Wow - week 10 already! And we start in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua on Sun 23rd Nov. San Juan is a beautiful beach resort where we had come to surf. Since I had never done any surfing before and James wanted a refresher we booked ourselves some time with a teacher. His name was Alfredo and he was a gnarly Peruvian surf veteran who assured that we would all be able to stand on the board by the end of the lesson. He wasn't in the least bit concerned about how long it would take either - for the cost of an hours tuition we got more like 3! I confess to being a little scared by the whole thing and had to have several goes just lying on the board and floating in on the waves before I could attempt to stand. Poor Alfredo was very patient with me and it finally paid off as I did stand upright on the board (yes, whilst riding a wave) for a few seconds!!! He kept saying "Vamos, Chiquitita, your wave!!!" and eventually it was. James on the other hand was a natural and Alfredo was most impressed urging him to keep surfing in the future. We celebrated that night by going for lobster dinners (I know it sounds flash but it's so cheap it's laughable) with Haley and Jes and a couple of other guys who were staying at our hostel.
We were sad to leave San Juan on Mon 24th but had to push on as we still have so much to see. We got a bus to Rivas, then a taxi (which almost took James' nose off with it's crappy boot) to San Jorge. Once in San Jorge we bought tickets for the boat across to Isla Ometepe. Ometepe is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua which is basically just 2 large volcanoes joined by a narrow strip of land. The boat ride over was pretty lumpy as the lake is vast and the wind really gets up. We wanted to stay a little off the beaten track on Ometepe so went over to the south-eastern end of the island and checked into the beautiful 'El Porvenir' lodgings. El Porvenir is located on the side of Volcan Maderas and is close to many of the petroglyphs (rock carvings) on the island. Our room faced out onto a gorgeous garden complete with family of pigs snuffling around. Luckily they had a restaurant on site as we were miles from the nearest town/village. We sat and ate dinner that night looking out over the lake and Volcan Concepion watching the sun go down. Very romantic. Until we realised that it was actaully pitch black and the rancho (a thatched hut with open sides) we were eating under had no power, it was now night time, we hadn't brought our torch and we couldn't see what we were eating. Back in our room we wished we had no power so we wouldn't have seen the mutant creature lurking in the corner. I was freaked - goes without saying. But the scary thing on this occasion was that even James (animal magic man) was little a little perturbed by the monster's presence. I will put a photo of it up in the album when i can get to a pc that will actually let me upload pictures. But neither of us had ever seen anything like it and although it disappeared quickly after we came in, I had a restless night wondering where it had gone...
We ate a hearty breakfast on the rancho on Tues
morning ready for our hike up Volcan Maderas. It wasn't a hot day but
was quite humid and we got a fair sweat on during the steep climb. It
was worth it though as the view from the point we stopped at just below
the cloud line was spectacular. We had been able to hear Howler Monkeys
all the way up so ventured into the trees above the cloud line a little
way to see if we could spot them. We weren't disappointed and even got
to see a mummy and baby monkey! We then headed back down to go and look
and look at the petroglyphs that are all around El Porvenir. Some of
them had amazing carvings on but we weren't able to find out anything
about who they were carved by or how old they were. The rest of the day
consisted of eating ice creams and relaxing and then another meal in
the rancho - but we chose the one with lights tonight! Scorpion monster
thing was lurking in our room again when we went in that night but
scuttled off again when we appeared. Joining him that evening was a
rather enormous spider (which even James was cautious about handling),
a gecko (but even I can cope with them) and a tree frog which retreated
under our bed and stayed there all night. I don't think I've ever felt
so close to nature.
We
headed up to the northern end of Isla Ometepe on the morning of Wed
26th to head back to the mainland. We got a bumpy tourist shuttle to
Moyogalpa and waited there for a while for a lancha to San Jorge. Once
there we got a taxi to Rivas and got dropped at the bus station. It
looked as though our bus to Granada was about to leave so we hopped on
and got our seats. I was a little uncomfortable though as I needed the
toilet and didn't know how long it would take us to get to Granada and
whether I could hold on. We also didn't know how long the bus journey
was going to be so I dithered for a few minutes and then decided to
make a dash for it. The bus station at Rivas is in the middle of a huge
market which no obvious sign of a public bathroom. I asked several
people for directions and they all kept pointing in the same direction.
