon unexpected turn around because
according to rule C) Things always change!
No comments:
Post a Comment