Advertisement
Published: March 5th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Casa Oro is the most popular hostel here in San Juan del Sur, we got the 2 last beds for the night, Joey and i headed for lunch and we had clams ceviche, not as good as in El Zonte and the fried fish was OK. I left my favorite Brazil hat but when I cam back for it the waiter who found it is already off duty, they told me to come back later or the next day. We took it easy for now being our first day here, had a few drinks as we watched the sunset. Then back to the hostel we cant get the opportunity to use the free internet, lots of people crowding it, so we tried to sleep but the noisy annoying British girls on the other dorm decided they want to play cards and make lots of noises, people have asked them to be quiet but only for a moment, we were relieved when they left to go bar hopping then came back and made noises again, I want to smack them, needless to say we did not get much sleep, joey who is sleeping on the top bunk bed keeps tossing and turning
and it shakes the whole bed everytime.
Cranky and annoyed we decided to leave the hostel and look for something else, well it was decided after Joey got annoyed at the reception desk for asking him to leave his passport to rent a surfboard for his lesson, normally mellow and calm i think the lack of sleep made him cranky and went on and on about there is no need to leave the passport, they can ask for credit card or money but not the passport.. He flies day after tomorrow and i trully understand his reluctance, if it gets stolen he is screwed and I doubt if the hostel will help 100%. Anyway we took our money back for the night´s stay and found a nice GH where it is quiet near the mercado and next to the buses that leaves for Rivas and the frontier to Costa Rica, perfect for him. We had a great breakfast then once again i left him to surf the net, it seems that is all the kind of surfing he will get here! When we met up he told me he already booked himself for a surf lesson so we had
a quick lunch at Marie´s restaurant next to the popular bar Iguanas, food was good, the spaghetti with clam sauce was good but very tiny clams took me ages to appreciate it. Went back to the GH and chill while Joey took his lesson, he did not have to leave his passport, he gave them one of his debit card that no longer works, they made an imprint of it and Joey could not stop thinking what if they find out it was not active anymore etc...so i told him if they check then that means they are trying to use it when they are not supposed to! anyway his lesson went well, water was quite cold and waves are big according to him.
In the eve we waited for Thor our Danish friend but he did not show up so we went to Iguana bar for drinks, then had dinner at Marie accross the street, we met people that joey was in the same boat with earlier for his surfing, 2 couples from Michigan, we had a good conversation about the current economy, quite nice folks. After dinner headed back to iguanas where we also met Thor by
accident, we chatted a bit he left aerly as he was tired then A few more beers later went back to the GH. Early morning Joey said his goodbyes and I stayed in and woke up with no water in the toilet so i cant shower before the Soanish lesson. Oh yeah i enrolled myself again to get better with my Spanish, I will be staying in a homestay for 7 days. Arriving at the Latin American school, I met David my instructor, very nice guy, we had conversed in Spanish then the lesson started, we got interrupted occasionally by fierce winds. At the end of the 4 hour session he walked me to my homestay, I am the only student living there, Señora Rosa was very nice, she cooked me lunch of beefsteak and some platanos and rice. then i chilled and reviewed my notes and did my homework. there are 2 parakeets in the house and they are quite loud!! Went for a walk in the beach at sunset then returned to my homestay. The señora is very nice she is feeding me too much rice and beans though and good thing I am on my own in
the room, the gas would have annoyed pero and Joey to no end.
Next morning I woke up and breakfast is ready, prepared by the señora´s son, an architect that went to school in Russia for 5 years, he said learning Russian is much easier for him than English, we talked in Spanish, i did my best to be understood. off to the spanish school at 8am, David my maestro is very patient and willing to answer all my questions and explain my confusions. Today I learned more than i learned of my week in Santa Cruz de Atitlan. At break time went for a walk at the plaza where the church is and on my way back i heard someone calling me, it was Thor on a break as well from his lessons. Chatted a bit with Jean the Aussie girl from my school then more Spanish lessons with David. went back to the homestay thank god there was water now, they cut water off every morning here, I had a shower then siesta then walked around town.
Spanish lessons going well, much easier for me this time to speak it and learning more words and phrases.
The school is busy lots of gringos trying to learn the language my homestay mom made me a "bigorron" a native typical Nica dish consisting of yuca, tomatoes, cabbage and my fave, chicharron, i took the recipe from her so i can make it myself when I get home, food has been good a tad bit salty but no complaints, I get tamarind juice for a drink which is superb! I now started talking to the family more, they speak no English so i have to learn to speak Spanish, ggod though as I am getting more and more comfortable. There would be a time though like in the eve having a few beers watching the sunset chatting with random people that i dont speak Spanish, like what Thor said one time, "on a break tonight" it takes a lot from us thinking what to say each time makes you tired and exhausted! but all good, really happy i enrolled again.
The weekend has come and gone just chilled out and did not do a thing, except for bar hopping a bit at night. this morning David was a quite late for the class so I was put with
another student, Anna from England we try and have a conversation for awhile it was going well, then david showed up and i get a one on one again, we mostly talked and read a book which for me was the best way to get better, am surprised how much i understand now. Tomorrow is my last lesson then off to Costa Rica and hopefully meet up with my friend Ken. The next morning said my goodbyes to the señora of the house and took a chicken bus to La Virgen where I got another chicken bus to Peñas Blancas the frontier town, chaos is the best decription to this border, lots of people, i was so hungry I had brunch at the cafeteria inside the Costa Rican post then bought my ticket for a bus to Costa Rica. Bye Bye Nicaragua..
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0505s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb