Granada, SJDS

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GRANADA, NICARAGUA:
After we got dumped off the bus to Managua in the middle of nowhere and swindled into a $10 cab we arrived at our hostel in the colonial city of Granada. The whole thing seemed a little shady; literally we're climbing over seven people with our bags over our heads and before I can even step off the bus our belongings are being transferred to the cab, like we had arranged for him to be there waiting for us. I knew $10 was way above the going rate, but at that moment I just wanted to get there with least amount of effort possible. After the experience at the border and being squished into a cramped chicken bus my wits were already shot! Our hostel was very basic but in a good location. We were a couple minutes walk to the central park and Cathedral near a promenade of restaurants. We immediately got lunch and were pleasantly surprised by the prices. It was pretty easy to adjust the the new currency. One hundred Cordobas is about four dollars, and a buck in Granada will buy you a liter of beer! At a restaurant I might add. We got a little too excited about the cheap prices and overindulged that day. It was nice to be able to dine out again and not worry about the tab breaking the bank! Even though Granada is beautiful city, the street vendors are so obnoxious. You're constantly being approached at your table over and over by the same people selling the same products. This little girl even came up to me with this sad puppy dog face wanting the rest of my coffee. I gave it to her because I thought it was hilarious, and was relieved she wasn't asking for money. At dinner the musicians came out but unfortunately we didn't have small enough change to tip them so sent them away. The next thing we know, they're all surrounding us playing at our table. It was such an awkward moment, I could barely make eye contact. We already told them "no gracias" and I knew we wouldn't be able to tip them. Little did we know that this older couple at the next table had sent them to us. Sneaky sneaky. The guy told us that a friend had embarrassed him that way and was paying the favor forward. It was a truly unique gesture and we ended up joining them for some wine. POSTE ROJO: When we were in San Jose I saw a brochure for this tree house hostel just outside of Granada that sounded incredible. When I checked out the website, I saw that there were volunteer positions available. We made arrangements to volunteer there for two weeks then go to San Juan Del Sur, Ometepe island and Leon. We took a shuttle from the bearded monkey hostel out to Poste Rojo. There was a long, dusty road leading up to the trail we had to climb to get to the hostel. The dorms were the first building we hit then had to hike another steep trail to get to reception and the communal area. Me and Kev were the only guests that night expect for one other girl. There were three volunteers and a manager accompanying us. The hostel had a nice book collection, and computer with Internet, and a really small menu and snack collection. I was surprised that they didn't offer more due to the remote location of the hostel. It's a 30 minute walk just to get to the road to catch a bus or taxi. The place just didn't do anything for us. It didn't have the same vibe or entertainment lost and found did. Not to mention it was hot and dry. They pretty much encouraged us not to take showers because the water had to be carried up and was scarce. There were no trails or water features near by, and even if we wanted to hike it was too damn hot. The toilets were composting out houses and you were never alone when you went to the bathroom. The place was laden with tarantulas, in the bar (with 200 just hatched baby monsters!) in the bathrooms and in the dorms. And I'm talking tarantulas the size of your palm! Granted they're very docile creatures and eat insects (which is good) but I still don't want them within inches of me...especially with my pants down! That night I had the worst sleep of my life, in fact I didn't sleep. I held my pee the entire night cuz there was no way I was going in one of those outhouses when it's completely dark out. The howler monkeys were going crazy (I now know why they got their name!) the roosters were crowing at two in the morning (which was such a tease because I thought the sun was gonna come up) and I thought guys armed with machetes were going to break down the door and rob us. There was, after all, no one to hear us scream or come to our rescue. It was stuffy with no air circulation and I kept hearing the ground crunch under something's feet. I didn't want to spend another minute in that place! You couldn't pay me to stay another night, I think I'm permanently damaged thinking there's a spider lurking around every corner. I don't even have a spider phobia, we shared our space with tons of spiders and insects at lost and found, no problem. For some reason this place just made my skin crawl. SAN JUAN DEL SUR:The very next morning we left for SJDS. It's an awesome beach town with lots of restaurants and shopping. Since we bailed on volunteering and have two extra weeks to account for we decided to search for the perfect hostel we could call home for the next week or so. We found it at Yajures, complete with swimming pool, ping pong, AC, and the most amazing kitchen I've even seen in a hostel. Sold! Yesterday we took a "fishing trip" with 16 other people from the hostel. We all got completely ripped off; they promised fishing, snorkeling and four different beaches. What we got was two beaches, no fish or even attempt, and the boat had snorkel gear but they never took us to a place we could use it. For $30 a person we could of hired a freakin yacht! Despite the disappointment we all had a really good time booze cruising, and it was nice to get out on the water again. I think we even got them to refund us all $10 since they fell short of our expectations. After all they made a killing off us. This week is the Holy Week known as Semana Santa. Nicas pour in from Managua and surrounding areas by the thousands for their spring break and celebrate with live music, parades and tons of alcohol. It really does feel like spring break out here; our once quiet beach is flooded with people. It looks like they've even built structures just for this week long celebration. It starts today, Sunday 24th and I'm interested to witness the chaos and festivities.

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