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Published: December 22nd 2008
¡Hola!
San Juan del Sur was nice and warm and realxing! I spent another night there, and all though I had ambitious intentions of things to do and see, I ended up reading, napping and hanging out with Joanne and Eric!
On Monday after I updated my blog, I walked around, trying to find the post office. ¨Por favor, donde esta el correo?¨ Everyone told me different directions, and I got so muddled. It took me about 30 minutes to find it (and this is a small town!), and it was Cerrado (closed), but would be open after lunch. Sweaty and hungry, I left and walked down the walkway beside the beach. The beach is a wide arc of lovely sand, with higher areas of rocks on either side, and lots of smaller boats anchored in the harbour. Not many swimmers or suntanners, but plenty of resteraunts along the sand.
I walked for a bit, and then chose a restaurant with stools looking out over the harbour. I had a bite to eat and drink, and read my book for an hour. I picked up Marina Nemat ¨Prisoner of Tehran¨at the hostel´s book exchange in Monteverde, and I
devoured it - I had started it Sunday night, and finished there, sitting on the beach in the sun.
I headed back to the hotel, and had a nap, which was perfect in the hot sun. Joanne and Eric had gone to a nearby beach, and we had dinner plans, so when they returned we headed out to a little local place near the park called ¨the Chicken Lady¨. Dinner was great, and cheap, about $3 as I recall for food and a milkshake!
Tuesday dawned a bit rainy, but the sun was showing through so it wasn´t too bad. We had breakfast at the market, and it was soon time to say goodbye. Joanne and Eric walked me to the bus and we all said goodbye quite quickly. They have been so fun to travel with, and I´ve crossed two borders with them! We´ve shared food and fun and solved problems. They are such good people, and I am so lucky, not just to have met them, but also that they live in Vancouver and so I will see them again.
I watched them walk away, hand-in-hand, down the road towards the beach, and I was
already lonely.
The chicken bus left around 1130, and I had fun onboard trying to practice my spanish. As is often the case, a few people spoke a few words of english, and they enjoyed trying their english on me too. The bus ride up the hill from San Juan del Sur to Rivas took about 45 minutes or an hour. Out the window, you could see peoples homes, everything from brick and adobe to shacks of tin. There were lots of animals, especially dogs, and a number of small pulperias (little stores) interspersed too.
I got off near a gas station in Rivas and caught a cab for $1 to San Jorge, where the ferry leaves for Isla de Ometepe. I had missed the ferry, and the next vessel scheduled to leave was a lancha (as I understood it, a much smaller boat). I was worried, as the lake (which is HUGE!) was quite rough, and I thought that the lanchas were little 20 foot boats. It turns out that they are actually about 75 feet long or so, and carry about 80 passengers, but no cars. For 30 cordobas (about $1.50) I bought my ticket, and
waited in a small annex building until close to departure time. There I met Dave, Luke, Simon and Josh. These three brothers and their dad are from Canada too, and were also heading to Ometepe.
We boarded (and I use that loosely) by stepping from the rough pavement and gravel pier onto a tire and then onto the wooden deck of the boat. Large bags were piled at the front, and we sat on wooden bench seats. The sides were open (no glass) and so you could look out and see everything that was passing by. It was raining a bit, and windy, and once in a while a wave sprayed a bit of mist into the seating area. I enjoyed chatting with Luke, and also took a few pictures on the 80 minute trip to a small dock near Moyogalpa.
I hiked up to the road with the four guys, and chatted with Dave, their dad. Luke had told me that Dave had been in the military, and that they had moved around a bunch. I asked him about it, and then mentioned a few people back home - turns out he knows some of you!! I
think you´d know him as Dave G10, and he spent time in Germany and all over Canada flying jets. So I´ll pass on a ¨hi¨for you!
We waited about 15 minutes for a chicken bus to pass by, sampling the banana chips from the two pulperias near the bus stop. The chicken bus followed a road paved with what remind me of patio blocks, and it was about one hour to the second city, Altagracia. From there the bus reversed course a bit, and then turned out on the the isthumus that connects the two volcanoes. From Altagracia, it was another 90 minutes on a dirt road to the small town or Merida, on the shore of the smaller volcano, Madera.
Along the way I met Anna and Hannes, a German couple who speak excellent english and spanish too! They´ve studied for several years, and recently spent a lot of time in Central America (Costa Rica I think). We all got off the bus, and followed a young boy towards the hostel. It was getting towards dusk, but it was still quite warm, and the 10 minute walk followed a dirt and stone road that was pretty hilly.