I felt like Anneka Rice from the olden days as I ran through the market
desperately trying to work out what everyone was pointing at and where
the hell the bathrooms were. Eventually found them, did what I needed
to do and then ran back to the bus praying that it hadn't left without
me. It hadn't. And it didn't then leave for another 20 minutes. All hot
and sweaty for nowt. Mmmmm, nice. Perfect when you're on a very crowded
bus with 3 people squashed into 2 seats for an hour and a half. And
they say that getting there is half the fun....Still, we made it to
Granada in one piece and checked into Hostel Dorado where we made the
most of free and surprisingly quick internet before going out for
dinner. We ate that night at a place called 'Imagine' which was kind of
'Beatles' themed (which might sound really tacky, but it wasn't). We
ate a good meal but the best bit was quite definitely the pudding. We
realised that we had seriously pudding deprived throughout our travels
and took advantage of the opportunity to break this fast with warm
mango bread covered in ice cream and hot chocolate sauce. I may have
had nicer puddings, but I don't remember when. It was so good James
actually licked up a bit I'd dropped onto the table. Yep, that good
guys.
After
going out for breakfast on Thurs morning we packed up our stuff and
moved to the slightly cheaper Hostal Oasis where we got beds in a
really big but really lovely dorm. We then had to try and sort out our
long distance bus tickets to Honduras so mucked around all morning
seeing to that and then managed to do some sight seeing. Granada is a
beautiful old colonial town that has been destroyed (and partially
restored) due to earthquakes and civil war. We climbed up the tower of
the Iglesia de la Merced where we got a great view of the town. We sat
and enjoyed a drink in the Parque Central and bought some souvenirs
from the many stalls there. It was a hot day so after a lot of walking
around we went back to the hostal for a shower. We were invited to join
some Americans for their Thanksgiving Dinner but I had set my heart on
a curry so we declined their invitation. As I have found in every place
since, Asian food, that's good Asian food, is hard to come by in
Central America and my curry was a little disappointing. Good thing I
get on ok with local cuisine eh?!
We
took a bus out to the town of Masaya fairly early on Friday 28th.
Masaya has a huge handicrafts market and we were ready to shop! We
loved the hammocks at Tio Tom's so much we were determined to get a
couple to take home. Apparently they were Nicaraguan style ones so
where better to buy them than in Nicaragua? The bus from Granada
dropped us miles out from the market so we had a bit of fun finding the
place but it was worth it when we did. So many gorgeous things to buy!
We did go a bit wild but got lots of Christmas pressies for friends and
family too! Picked up the bus back to Granada from the mental bus depot
in Masaya and then spent the afternoon in Granada sorting out
postcards, sending a birthday gift to my mum, swapping books at a book
exchange etc. We ate pizza that night at a streetside restaurant where
we were kept entertained by kids doing 'break dancing' and then asking
for money. Yeah right. Brace was tempted to get up there and bust a few
moves himself and see how much money he could make. I managed to
dissuade him though as anyone who has seen James attempt to break dance
will agree was a good thing.
We had to pack up and get a bus to
Managua, the capital of Nicaragua on Sat morning as we were destined
for Honduras that day. While we waited for our long distance bus at the
terminal in Managua we were harangued by kids, and really grubby ones
at that. I don't mean to sound really middle class and snooty when I
say that but we don't think these were street kids who were actually
destitute, more like kids who were bored on a Sat and bugged gringos
for whatever cash they could swindle. I had had enough after one of
them wiped his finger in the dirt and smeared it down my arm through
the doorway beside me - twice. The armed guard was clearly no deterrent
to these vagabounds. Finally we could escape to the haven of the coach.
We were so happy to have an air conditioned bus with enough leg room
for James for once! We even got given snacks which was nice since we
didn't have enough Nicaraguan Cordobes left to buy left. We crossed the
Nicaraguan-Honduran border at around 7pm, so it was dark. We had to
take our bags off the bus and get them checked by border control
(meaning a guard opened the top of my rucksack, lifted up the top item
of clothing and then waved me through). There seemed to be a lot of
aimless people milling around our bus which coupled with the fact that
the luggage compartment was open under the bus while we were waiting to
leave made me nervous. And lo and behold, when we got to our hotel in
Tegucigalpa (Tegus) we found that someone had been through our
rucksacks. Nothing had been taken luckily as we don't carry anything
valuable in our main bags, just shoes and clothes which they obviously
weren't interested in. Still felt horrible though. We were really
hungry when we got to Tegus as it was 9pm and we'd hardly eaten all
day. There was a snack cabinet in the hotel but the night receptionist
told us he couldn't sell us any of it (WHY??!!). Instead he directed us
to go and find an eatery around the corner. With some trepidation we
ventured out into a considerably dodgy part of a pretty dodgy city, in
the dark, only to find that nowhere was open. And the hotel staff
didn't seem at all surprised when we told them this, which makes me
wonder why they sent us out in the first place?.... So, we went to bed
hungry....woe is us......
