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The next morning we went to Granada, Nicaragua after waking up early to catch the bus in Managua. What a great thing to have Michelle by my side now to do all of the things I was accustomed to doing solo for so long- waiting for buses, looking for places to stay, discovering a new city etc.
Michelle got her first taste of Latin America unpredictability when an old lady about 80 years old in front of us on the bus started reading everyone verses from the bible at the top of her lungs. As she proceeded to pass out her pamphlet propaganda to everyone we politely declined her offer as we knew it would eventually end up in the garbage and acted like we did not speak any Spanish. She attempted to hand us another one in English and we declined her offer yet again and acted like we did not speak any English. This really angered her and she proceded to tell us very passionately with intense disapproval in her eyes "uds van a quemar abajo!!" (or you guys are going to end up burning down there!!) while pointing down at the ground- we just shook our heads
and acted like we did not understand. She continued to lecture us on how we were going to burn in hell if we did not believe in the Lord and finally she realized she could not get her point across to us and continued on for at least an hour- reciting verse after verse. Before exiting the bus she snickered to a guy a few seats in front of us "frances es la lengua de dinero y commercialicion, espanol es la lengua bonita, la lengua de amor" (or French is the language of money and commercialization and Spanish the more beautiful language, the language of love). I guess we could have avoided angering her by just taking her pamphlet from the beginning but we did not expect that sort of reaction- you live and learn.
We made it to Granada and decided we would only stay for one night and take off for the beaches in the AM in order to combat the intense Nicaraguan heat. Our first stop would be the famed Isla de Ometepe- an island formed by two dead volcanoes (Concepcion y Maderas) in the middle of Central America's biggest lake- Laguna Nicaragua. We departed from
Bus to Playa Santo Domingo
The bus workers had to jump out and fix the tires en route to Santo Domingo! Granada to Rivas and then took a colectivo to San Jorge where we would catch a boat to Altagracia (a town on the island). My sideburns apparently were getting pretty thick at this juncture seeing as one of the guys sitting in front of us asked me "eres un hippie?" (are you a hippie?) to which my response was an enthusiastic "si, soy un hippie" (yes I am a hippie) he liked this idea and responded by saying "buena onda!" or the Nicaraguan way of saying "cool." This amused us and we got a pretty good laugh.
We arrived to our destination- Playa Santo Domingo - and stayed at comedor Glorianna for two nights- a hostel recommended by a Spanish friend I met in Managua who held the place in high regard. We met the owner Juan Carlos and took a swim in the lake and ate a big fish dinner prepared by his wife in the back kitchen.
Next we decided it was time to crash for the night- this is when things took a big turn for the worse!! There was a swarm of gnats along the beach and all over Juan Carlos' place. He was
sitting outside waving his hands at them and said "es por el viento" or they were here due to the wind just like it was an everyday thing (I am sure he is probably very accustomed to this). When we entered our room they were everywhere! They were all over the walls in the bathroom- instead of being white painted walls they were now "gnat brown." It was just like a bad horror movie!! In nearly three months now on the road I had never seen anything like this- too bad Michelle had to put up with this but I give her much credit for making it through the night!! They were completely harmless insects but obviously a huge pain. We climbed under the mosquito net that luckily I packed and somehow we got through this long night (the gnats were finer than the tiny holes in the mosquito nets so they were still able to reach us even with this protection) and when we woke up in the AM there were piles of dead knats on the floor of our room and the situation was much better- dead knats are much better than live knats in your room! Thank
God!!
That morning we rented some bicycles from Juan Carlos and decided we would check out the town of Altagracia. After riding our bikes for a half hour- all of a sudden Juan Carlos came from behind and caught up to us and ended up showing us around town. We bought him a pescadito dish to thank him for his hospitality before heading back to Santo Domingo.
That evening Juan Carlos and some of his fishermen friends ended up sharing some Flor de Cana rum with us while we all watched a Gustavo Leyton DVD (the famous Nicaraguan cumbia singer). The two fisherman knew all of the words to Gustavo's songs and were dancing enthusiastically to the music. As we got to talking, the fisherman kept telling me how proud they were of their island and kept emphasizing how tranquillo it was- and told me they thought it was the best spot in Nicaragua. Juan Carlos also told me his story- how he grew up really poor- only having 2 shirts and 2 pairs of pants while wearing shoes he constructed himself. He said that "poco a poco" he started doing things like driving camionetas (pickup trucks that
Hospedaje Gloriana
Juan Carlos Showing Us Where To Go On Our Bike Tour. serve as public transportation in Nicaragua) and would often sleep in the back of the pickup truck. Once he got to know the right people he had the opportunity to drive a bus and ended up working from 4:30A-5:00P six days a week. "Poco a poco" he kept saying he kept on coming up and now he is the owner of his comedor/hostel where he lives with his pregnant wife, daughter (Gloriana) and dog named Honey. What another great night hanging out with great people and a great way to end our stay in Ometepe (oh and the gnats were much better that night as we learned to keep the lights off at all times in our room in order to mitigate the situation). We were off to San Juan Del Sur!!
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gueyling
non-member comment
me parese que la isla es un tesoro perdidoen medio del mar que no lo an podido aprobechar