Today we said goodbye to my parents and sisters early in the morning. Their bus came at 9:00. We stayed in the house a little while after they left and then called a taxi to take us to our next destination. The house phone was no longer working but fortunately the cell phone my parents gave us still was. (Thank you so much for that!) After a few minutes the taxi arrived and we started our journey.
The first stop we needed to make was to the Tica Bus terminal. We decided to pay more and have a nice, safe ride to Guatemala City and no problems with the border crossing by taking the Tica Bus. We were successful in buying open tickets because we weren't sure when exactly we were going to be back to San Salvador to take the trip but with the open tickets we could schedule anytime. We then quickly hurried to our next destination: Terminal de Occidentes where we caught a public "chicken" bus to Sosonate. This first bus was actually an "especial" and for $1.25 per person, it was well worth it. The seats were comfortable each one equipped with A/C and a light and they even played a movie on the way. Although the only TV was in the front and we were too far away to see it. But that didn't matter to me as I slept almost the entire bus ride anyway. But overall the bus ride was much more reminiscent of a plane ride and it was very comfortable.
One weird and kind of fun thing about the buses is that vendors would come on and sell things, sometimes presenting their goods at the front of the bus and then walking down the aisle selling them. Other times just shouting the prices and what they're selling as they walk towards the back of the bus. Often they make two trips- to the back and then to the front and finally to the back again where at the next stop sign or light they hop off.
That first bus had vendors selling water, soda, candied nuts, cashews, and even headphones. The boy sitting next to me (I wasn't able to sit next to Austin unfortunately) bought a pair. After a couple of hours we arrived at Sosonate. From there we caught another but 0 this time $1.00 per person to take us the rest of the way to Juayua (why-yoo-uh). This second bus was a completely different experience. The inside looked like a school bus with the same flat brown seats and windows that slid down from the top that I remember from elementary school. The seeming only renovation besides the paint job was the racks that were installed on the ceiling to put any carry-on items you had, assuming you were willing to let them out of your hands.
Austin and I were the last two people on the bus and with every seat filled with two and many with three people, we didn't know where to go. So we walked to the back of the bus, our huge packs on our backs, and found, right before the bench seat against the rear wall, a bunch of open floor space. So we dropped our packs and just stood by them, holding onto the ceiling racks for support. The bus driver looked back and shouted at us then. Not understanding what he was saying, I could only assume he wanted us to find seats. I looked all around and a tiny old Central American grandmother scooted over and patted her hand on a space she had made next to her. I went over and sat down, thanking her. Austin just squatted down next to the packs and the bus took off.
The bus was bumpy and hot and crowded. It made occasional stops, mostly to let people off and near the end of the ride, space cleared enough on the back bench that Austin was able to sit next to me. Finally, though, we arrived in Juayua. We knew where we wanted to go: Hostel Casa Mazeta and their website had directions on how to walk there from the bus stop. And after a mile of walking, we found it. We checked in, put our bags in our lockers, checked out the dorm room we would be sleeping in, and then immediately set off to explore the town. First stop: Food.
The hostel had a guide book of places to go, tours to take, places to eat at and such, but we just followed our noses and eventually wound up at a small pupuseria called . With our broken Spanish we managed to order 4 pupusas. Two with beans and cheese and two with chicken and cheese. They were the best pupusas either of us had ever had. And we've both had a fair amount of pupusa experience. That delicious meal in our bellies, we set off to explore more of the town. There wasn't that much to see. There were two grocery stores, a few convince stores and a bunch of pharmacies. Eventually the day wound down and we decided to head back to the hostel to rest and plan our next day.
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