When Traveling Freaking SUCKS
Traveling is all roses...
Beautiful beaches, stunning mountain side, erupting volcanoes, scuba diving adventures, breath-taking sunsets, fantastic stories, and amazing new friends... all things you will see when scrolling through my blog or instagram.
It's all smiles, laughter and glamour..
I'm living the dream.. I actually am
But do not be fooled, I go through A LOT of SH*T
Travel is hard I've been stranded on the side of the road more times than I can count from broken down busses, lied too, crammed into the back of a collectivo van, cat called, stuck for hours in line at bus terminals, exhaustion like I've never known, slept with mosquitos, stolen from and ripped off.. A LOT.
I have had horrendous days on the road.. wouldn't know that from my instagram.. but today, TODAY we are going to talk about it. Because I think it is important to point out that it's not all rainbows and waterfalls.
My worst experience on the road (so far)I was gutted to leave Roatan. It was saying goodbye to a mini life, and a new found romance. I was empty, tired and emotionless, a shell if you will.
I am going to call this weird state of mine... #ShellOfaHuman.
It plays an important role.
SO, me and my #ShellOfaHuman self were leaving Roatan for Nicaragua.
The story I am about to tell... it could have been 100% avoided. I am completely aware of this. However, you live and you learn... right?
I stayed in Roatan longer than I was supposed too. In turn, letting my 90 day visa expire and neglecting to make my way to immigration to extend it. While I would like to totally just blame that on AD... for distracting me..
...it was totally my fault.
I wasn't thinking. Sigh.
TUESDAY 5 AMI left Roatan before sunrise. The cab dropped me off at the ferry. I went to go purchase my ticket when I realized I left my phone in the cab.
UGH
Normally I would absolutely FREAK out at this realization. But again, #ShellOfaHuman.
I just kind of stared at the ground until suddenly I remembered.. his number stored on my lap top (random). I turned to the first person I saw..
"Excuse me, can I borrow your phone? I have left my phone in that cab and I'd like to call him"
"No" - stranger
... not even an 'I am sorry.. No' with a smile. It was a plain blank stare ..NO
mhmmm okay, thanks dude
I asked the second person I saw and he was my hero. He spoke to him in Spanish on the phone... 5 minutes and a fat tip later the phone was back in hand! Whew!
I took a deep breath, thanked my lucky stars, told myself to take it easy, go slow, screw your head back on straight.
You're fine Colleen
Tuesday 9:00 AM I got to the mainland and hopped in my 14 hour shuttle van to Leon, Nicaragua. Crossing the border from Honduras to Nicaragua.
I knew I was going to have to pay a fine at the border for my expired visa, and I had come to terms with that.
There were 6 other westerners in my shuttle. I couldn't bare the small talk, not today... #ShellOfaHuman There were plenty of seats in the back.. I gave the driver a look as I hopped in the front seat next to him.. half looking for approval.. half not caring if it was approved.. luckily I was greeted with a smile. It was a long journey. We stopped a few times to eat, while everyone else ate together I always ate with the shuttle driver... in the corner... we didn't even really talk, but I think he liked the company... #ShellOfaHuman
TUESDAY 8:30pmWe arrive at the border. I am last in line to get my stamp out of Honduras before I enter Nicaragua. I hand her my passport. They speak no English, but I gather they are telling me I am over my visa.
The woman hands my passport to the only other person behind the counter, a man. He was the guy in charge.
He tells me he cannot let me through. That I will have to travel to the capital city in order to get their approval to leave or something like that... what? The capital is hours away, it is 9pm at this point.
It was here that my shuttle driver stepped in to help me and translate for me.
I remained very calm. I said it is absolutely unacceptable to have to go to the capital and to tell the officer there has to be another way. All I wanted to do was pay the correct fine and be on my way.
Then the story changed to 'our receipt machine is down, we cannot print a receipt to show proof of you paying the fine'
WHAT?
What is going on
The guy behind the counter could not have been more slow or lethargic. Was on his cell phone talking to someone the majority of the time, with his feet on the desk. Paying basically no attention to us.
At this point I am sitting there on the curb, in the dark, alone, while my saint of a shuttle driver takes my passport to the Nicaraguan border side to see if there is anything they can do. He is gone for about 50 minutes.
I remain positive. Even though I have now been at this border for over 2 hours. When the driver gets back he sits down next to me on the curb and says they could not do anything.
"We need to haggle with the guy behind the counter"
- angel shuttle boy Now the guy behind the counter now says I need to pay him the equivalent of $365USD to let me go. I say a firm NO. The max I should pay is $180. They have some bullshit sign hanging up, made out of notebook paper and a sharpie marker that says the fine is $180 and the max would be $365. They have made this all up. It is a scam. My angel of a shuttle driver and I stood there for over an hour haggling with this guy. AN HOUR. This guy would not budge. He showed no mercy, no emotion, he was stone cold. He changed the story a million times. Honestly he could, 100% not give a f*ck. He knew he had me trapped. I had nowhere to go, it was pitch black, I was alone, I had a whole shuttle of people waiting on me. I pleaded with him, I stared him down, I did everything I could. There was no way I was paying $365. The shuttle driver was getting pretty angry with him, and definitely said some very nasty things to this guy, ones that I will not repeat here...
