A new country, and a racoon named Gigi

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After Masaya we headed to Granada where we walked around all day exploring a reconstructed colonial city. We checked in to a seemingly empty hostel right across the street from the main market, however the whole scene later livened up a lot. The hostel keeper lady struggeled with me in English, until i answered her in Spanish, and she asked me if i spoke it. I, of course, responded yes, Bless your Heart! She exclaimed. From her we got a great map and directions to lots of helpful places. We dropped our stuff and headed out along the market up the street and hung a right toward the central park. We took refuge in the shade while talking about what to do. We decided to check out the town museum a few blocks away. It was awesome inside. A huge mural depícting the change of Nicaragua through colonization etc. Then lots of little artifacts from the attached church said to have been build in the late 1500s or so, but reconstructed. We found room after room of little things all surrounding a garden. Through one door i found another garden, really clean public bathrooms (rareity!) and rocking chairs where we sat for a bit. Later we headed toward the lake. We had planned to take a boat from Granada to the island, but the days of boat running didnt work out for us well so we scrapped the plan.We hung out around there and headed back toward the central park, finding another church. We had at this time seen 3. Just west of the central park we found another that our book said had a bell tower that you could climb, we entered and walked up the most narrow, spiraling concrete staircase ever. At the top were bells and signs asking us not to ring them. We walked further west to another church blaring a fresh coat of orange and white paint. Later we walked around a bit before heading in for the night. We decided to head to Rivas then depending on buses from there to San Juan del Sur a little beach town, or to the boarder of Costa Rica. When we got to Rivas we found that from San Juan del Sur we would have to come back to Rivas before getting to the boarder, and decided that spending the back-and-forth travel wasnt really worth killing a day. So yesterday, on a bit of a whim we found ourselves at the chaotic nicaraguan-costa rican boarder. We were hasseled by lots of people trying to sell us paper for the customs process, or changing money etc., but couldnt find the directional signs we needed. Someone helped push us along to the Leaving Nicaragua sign on the other side of this building. We got ourselves in line with our papers and hoped we had everything. There was a lady in front of us with what looked like her 2 kids and mother, European passports in hand. They were trying to use a 50 dollar bill (US)at the window to pay their fees but the man wanted something smaller. So i offered to help, i made change for them, but also managed to communicate using some of my remaining Nicaraguan money to pay their fees, so i wouldnt have to change much. While their passports were processed the lady talked to me a bit, asked me where we were headed, i described our general destination, but we werent sure how far wed get with the hastle of customs and buses etc. She said she had a place for backpackers in Playa del Coco, our Direction! and futher than wed expected to get for the day.....and offered to take us with her in her car. OK. So we were rescued from the insanity that we could have managed. She led us along the process of 3 other lines and stamps, we got in her car, showed our passports one more time, and were off to playa del coco. I learned that this Italian woman came here on her honeymoon, and when things got to expensive, and difficult in Italy she decided to move her family here. I guess her now ex-husband wasnt so keen on the idea. It was incredible what can happen when you talk to people. So we are staying there, above the home in one of their hostel rooms...where we met the Racoon they told us about while in the car. His name is Gigi, hes a pet they found in the garden and have been raising for 9months... ive never been so close to a racoon...its weird, but hes playful, too playful and kinda cute. What a strange situation we found. Yesterday we walked around the area and checked out the beach a bit yesterday. Today we walked much further than we expected to a less working more relaxing beach where we watched tide pools and swam in the ocean...while getting just a little too much sun. Tomorrow we are heading further south down this peninsula. But after yesterday having a day to hang out on the beach, was right where we needed to end up.

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Comments

[Scott]

Hey
Hey, I tried to send you a public message on here, didn't work. Anyway, funny story - emailed it to you, check your gmail. Sounds like you guys are having fun. Anyway, hope all is well. Peace.