The no-view-viewpoint
Can you see through the clouds? :(I ended up in a collectivo room - I was the only one in it, but if anyone else came along, they´d be in it too (like a dorm). Not bad for $4 a night. It was basic though - cement floor and walls, a bed with a thin mattress and a colourful mosquito net.
Starving, I ordered some food and chatted with Anna and Hannes. We made plans to do a partial climb of the volcano (about two thirds of the way up, just to te cloud line) the next day. I read for a bit, before going to bed early, but not before one of the salamanders that was eating bugs on my ceiling fell right on my head, which was quite unexpected!
There were so many noises in the night - it was very windy, and the metal roof of the building was noisy. Towards the morning, birds and pigs were squawking and squeeling as early as 4am, and so I was up by 6, not really able to sleep any longer.
I brushed my teeth at a sink outdoors, with a view down a meadow to a small cabin, and a few
glimpses of the lake through some shrubs and trees. Pigs, waiting for their scraps, squeeled and chased each other around. There is something about travelling - every moment, something seems to occur
I read and had a nice breakfast, and then the three of us plus our guide left just after 8. Demous, our 17 year guide, set a fast pace (probably trying to tire us out) as we headed down the road towards town and then turned onto a trail towards the volcano. The first 40 minutes or so was along rough dirt cart trancks, and there were lots of horses and evidence of horses. We were all short of breath and covered in sweat, and our guide told us that many people turn back (which means the guide gets paid for the full tour after just a few minutes of work!). Anyways, we carried on, and the path changed to a narrow dirt footpath with foilage overlapping, and many butterflies on either side.
It quickly became muddy, and then steeper, as we climbed rapidly uphill over branches and rocks. We stopped briefly at a waterfall and then climbed a steep hill of rocks. After 2 hours,
we reached the view point at the cloud line, probably around 1100 metres. Unfortunately, the clouds were rough on the bottom, and we had very little view, just a few glimpses of the other volcano, Conception. After a brief rest, we headed down. This was even harder, muddy and slippery as we headed down the trail and tried not to fall. It started to rain and the bush was all wet too.
Near the end it cleared and the sun came out in full force. There were many butterflies, and we saw several salamanders that ran away quickly as we approached. We got back to the lodge, tired, sweaty and muddy, just after noon.
I washed up a bit, and rinsed some of my muddy clothes. Did I mention I did this hike in my sandals? My toes are still muddy, two days (and 2 showers and 2 swims!) later. I had lunch with a couple of other hikers, and then headed out with them for a quick swim in the lake. We jumped from a pier where 8-10 local boys were swimming in their undies. It was refreshing! In the background, Conception was steaming, and the whole
experience was a bit surreal.
I headed back for a spanish class that I had arranged to start at 3:30. On the way, I stopped to visit Kiko the monkey. Kiko jumped from his trees and curled up in my arms for about 10 minutes before he got antsy. He bit my finger lightly (no blood!!) and then headed back to his tree.
The spanish lesson was taught by a lady who now lives on the island, but speaks german as her first language, as well as english, french and spanish! We spent 2 hours, reading dialouges, and learning a few verbs and their uses. The lesson was great, and I was pleased that I understood almost all of what she said. She spoke slowly, but with only a few exceptions, entirely in spanish. We sat out on her little deck the whole time, with a whiteboard hung on the brick wall, and her lesson plan written in a notebook and on the back of a diaper package wrapper.
The power had gone out just at sunset, so I read by flashlight, and we all ate dinner mostly in the dark, with just two or three flashlights.
It came on shortly after dinner ended, and I read a bit more but I was so tired from the hike that I went to bed early again. It was another windy night, and between the noise and what seems like a hundred mosquito bites, I had a lot of trouble sleeping.
Friday I woke early again and after washing my face and packing I walked down the road and took pictures of the pier, the hostel, the volcanoes and some of the local kids. I stopped by to see Kiko, and then had some breakfast with Anna and Hannes, before paying for the time at the hostel. We all hurried of shortly after 8 to catch the bus back to Moyogalpa.
I met lots of people on the bus, inluding a young man named Manuel who was very friendly and spoke excellent english. He suggested that we jump of the bus breifly while it turned around in Altagracia, so I could see some of the stone carvings left by some of the original inhabitants over 2000 years ago. We lost our seats, but Im glad I had the chance to see these!