STILL TUESDAY.. 11:30PM
I am sitting on the curb at this point. Just trying to wait this guy out. My shuttle driver sits down next to me. Sounds kind of stupid now.. but as he sat down next to me I put my head on his shoulder and here is where I let the tears start to fall..
Looking back I realize I was crying on the shoulder of a man whose name I never got..
I had tried to remain so calm up until this point, I had not yelled, rolled my eyes, or cried. Mostly because I think I was too drained emotionally from leaving Roatan. #ShellOfaHuman
But here I couldn't help but let the tears roll onto this guys shoulder and I looked up and him and said...
"I'll pay it, we have to get out of here, there is people in that shuttle waiting for us"
After over 3 hours of haggling..
I was defeated. I was angry with myself for getting me into this situation. This is where my whole day starts to hit me... my emotions start to catch up to me. Once I say I will pay it, it takes this asshole about 40 minutes to draw everything up. (P.S. the receipt machine is working now..) I HATE getting ripped off, and I HATE that this guy had the power to do this. When he hands me the receipt.. do you want to guess how much it says I paid?
$180
NOT
$365
YUP, this guy pocketed the other $185.
RIGHT.IN.FRONT.OF.MY.FACE.
I knew he was trying to rip me off the whole time, definitely, but something about physically seeing it..
Look away Mother, because THIS
THIS, is where I completely, 100%, absolutely..
LOSE IT
Wednesday 12:15am I should have known better. But here is where everything, the past 24 hours, the goodbyes, the sadness, the annoyance, the waiting, the anger at my entire situation comes out of me. I FLY over this counter and lunge at this 300 pound (literally) man who has just stolen precious backpacker dollars from me. Am I reaching for my money or this guys jaw?? ... I don't know.
But as fast as I fly over this counter and start yelling obscenities at this man...
is as fast as I am picked up and physically carried away from the Honduran border...
by my angel shuttle driver to Nicaraguan immigration.
Thank God Seriously how much trouble could I have gotten in from trying to fight a 300 pound immigration officer??? Could have had to have taken up all those people up who (jokingly?) offered to bail me out of a foreign jail... you know who you are..
maybe next time
WEDNESDAY 12:30AM
As I rebound the shuttle I apologize profusely to everyone as we breeze through Nicaraguan immigration. And 3 hours later we arrive in Leon.
I am in Leon to go volcano boarding. As I lay my head down to sleep I try to sort out what I am going to do...
Nicaragua shares a visa with Honduras. Aka I need a new 90 day visa. The only way I can do that is by exiting the country and re-entering.
I have 5 days to evacuate Nicaragua. ...and I have 4 days until my friend Nicole flies into Nicaragua from the USA to meet me...
And according to law I have to spend 72 hours outside of the country before I can reenter for a new visa.
AKA..I am going to have to do a border run to Costa Rica for 3 nights, and I am going to have to do it tomorrow, or else I risk stranding Nicole in Nicaragua by herself.. no volcano boarding for me. Tomorrow I get up and figure out how I am going to get myself to freakin Costa Rica...
WEDNESDAY 9 AM
I spent the morning at 2 different Nicaraguan immigration offices seeing if I could sweet talk my way into a 10 day extension instead of the 5 days I had to get out of the country.
Doesn't work
SO.. Three chicken buses and a shared taxi ride later I find myself at the Costa Rican border. I'm hoping to get lucky. I'm hoping I can walk out of Nicaragua, enter into Costa Rica, and walk straight back into Nicaragua the same day. Avoiding the '72 hours' you need to stay out of the country. It takes a couple of hours and some fees.. but it works.
Finally my luck has turned.
LEASON LEARNED
All in all this little mishap cost me somewhere near $500... a huge amount of money to a budget traveler. But, you know what... it's just money, I have my safety and that's all that matters.
For as much as my faith and trust in humanity was tarnished by he who shall not be named at the border crossing, it was redeemed by the plethora of kind strangers who helped me navigate my #ShellOfaHuman self to Costa Rica by bus. The directions, the smiles, the guided walks to the next bus terminal and so on. As well as in my angel shuttle driver who literally let me cry on his shoulder..
Shit happens.
Traveling is and can be a lot of hard work. A lot of undesired hours in-between those rainbows and waterfalls.
But I look back on this and feel stronger for going through it. For navigating my way to another country on a seconds notice. For realizing how handy my Spanish school skills came in handy.. and actually work, and for just knowing I can handle anything that is thrown my way.
Basically, like anything else..
How could we ever truly appreciate the sun without a little rain?
AND, I made it back to Leon to go Volcano Boarding... stayed tuned for a post all about how I was the fastest person down the volcano that day!!!
Feel free to send me a message in the below contact box! What was your favorite part of this post? Any questions?I would love to hear from you!
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