Feel the dusty wind in our hair...

Tuesday morning we dawdled around Granada, saying goodbye to families and running some last minute errands. Around noon, we hopped on a bus (as best as we could hop with our 30 lb backpacks) headed to Managua. In Managua we had to take a taxi to one of the 40 million bus stations to catch a bus to Matagalpa. I love Nicaraguan taxi drivers. They are always excited to talk to passangers...full of questions and stories. This ride was long enought that we got his whole life story (he was educated until 6th grade and has been working as a welder and taxi driver ever since He loves talking about religion and politics and spending time with his family.)
We jumped on the big yellow school bus (that poses as public busses in Central America) heading North toward Matagalpa. Jade, our friend who studied abroad with us, is stationed out in the boonies with the Peace Corps. She didn´t have cell phone service so we couldn´t get ahold of her when we got there but we had planned to meet her the next morning at 8am. So, we found a decent place for $6 each, ate a wonderful dinner of Vigaron (fried pig skin with cabbage and tomatoes), fresh fruit juice and patacones (fried plaintains) all for $3. I passed out that night of pure exhaustion.
Wednesday morning, we met up with Jade and had breakfast (gallo pinto, eggs and spongie cheese). Matagalpa is in the middle of coffee country so we had an awesome cup of joe. We visited an organic chocolate factory, ate a wonderful Nicaraguan lunch (rice, beans, and meat) and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the hotel and catching up with Jade. Ashley and I wanted to see Jade´s community but she needed a vacation away from it all so we were there to help!
That night we got all pretty and went out for a nice Italian dinner (you´d think all we do here is eat!) We had pizza and wine. Num.
Today, we all got up and went out to find pancakes for breakfast. We found a place that had a few pancakes mixed with the rest of the Nicaraguan breakfast (rice, beans, eggs, fresh fruit) and we ate a feast all for $1.50. We are pretty spoiled!
By then it was 9am so Ashley and I packed up and hitched a bus to Esteli to hitch another bus to Somoto to hitch another bus to El Espino to cross the boarder into Honduras. (I will tell you my conclusion about the boarder later.) On the other side of the boarder we caught a bus to the boarder town called San Marcos where we hitched a bus to Chuloteca, a bigger Honduran town inbetween Nicaragua and El Salvador. By that time it was 5pm and Ashley and I were exhausted! We asked around for a cheap hostel, dropped off our stuff and went to find a hamburger and coke(we usually don´t crave U.S. food but we did today!) We tried to find a local place but all they had was chicken so we ended up going to a Wendy´s. It was a blessing in disguise because the Wendy´s was air conditioned and had a CLEAN BATHROOM!!! We spend an hour or two chatting, eating, enjoying being cool and dry.
My conclusions about boarder crossings.
Nicaragua\Costa Rican boarder (Pacific side) - busy but easy to get through (when its not raining)
Costa Rica\Panama boarder (Pacific side) - ridiculously busy and annoying as hell. They made my whole bus line up 3 times for different things like passport stamps and customs. It took 5 hours and they didn´t even look throught people´s bags. Its all about the motion but they don´t actually do anything.
Costa Rica\Panama boarder (Atlantic side) - fricking sweek. There is no line nor customs. The traffic is one way at a time over an old wooden bridge. Most people walk it which takes extreme balance (especially with hicking backpacks on) because there are wooden planks missing in many places.
Nicaragua\Hondura boarder (Pacific side) - amazingly quick. No line. Some Hondurans from our bus got off early and snuck across the boarder...not sure why because Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua have a boarder agreement called los cuatro. I´ll have to look into that.

Tomorrow we are off early in the morning to make it to Perkin, El Salvador. There, we will pay our respects to the millions who died in the Salvadorian civil war, especially those who died in the massacre in El Mozote. After that, we are off to scuba dive in the Bay Islands on the carribean coast. Traveling is going well.

I miss Nicaragua already. My soul feels good there. I know that I will live in Granada someday. I feel very much at peace with Fran. He helped me realized that we are not in love with each other anymore. He has matured a lot. I hung out with him for one night and got COMPLETE CLOSURE!! I realized that I was holding on to him to hold on to my dream of living in Granada. I love them both seperately but he signified my dream to always return to Granada. Now, I can love them both seperetly. I know that Fran and I are not meant to be together ( I can do better because I´ve learned that ALL Nicaraguans lie...even the good ones!) I will be able to return to Nicaragua without lusting for him. He is not my Nicaragua anymore. Complete closure!
I am ready for a few more weeks of Central American adventure. I´m also ready to dream of my future plans and make them happen.