We pulled out soon after 5 with our teaching supplies and personal luggage aboard the Toyota 15 passenger van . The road to Rama (major shipping port of Nica- altho not on an ocean, but a river) was quite good. This road has been under construction for years and the first portion of it is smooth and like most good roads in the U.S.
At one point just before a bridge, we encountered 8 really high speed bumps and of course there were 8 on the far side of the bridge. They do have "Slow/Despacio" signs, but the speed bumps MAKE people slow down. We saw these in small towns and in zona escolar (school zones) Sure slows the traffic down to protect pedestrians. Along this road there were vendor booths (small shops), but most were not open when we drove by, too early.
As the sun came up, the terrain looked lots like Alpine, Tx, with mountains in the distance and scrub brush (not lush and tropical as I expected) Horses and goats were staked to the road "right of way" to "mow" the high grass. We saw pigs, cattle, horses, goats, chickens. We saw lots of cell towers and I had decent reception most of the way to Rama.
My phone kept bouncing between two carriers- Claro and Moviestar, and most of the time there was service.
We took a rest stop at a town named Thontales where we got out and stretched and used the facilities. I bought "corn cookies" which were really crisp and not at all sweet. A couple of the guys got coffee.
Soon after we got back on the road, we encountered a herd of cattle walking slowly down the middle of the road. We had to wait til the herders could get them to the side of the road.
This happened two different times- I wonder if they ever get run over when a person in a hurry doesn't want to wait for them to shuffle along.
I gave the guys some pamphlets we use for our community outreach that needed folding and in no time they were done-- gave us all something to do and kept Marjory and me from having to fold them all by ourselves.
Yovett was in contact with Simon the leader at Orinoco and they needed some parts from Rama so when we got there we stopped at the ferreteria (hardware store) and got what was needed.
At Rama the good road (it had been under construction somewhat, but not bad) ENDED. From here on we drove on a dirt trail beside major construction. Trucks continuously brought in rock to be spread on the road and they didn't seem to care if a vehicle was in the way or not.
The road to Rama was 3/4 of the way to our destination, but only 1/2 of the time traveled on the trip because of the condition of the "road". The driver was holding steady at 20 km per hour speed which is about 12.5 mph. We dodged boulders in the road and had to veer off into the mud to get out of the way of the rock trucks. The driver was white knuckled on this stretch of road and he was probably thinking that he was glad he'd have some daylight for his return trip as well. By the time darkness fell, the van would be well back into the "good" road. Several times we had to sit and wait for the rock trucks to dump their cargo (one time 10 minutes) before proceeding. In one place the lanes were marked by large rocks laid out in a line down the road.
When this road is finally finished from Managua to the eastern part of Nicaragua, there should be much more infrastructure provided to the east. Who knows, they might just get use of the national postal system. It is predicted that the "opening up of the east" will bring greater prosperity to this part of Nicaragua-- but at what cost?
Part of our travel was through a palm oil plant-- we saw the "palm fruit/berries" and people harvesting them.
We arrived at the Green Lodge about 2:15 and unloaded and our drivers began their journey back. This trip across country cost us $350 US for 6 of us and our luggage.
This is the mural on the side of the hotel in PearlLagoon.
Supper was at Casa Ulrich, run by a European (maybe German) where many people from all over the world gather.
A really LONG day-- tomorrow we'll get to Orinoco. Still no word about our stuff trapped in customs in Managua.
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