I woke up in the morning and settled my bill, NOT paying the ten dollars for the horseback riding but getting guilted into paying them a TIP, mainly because she actually circled the ¨voluntary tip¨portion of the bill, and of course there was a written sign explaining that tips were split between the 18 employees, so they each got less than a dollar each from me. But I still wasn´t pleased and if they hadn´t been in the middle of preparing my breakfast I may not have tipped at all. I arranged with Jane, the woman from the state department, to [View Full Entry]

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It ended up taking about 8 hours total to get from our hostel in Grenada to the hostel Haciendo Merida on Ometepe. At which point we were informed that they didn't have any room for us, but we could have a hammock for the night. Honestly I had spent most of the last night in a hammock and been pretty damn comfortable and it was going to save me three dollars so I didn't actually mind but the other two people I was traveling with were pretty put out about the whole thing. However, Haciendo Merida happens to be in the [View Full Entry]

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My first night in Grenada we met up with the GAP travel group from Leon again and got drinks at Zooms bar on the main thorough fare in Grenada. It´s a sports bar run by a Nicaraguan who was raised in New Jersey (of course) and who can actually make a repectable daquiri! The town itself is SO quaint it´s ridiculous, it was originally designed as a showpiece city by the Spanish and then burned to the ground a number of times (such as when William Walker the American, razed it after his failed attempt to conquer south america for the [View Full Entry]

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After my last update I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Leon and taking picture after picture of church after church, something in which this country is most certainly not lacking. The buildings are all painted in these fantastic bright colors, and there is more branding/advertising here than in the US. Apparently if you don't want to paint your own walls/store/house a major multinational company will paint it for you, with their logo! So you'll be driving through the countryside and walls will be painted with HUGGIES, OREOS, KOTEX, etc. Leon was much the same, although one thi [View Full Entry]

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Everyone that sees me here (despite the presence of Bessie, the largest backpack ever created - and the obvious mark of a tourist) thinks that I´m some sort of native Spanish speaker and I´ve decided that the less I open my mouth the better off I am. People that know me in real life will probably expect this new attitude to last all of three hours and they are probably right, since I haven´t even left the airport yet. A big thank you to my parents and sister who were complete superstars in helping me get out of the country with [View Full Entry]

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This blog is kind of going to backtrack a little only because I forgot to mention previously that due to the swine flu pandemic they had each person walk past a heat sensing camera before immigration to check for high fevers. Luckily I made it through, and after stopping by the internet cafe and exchanging dollars for cordobas (20 to 1) I finally braved the taxi stands outside the airport. I was immediately latched onto by a driver who wanted to charge me 12 dollars for the trip from the airport to Managua. I said I wanted to go to Mercardo [View Full Entry]

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I'm back in America but felt like I should post one last blog about the remainder of my time. I spent the last day in Bangkok doing my best to support the global economy by going out of control and buying everything that I could get my hands on. Absolutely no self-control. None. I walked down from Khao San road over to the street market by the royal palace. Thinking to myself on the way "hmmm I could really go for some fried bananas" BAM, next person I walk past is like "fried bananas?", I LOVE Thailand. I spent hours just [View Full Entry]

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After our misadventures on the hill of doom leading to Mango bay, which we wisely decided we were never going to make it to, we went back and picked up my bike and cruised up the main road of the island until we passed by a restaurant with a GIANT projector screen showing Muy Thai, of course by the time we turned around, parked and walked into the restaurant they were no longer showing Muy Thai, because as far as I can tell everywhere that I go in Thailand declares a moratorium on thai boxing until I leave the province. But [View Full Entry]

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We got to Ko Pha Ngan in the mid afternoon and after checking out the resort we were staying at I just went and tanned by the pool for a few hours, got an uninspiring dinner at the restaurant at the hotel and then hung around until the pool party started around 9 or 10ish. Drank a fair amount of wine, swam in the pool and made catty comments while watching people either hit it off or strike out with the opposite sex. The music was actually really good (techno versions of many different genres) and I made it to sleep [View Full Entry]

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Getting on the night boat was a breeze, except that I was only wearing one contact and so had no depth perception and the stairs to the boat were a good four feet below the actual pier, but I made it onto the boat eventually and staked out a pallet on the floor. The boat is essentially one big giant room with the floor covered in these narrow little pallets and you do your best to make yourself comfortable for the duration of the trip. Which takes seven hours. This is remarkable only because its about 70km and if you can [View Full Entry]

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