Horses, Spiders and Children

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Hi from a very wet Costa Rica

One thing I didn't mention on my last blog, as I did not think it would be important, is that I got what I thought was a blister on my foot.

The day after I last updated we had an epic travel day which involved no fewer then five buses, two taxis and one border crossing. We started of with a taxi ride to the bus station with a much more relaxed driver then the night before. We then got on a bus towards the border but we had to change buses half way . The border crossing was very easy with our tour leader taking all our passports to imigration and the officials did not even look at us. Then we were in Nicuragua.

Then we got on our first (affectionaly named) chicken bus, which are old American School buses that are shipped down to Central America to be used as public buses. They cram an amazing number of people on these buses, so much so that Chris got a random child put on his lap. The child was completely relaxed about being put on a strangers lap and even managed to fall asleep. After a few more changes of transport we made it to Granada at about 4pm, over 8 hours since we started.

I didn't really do much till we met for dinner, whilst we were waiting for everyone Harriet pointed out that my foot that I thought had had a blister had swollen by quite an impressive amount. Chris said that he thought my foot had looked more like a spider bite then a blister, but I still don't know really what it was, all I do know is at the pharmacy that John took me too said that my foot had become infected hence the swelling. We then had to head with the drugs that I had been perscribed to someone who i think was a doctor for them to inject me. This persons job seems to be just to inject people for 50 cents a time, not a bad job if you can get it I suppose. After a few more trips to this random guy over the next couple of days the swelling went down and my foot is now pretty much back to normal.

The next nine of us off the trip were doing a full day tour of the area surrounding Granada. This started off with a trip to a pottery factory where we all got a go at trying to make some pots. This was so funny, my pot started badly, got steadily worse and then just collapsed in on itself. Harriets pot half way through accidently grew a handle and Jen accidently made a cone instead of a pot. Next it was off to a viewing point to see one of the largest crater lakes in Nicuragua which we then headed down to, everyone else swam in the lake, but me with my infected foot was the designated photographer. We then got some random fruit, most of which I still don't know what they were but it didn't taste that good so that is not too much of a problem, and then it was lunch and a look round a market. In the afternoon we first went to a former prison which was used when Nicuragua was a dictatorship. In this prison the inmates were put in tiny cells in pitch darkness and even tortured. The torturing went on as recently as 1982 with the prison shutting entirely in 1983. It was quite a sobering experience to see where this had happened. The last location for they day was a cave up on a volcano where there were a few harmless bats, and then a walk up a hill to see a smoking crater which was really impressive.

That evening Mark had cooked for everyone, and then afterwards someone had the smart idea to go to Karaoke. Not really my thing but I went anyway and watched everyone make an idiot out of themselves and then got persauded to join in with Michela and Jen, it was interesting that is all I will say.

I had a lazy day the next day, went for a walk around Granada, and found out there is not much to see in the city. I saw a couple of churchs from the outside, Lake Nicuragua and the main square. Granada is one of Nicuraguas main tourist draws and the tourist orrientated part of the city is really well mantained and really clean, as soon as I headed out of these few streets you start to see how the population lives in their small shanty houses and with dirty streets.

The next morning we went to our next location Ometepe, a large Volcanic Island in the middle of Lake Nicuragua. We took a chicken bus to the boat and then what some people nicknamed a chicken boat to the island. It was a small boat that went as slow as it could whilst still moving forward. Apparently there were some leaks downstairs, however I and a few others sat out on the deck which had no side railing and but did have fumes to deal with. We got to the island in the early afternoon. Then the half of us who had jumped in the working minibus (our transport to the hotel) had to push start the minibus that had decided not to start.

The next story I am only really telling as I am impressed at the ingenuity involved. The bus that didn't start had to top up on fuel, but to undo the fuel cap they needed the key, so would have to turn the engine off. Tho solve this problem they parked the bus at the top of one of those ramps you drive cars onto so the mechanics can look under them. Then they were able to undo the fuelcap, roll down the ramp, restart the minibus and top up with the engine running. It was then about an hour drive to the hotel along mainly paved roads. We were staying right on the beach and so in the afternoon we had a group game of Beach Volleyball which was a great way to spend the time although I really was not very good. We played a few games that night however the bar shut very early so they were not of the alcoholic variety.

Yesterday whilst about half the group went to climb a Volcano described as "challenging" the other half of us went Horse Riding. You might remember I have already done this once this trip in Australia and was given the laziest horse known to man. This was not the case yesterday, yesterday I think I was given Franks worst enemy. It kept trying to race Davids horse, so i was pulling back on the reins to try and stop it and somehow the horse (Chirpy) managed to run sideways, when I pulled back enough on its reins it went past stopping and actually went into reverse. In the end Mark (an experienced horse rider) swapped with me as his horse was boring him. The horse was a lot better and although got into a fast canter was a lot easier to control. We went along the beach in a bit of water and then back along the road. Mark later said that the horse was quite a lively one.

That evening, as it was a full moon, we had a bonfire on the beach and spent most of the evening all talking away and having a good time.

Today we had to get up 5am for a 11 hour travel day (our last long one). We got the boat back to the mainland and then a bus to the border. the border took a bit of time to do and we had a km walk in no mans land between the Nicuraguan and Costa Rican border. Where Jen saw the Nicuraguans had not stamped her passport so her and John had to run back. It was then another bus to a point in the middle of nowhere, and then a private van to the hotel. The trip in the private van was only 35km (20 miles) but took two hours as the road was in such a poor state. According to John the government spend most of their road building budget on the main highways and in the tourist towns. The irony being that the roads to the tourist towns are not included in this. We did make it into Monteverde, which is up in the mountains and also in the clouds by about 4pm and am now just relaxing and trying to recover from the sore horse ride and the long journey today.

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