Saturday 23rd August
A little bit of a better sleep than the night before once all the noise had settled down, however we are both very tired from being so hot and sticky all the time and not sleeping too well for the first half of the night. We were up and out walking down the streets by about 8.30am to go back to the American diner. I think I would have liked to spend one more day there as its a nice island but to do that would involve renting out scooters and spending money we are starting to not have so it was best to move on after having a little taster of the place.
After we had breakfast we checked the ferry times and managed to meet Callum and Alison on the way back down to the port. The ferry took an hour and went smoothly enough, not really anything to say about it as it was the same as on the way there.
We arranged a taxi because it would be the same price for 4 of us and a third of the time, it took half an hour or so to get to San juan del sur. we agreed to try a hostel that didn't seem to us like our kind of place but it was easier for taxi purposes to go. We were a bit concerned we'd made a mistake when we first arrived because its full of 20 something's all showing off and doing what 20 something's are supposedly supposed to be doing whilst backpacking. The place is nice enough, but there's a bar which looks like it gets very busy in the evenings which we're not interested in! After the last few nights all we want more than ever is just somewhere quiet where we can get a good sleep.
Anyway after the long process of getting checked in ( and the staff managing to lose Liam's passport for 10 minutes all of 2 minutes after giving it to them) we got shown to our room which was having work done in the bathroom and hadn't been cleaned so we just put our bags down and went out for a walk.
First impressions weren't amazing (wow aren’t I a ray of sunshine lately). It's a little bit like tamarindo in Costa Rica in that it seems very much aimed at young backpackers who like to get drunk and take drugs. Various people bothering you to buy tat off them all the way down the road including children doing it. The beach is only a minute walk away from the hostel and is fairly nice. We relaxed with 2 cokes for 45 minutes or so, in that time we were asked by about 5 people to buy sunglasses, 3 for knock of DVDs, 2 groups of kids selling woven grass shapes and 1 asking if we were after any weed. We were wondering if we would be staying here a few nights but I think we decided within that 45 minutes we would be just spending one full day there.
We looked into a couple of different hostels along the road which seem a bit quieter but are all pretty much of a sameness, and if they're not they're a lot more money.
Once back at the hostel the plan was just to grab some things and go for a walk up to the big statue on the hill overlooking the beach, but we got involved looking at our next destination and beginning to think about a flight up to cancun and dates etc. All that took a while to do and by the time we were ready to go out it started chucking it down with rains thundering and lightning so we couldn't really leave. It sounds pretty bad saying we couldn’t leave because it was raining, but rain here and rain at home are two very different things! The rain lasted a long time for Central American standards with lots of thunder and lightning which made Liam jump a lot. We always enjoy it when it rains here and had a nice relaxing time listening to it and watching it out of the windows. In the end we went out regardless of the rain to find food because it wasn’t showing much sign of stopping. We bumped into a guy who we had seen in the last 2 hostels we had stayed in, which annoyed us a little because we don't like when that happens. Not so much because we are unsociable ( although that is part of the reason I suppose!) but because it ruins it for us when we see so many others doing exactly the same route and going to the same kinds of places. It takes away some of the specialness if that makes any sense at all.
It was a lovely meal anyway sat watching and listening to the rain, and we set off in the rain to find a little shop because we fancied a snack to take back to the room. It was nice walking around despite feeling you have to be a bit more wary than usual-and we are always wary – especially Liam.
Once back at the hostel we just stayed in the room and did our own thing for the evening. Call us boring but we are not interested in partying with a bunch of "cool" people who dress weird and think they know everything. The music was extremely loud until very late at night, but it didn't bother us because we were comfortable and happy where we were, and after it calmed down we managed to sleep slightly better than the last few nights; probably because we were so tired!
Sunday 25th August
It was an good nights sleep so we decided we wouldn't bother with the hassle of packing up and moving and just stay one more night. Breakfast was included in our stay, which turned out to be a big bowl of pancake batter ( at least that's what they said it was) which you had to make yourself on a pan which really had seen better days. I tried a couple of times to make pancakes but I just couldn't manage it so we ended up going out for breakfast along the beach front.
After breakfast we went to lie on the beach, it isn't an amazing beach and we struggled to find somewhere we felt comfortable settling for a while. There are other beaches in the area but first of all they cost 10 dollars each to get to which is an absolute rip off, very annoying they charge that much because they know you can't get there on public transport! And secondly when we asked at the hostel they told us there were no shuttles for the day due to " the biggest party in Central America" happening today. It's every Sunday and its called Sunday funday, with young party backpackers paying 10 dollars for a ticket to go to various hostels with pools and drinking all day. We would rather relax on the beach! ….as you can tell san juan del sur has not got very high points from us.
Anyway we found a spot, and also saw some massive crabs which were bigger than any I'd seen on the beach before. We put our flip flops by them to see what they would do and they were grabbing and pulling so hard, it was really quite amazing how strong they were.
We had perhaps an hour before it poured with rain again, at which point we found somewhere to have a drink and wait for it to die down. It took forever so we decided to go for a walk and give up on the beach day we were so desperately craving.
We walked across the beach and over a bridge, and up up up a winding steep street to go up to the big Jesus statue on the hill overlooking the town. It was a bit of hard work but we didn't mind, and once we were there it was worth it. The place looked so beautiful from on top of the hill, so beautiful we must have spent going on half an hour just sitting and looking before going back down. The beach is like a horse shoe shape, with lots of green as far as the eye can see stretching behind it, and the sea on the other side. It was so much better looking at it from above and I was a bit sad we had to go back down into the chaos of it.
Once back down we ate at a restaurant, and by the time we got back to the hostel it was dark...and the party had made its way there. There were soooo many people crammed inside and hanging around outside too, the music was blaring and it was a full on party with security guards and a couple of police outside.
Everybody had been drinking for hours so they were all very drunk, so rather than get a drink in the crowd which we had planned on doing, we opted to just go upstairs and find a film on the tv eating our snacks and making fun of the cool kids downstairs. It was very loud but not a problem for us at all and it actually calmed down by about 10pm which was a nice surprise and allowed us to get to sleep for 12ish ready for the next travel day.