I rode the rest
of the trip, about 80 minutes, to Moyogalpa standing in the aisle and chatting with Manuel. At the terminal we caught a lancha that left at 11am. Anna and I sat on the top deck for a good part of the 1 hour trip. The sun was shining (I should have worn sunscreen, I´m now quite burned) and we had great views of the volcanoes as we headed back to San Jorge. The waves were pretty big, and the lancha rolled from side to side a lot. With little to hold onto, this made a good adventure!
On the way I discovered that my left foot was very swollen and itchy. I was a bit worried, as it is really big and puffy and iritated.
In San Jorge, the lancha docked along a rock pier and we all crossed a gangplank to the shore. Because of the waves, the plank wasn´t held in place securely - a man with a rope kept it from going into the water, and people on either side grabbed the hands of those crossing.
From San Jorge, a taxi took us to the bus station, where Anna and I searched for a
bathroom in the market and then we boarded a bus at 2. The advantage of boarding was the we got seats, but then we had to wait 45 minutes in the heat of the bus until it left. By then the bus was full, with each seat at capacity (or past!) and another 30 people in the aisle. While we waited, vendors came aboard, selling drinks, all types of food, plus watches, hammocks, candy and clothespegs! I bought a drink, some chirros, and also a bag that had three breads about a foot long, shaped as alligators!
The bus ride was about 80 minutes, and it was long and slow in the sun. When we pulled into Managua there was a large group, maybe 10 people, looking for hostels, and so we watched around the area for about 30 minutes checking places out. One had only hammocks, so I ended up with Justin at the Oasis Hostel. Its gorgeous, and has free internet a pool!
I found a doctor, but he spoke no english and so it was a bit difficult to commincated! I managed something like ¨I need a doctor, my foot is big!¨. He took a
look and after a bit I understood the directions and had the prescription for two creams filled.
I showered, and felt much better! Then I headed out with Justin for a dinner at a local resteraunt on the main roadway. It was an interesting place, dark inside, with mostly male diners (and mostly drunk!). I´m afraid that I got a lot of attention, but we managed a pretty nice dinner anyhow!
Today, Saturday, was bright and hot. Justin and I headed out in the morning for a walk in the colonial part of the town, and I finally found a post office that was (1) open and (2) had stamps!!! I finally mailed off a bunch of postcards that I have been carrying since Panama!
In the afternoon Justin and I met up with Anna and Hannes and ended up hiring a carriage (2 horses and a carriage) for a one hour tour of the town. We stopped in at many historically interesting places - the house that William Walker (who tried to conquer several central american countries in the 19th century) lived in, numerous churches (some as much as 450 years old!), and a fort from
On the chicken bus back to Moyogalpa for the ferry
Can you see the chicken in the box (top left)? He came on the ferry too, and all the way to Granada! the 17th century.
We stopped to look around at many places, and some of the kids wanted their photos taken. Particularly cute was a young boy and girl carrying little puppies, near one of the churches.
The tour was great, and good value at $3 per person for the hour or so.
Afterwards, Justin and I stopped for some food on the street side part of a resteraunt, and met up with Fabian who had been on the bus from Rivas. We wandered through the streets a bit, before heading back to the hostel. I hung out with Justin a bit, but he left at 9:30 to catch a cab to Managua for his flight.
The strangest thing just happened! A horrible older man who is staying here (he was very rude to the front desk clerk the other day, yelling about no TV in his room....its a HOSTEL!!) walked by me, sitting here typing this blog, with a very young girl. Then, he stopped to tell his friend about the good deal he got - she was a prostitute!!!
Anyways, there are no visitors allowed, and the front desk staff kicked her out. I
then gave him a piece of my mind, and it turned into a big thing, with lots of hostel people involved. He seemed to think that calling me ugly was a good enough argument for why he should bring a prostitute to the hostel. Anyways, we think he´s going to get kicked out. Me and my big mouth. Well, it had to be said. At a hostel, its dangerous to have guests - there can be thieves and stuff, hence the rules!
Tomorrow, early in the morning, I am on my way to San Salvador, in El Salvador. I´ve really enjoyed Nicaragua - the people are great and the scenery and architecture are fantastic! I´m sad to move on, but there is so much more to see! A shuttle will pick me up at 3;15 am (yuck) and then take me to Managua, where I´ll catch the 5am Ticabus to San Salvador (about 11 hours). The advantage is that I´ll arrive during the daylight, which is much safer than 11 at night! I plan to spend a few nights in El Salvador before heading on to Honduras.
Buenas Noches!
Eileen
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Going away
Going away for Christmas. I received your card, thanks. Wish you the same!