Not me aswell...!

It's true, it really is a country that gets under your skin.

I popped to Leon for a little jaunt this weekend. Lovely, colonial, hot, full of history. I found out the times of the buses back to Esteli, and did the usual "putting out to tender" checking information with more than one person to get round the whole telling-you-what-you-want-to- hear business. 3.30 the bus was going, the last one back to Esteli. Get a lovely cab driver to take me there, arrive 10 minutes early.

The annoyance....

It's gone. Oh no, that bus goes at 3.10. WHAT!! Oh yes, hasn¨t gone at 3.30 for ages... WHy do people lie! grrrr! I'm standing in what is essentially a mud/dirt field (yes, it does look a lot like Glastonbury) deciding what to do next.

The goddamn endearing part...

As well as being the cause of aggravation, they always seem to sort it too. Some dirty looking mechanic guys who I ask about the Esteli bus start giving me advice about the other options... get a bus to a crossroads and then stand there waiting on the Panamerican for another coming from another city.. hmmm. I get on the bus, see a nice enough lady with her son and get her opinion on the whole sorry affair. She seems to thing that standing on a crossroads on the Panamerican at 6pm in the dark isn't too bad an idea but her husband happens to be picking her up, they live in a town a bit further up and can drop me at a proper bus stop. So I stay on the bus, exiting only to get a cheap enchillada from another very sweet lady in the bus station.

And after one of the smoothest bus changes in history I´m in Esteli by dinner time. Fall into the arms of Juanita

at her hostel weeping "I don't want to miss this place but I will" unable to stop crying til a beer is placed in my fist.

Nothing changes guys, don't expect a more zen Rebs. Same old hormonal nightmare... and not looking forward to the first journey on Virgin Trains! Unless they¨ve started selling cheap corn products in place of focchacia and pastrami and stopped wearing red waistcoats.