Day 9

Ali on the bus

We were up, had breakfast and were checked out of the room by 8:00.  The bus didn't leave until 10:35 but we couldn't buy tickets in advance so we decided to get there early.  And the hotel bus only leaves at set times so we had to go even earlier.  It only took the bus 20 minutes to get to the bus terminal so we were there well in advance.  It was like a tiny airport and you had to go through security and then sit in the holding area.  When they announced that they were boarding, you had to line up in the correct row according to your seat number.  As we boarded the bus were were given a drink and a bag of chip each.  Once we were all on the bus I looked around and counted 10 people.  Ten people on this huge bus.  I knew we had to stop somewhere so I thought more people would get on.  We did stop, at the airport, and everyone got off.  It was only us four on this huge bus all the way to Tela!!  And we were worried that we wouldn't get seats!

A River near SPS

I liked the journey on the bus as I got to see more of the country.  We passed small towns and plantations, banana and some sort of palm trees. I think they grow a fruit on the palms but I am not sure what. We also saw lots of little farms. The kids liked the bus because there was a movie.  It took us about 2 hours to get to Tela and a 10 minute taxi ride to the hotel. 

 

The countryside

A small town

We are staying in a small hotel called Grissy's.  The rooms are huge and ours has a small kitchen.  The bath is also very big which is a welcome change from the small one at the last hotel.  The pool is small but we are steps away from the beach.

We had lunch and headed to town for grocery shopping.  Another welcome change is a taxi driver who speaks English.  No more struggling with broken Spanish to explain where we need to go.

The shopping store was another experience.  It was small, crowded and dark.  There were grocery carts full of products to be loaded on shelves blocking the aisles and no carts for customers.  There were huge lines at the tills and blaring rock music.  You could hardly hear each other because of the music.  We were only there 30 minutes and that was enough.

Next was the pool.  It is very small and Ricardo can only use a tiny piece because most of it is too deep.  He has to spend most of the time on the stairs.  He did put his whole face in the water today which was a big step.

I am looking forward to spending some time on the beach tomorrow.