SAILORS TRAVELLING BY BUS

TICA BUS, owned by Costa Rica is an excellent means of long distance transportation in Central America; from Mexico all the way to Panama, the route uses #1 Highway.  Some of us know that highway starts in Lund, BC as Highway #101 and ends at the Panama Canal.  They feed you and even offer a discount to stay at their hotels.

ItWe have bought our return tickets to San Jose, Costa Rica leaving here this friday, to travel to San Salvador City and  reserved a room at Hotel Meson de Marie in  Colonia San Bonito  $32.00  USD for a double room with bath and TV and a wake up call , as we leave at 2:00 am Saturday morning  December 10th, 2011.  My day trip to the big city yesterday was successful in many ways, but most importantly, I confirmed all of this.  You,may ask what is the concern???  Well, here in the Americas all is not always as it appears!
We initially found the Terminal address on line and made  our first trip to the city last week, by local bus got off at the South Terminal taking a taxi to the inner "old" city.  That trip was rather entertaining with this fella, as many do, got on at a stop...through the front door -all wanting to sell you something.  When they are done out the back door they go at the appropriate stop. Be it, cold drinks, cut up fruit, papussas  a political speech or a spiritual talk or in this case a comedy act.  He was pretty funny!  Or at least he sounded funny. LOL  He spoke Spanish of course and upon noticing the gringos: Claes and I added an intro and a few sentences to advise us that today he was wanting to talk with us about Mother-in-laws.  He also included an old Beatles song, which I of course joined in to sing!  He spoke a few times about how God is all we need.  He ended his performance with a gracious bow and then held out his hand for change!   It was great!  You never know what will happen on the local buses????  The gringos call them  The Chicken Bus!!  Anxious to see what the Tica Bus will offer..........and will let you know as we go.

To finish my thought on things are not always what the seem.  We were in the process of getting our tickets and of course the agent spoke no English.  We managed to understand his question of did we want a return ticket and we very politely said not "sulemente".  He continued to persist and finally a young tall fella behind us excused himself and advised us that he was trying to tell us that with a one way ticket we would not be allowed into Costa Rica!   LOL  Of course we thanked him profusely and asked for round tickets.  (Yet another example of us continually being guided!)  Upon returning to the bus we both agreed that we did not really want to spend the night in downtown OLD San Salvador and proceeded to find out that there was another terminal..........but the question was:  were our tickets valid there????  Thus the trip yesterday................so all is well.  We are ready to pack!