I meet Carla on the minibus from Choluteca to the Nicaraguan border. She is sitting behind me and is heading to the same town as I am. She takes me under her wing and I let her guide me though customs, changing money and buses.
Carla is 29 years old. She is not tall but is very round.. She tells me she has 3 children and pays someone to look after them as both she and her husband work. She crosses the border 7 days a week to go to the Honduran capital to buy cases of apples and grapes. She has bought 6 crates of apples this time. The fruit is coming from the US. The Nicaraguan government imposes a very high import tax so she goes daily to Honduras to bring them in herself. She pays the border guards to look the other way. She has a connection in Managua that she sells to. She sends them on, in the bus. I notice another woman with boxes of canned juice. A man has some cases of soda. Carla has been doing this for 3 years now. She hopes to continue. The money goes toward home improvement, she says.
When I come back from the beach 3 days later, I meet Carla in the bus station heading back to Honduras yet again.
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