Tica Bus takes us from Managua, Nicaragua to San Salvador, El Salvador

Pictures coming soon… still posting on the run.
By this point, we’re pretty familiar with the bus system.  We like it, it´s a fun and inexpensive way to get around.

Today, our Ticabus (Ticabus is a bus company operating from Mexico to Panama)  took us from Managua, Nicaragua to San Salvador, El Salvador.  We got to Managua after another bus ride (on a locally owned express bus) from Granada to Managua (about an hour).

We arrived at the Tica Bus terminal 45 minutes early, as instructed.  However, our bus arrived 2 hours late.

To be fair, this is the first time that a scheduled bus has been late departing (at least one that we´ve been on).  Oh well.

After the Ticabus finally came, we got on.  Then we sat there for the next 11 hours.

Border crossings were interesting this time.  We never had to get off the bus.

For this trip, we crossed out of Nicaragua, and into Honduras.  At this border, the Honduras agent got on the bus and looked at all of our passports. No problem.

But then they started questioning two people. The questioning took awhile, but they were eventually allowed back on the bus (30 minutes later).

Then, when it was time to leave Honduras, and cross into El Salvador, the Honduras agent got on the bus to check us out.

Again, the same two people were questioned extensively. After another 30 minutes, they were allowed back on the bus. This means that we were now an hour late (in addition to the *late* leaving from Managua) already.

We found it odd and relieving that we didn´t have to get off the bus, and have our bags checked, or put in a cage to be checked out, or have the bus get sanitized (this actually happened while passing from Costa Rica into Nicaragua).

We crossed from Honduras into El Salvador, still never having left the safety and comfort of our ejecutivo ride on the Ticabus.

The El Salvador agents did just about the same thing.

This meant no stamp in our passports from El Salvador.

This time, however, Jonathan and I were rather concerned. We are planning on staying in El Salvador for a little bit, but the bus is going straight through, without us having stamps in our passports.

Does this mean we just entered El Salvador as illegal aliens???? Great….

We decide that there´s nothing we can really do about it. The El Salvador border officials are getting off the bus, and the bus is already driving off.

Finally, after watching 2 very violent movies (the executive class busses have TVs), we arrive in San Salvador. It´s 12:30am, and we were supposed to get here at 9:00pm.

No late night partying for us…we´re off to the hotel to sleep so we can have a day of seeing El Salvador tomorrow!

PS – Just like in Panama, the currency for El Salvador is the US Dollar. It´s strange to be spending in dollars again, and also to know that many of the people using this currency here in El Salvador will never know how to take advantage of opportunity so that they might see the places that are depicted on the bills they will use their whole lives…

Related posts:

1. Ticabus Travel: San Jose, Costa Rica to Managua / Granada, Nicaragua on Ticabus
2. Thoughts From El Salvador
3. Novo Apart Hotel in San Salvador, El Salvador
4. Thoughts From El Salvador (2)
5. Podcast #4: San Jose to Granada, Nicaragua