a bus and a boat...

San Carlos: see the gringos. see the gringos mill around. what will they do next?
the buses all had these fancy window decorations...
we needed to catch the bus to make our connection to the next bus that would take us to Rama.
ta da! here it is. looks road worthy enough, so we pile in.
do we know what to expect? no, not really. I didn't really get pictures that could tell about that bus ride. vendors came in the bus and sold their wares...you could buy watches, plates of food, newspapers, ice cream, chips & snacks... all this while people are trying to board the bus. finally we take off, stopping randomly throughout the next 6 hour ride to load and unload, both people and wares. toward dusk, they load vats of homemade cheese on top of the bus. later i think it has started to rain lightly...no, it's milk from the cheese vats, dripping and blowing into my open window. (hey! people pay big bucks for milk baths at the spa!!! i got mine for the price of a bus ticket!) finally the bus lets us off, the driver shows us the next bus stop just down the road. we set off and the bus roars off. we get to the bus stop and there is a little stand selling pop and snacks. No, they say. our bus came through 10 minute ago. we sit around trying to decide what to do. the next bus is in 2 hours. after a half an hour, Dale says maybe this is a divine appointment. a taxi pulls up and the driver yells out the window: "Rama?" Exactly where we need to go. Clint says get in... luggage in the trunk, dale in the front, 5 of us in the back seat, the taxi driver's buddy sitting on the outside of the back end. Yes, we are stacked in the back seat. off we go for a 2 hour,very bumpy ride, with a couple of stops...one stop is to let the buddy off the back end, one stop is to let the smoking brakes cool off. at last, we arrive in Rama. the taxi driver pulls up to the gate of a hotel and honks. they open the gate and check us into our rooms at "the house of dreams". it's late but construction starts on the hotel in the early morning hours. so we get up and get ready to go. we all have headaches from the bumpy, cramped ride the night before and from the insecticide they sprayed in the rooms right before we went inside them.
we go down to the boat dock in Rama and got breakfast, boat tickets, and COFFEE!
it's time to load, so we climb down to the boat. we're all thinking that it's a nice big boat with a roof over the sitting area.... No, that's not our boat! it's the little one over there...
we pile in with the locals. no roof but it's cloudy with a life-saving breeze.
it's an uneventful and beautiful 2 hour ride to Bluefields.
we step out of our little water transport onto docks bustling with activity. we are met by pastor henry and pastor larry...
farewell, small Sea Master. time to get on board the cargo ship, the Captain D, which will take us out into the ocean to the Corn Islands. it's 6 hour cruise up the mouth of the river and across the ocean to the islands.
stay tuned for the continuing saga of the gringos in Nicaragua...