Recently, I traveled from Guatemala to Nicaragua by bus via El Salvador, and was surprised that the immigration officers didn’t stamp my passport. I didn’t think of it immediately at the time, but no stamps could mean a little inconvenience for me. However, right then I was more dismayed at how there would be no evidence of my footprints through Latin America in my passport. Talk about priorities.

Anyway, the problem: I’d been in Guatemala for a month and was planning to go back for another month after visiting Nicaragua, and as far as I knew from the guidebooks, I could only be in the country for a month without a visa. So if I had no stamps in my passport to prove that I’d gone out of Guatemala… you see what I mean?

So today I went to the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Relations in Managua, armed only with my amateur Spanish (I couldn’t find an English speaker but as it was I got by perfectly alright), and I was told that with a Malaysian passport I could move freely around Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua freely for 90 days without a visa (a month’s extension costs 210 Cordobas, about $USD 12). Otherwise I would have to cross over to Mexico or Costa Rica and turn around again before the 90 day-period expired.

Yes, the latest news is that they’ve amalgated the four countries - Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. I think it’s due to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

© Michael Hrncir

So. I don’t understand why all the guidebooks wax lyrical about Granada.

Yes, it is purported to be the oldest city on the American continent, and I guess it has got some kind of colonial charm, but the future of Nicaragua tourism it isn’t. At least, not for me, nor it seems, to the multitude of tourists passing through. I haven’t spoken to a single traveler on the road who has found Granada charming or romantic or befitting any of the purple passages dedicated to it in the guidebooks.

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If you:

• want to travel dirt cheap
• don’t mind being squashed like a sardine
• don’t mind making several connections
• don’t mind waiting for the connections, for what could potentially be hours (breakdowns aren’t rare to hear of)
• speak enough basic Spanish to take you through what could be unpredictable schedules and bus-stops not obviously signposted
• don’t mind missing out on sleep
• don’t mind taking a longer journey

… then by all means, take what tourists have dubbed ‘chicken buses’ (because according to Lonely Planet you will sometimes have to share your seat with sqawking chickens; however, I’ve yet to actually experience that to justify the nickname) all the way across borders in Latin America.

Of course, the local chicken buses don’t traverse national borders so you’d have to get off at borders, cross them, then take another bus onward.

I met a German guy recently who caught six chicken buses from Copan, Honduras to San Salvador, El Salvador for all of $5 USD; so you know, if you have the nerve and the patience for it, it’s entirely possible.

I’d recommend traveling light though. If you have a fat backpack with you it might be difficult to squeeze into the bus if it’s full. You can leave it on the roof of the bus of course, but I prefer to have my things with me at all times. I’ve been on buses where luggages have fallen off making a noise like a gun shot.

On the other hand, if you are adamantly opposed to or are unable to afford any of the cheap thrills mentioned above, you can opt to travel with Ticabus or King Quality, the latter with in-bus café serving food and drinks for a couple more extra bucks, so I hear.

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