On our excursion to the nearest town (with an ATM) of Zacatecaluca we saw no owls or herbs, only lots of people selling stuff, the much needed bank and lots of buses. We took the bus(es) with fellow cruisers Jamie & Linda from sv 401K (they also started sailing from San Carlos). They were fun traveling companions and luckily agreed, once we got off the bus, that we should all stick together! The long bus rides were the highlight of the trip: each bus seems to have a driver and 1 or 2 'doormen', young guys who ride in the open bus doors telling you where the bus is going, helping you on and off, telling you to hurry up and collecting your money once the bus gets moving.
The interesting thing about the doors staying open during the ride is that at one point one of the guys closed them for a little bit and after we passed 2 cops on the side of the road I knew why. I guess they aren't supposed to have them open!
The bus going to town you have to get off at some point and walk down the highway 10 feet and up a path to the other highway to another bus - we just followed everyone else. The bus back we had to wait on for � hour before it went anywhere. During that time local people walked through every once in a while trying to sell us all kinds of things; ice cold sodas, candy, ice cream cones, flashlights, toys, bread sticks, nuts, etc.
This bus was decked out with a serious sound system, which included 4 large speakers - luckily the driver kept the volume at a normal level - and all kinds of flashy lights, tassels & a couple of stuffed animals - the Tasmanian Devil and Tweety. These buses are old school buses from the states and the plaque confirmed that it was built in Georgia.
We had fun watching the doormen have fun at their jobs: checking out the young girls, checking their cell phones, making gestures of greetings to the people they knew on the street and the other doorman at the back of the bus, etc. The driver seemed to have fun honking at the other buses most of which replied with more honking. At the more major stops there was another parade of vendors walking through, in the front - out the back, with sandwiches, pupusas, the ever popular 'juice or water in a bag', fried plantains, candy, etc. it all looked really good but we had just eaten. The school kids that got off the bus near our hotel were wearing some jewelry and we kind of deduced from where they lived and the jewelry that they were the more affluent ones, maybe.

The town of Zacatecaluca was very busy. The sidewalks were crowded with vendors selling everything from veggies to bras to toilet paper, forcing one to walk on the street while avoiding getting hit by all the buses. We took an unscheduled tour of the narrow, dark, uneven walk way-ed Mercado twice before we found the grocery store AND realized that it was only � block from the bank we first stopped at and waited for � hour! We actually found the grocery store by running into a local that was on the bus with us - he was very friendly and even sat with Scott at some point.