So 1 week in and I´m already off schedule. I was supposed to go Leon right after Granada for more induction into the wilds of the spanish language. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my brain hurt after the week of lessons and I neded a break. So, it was off to the beach with Nick and Helyn for a few days of fun in the sun.
The first long(ish) ride on a chicken bus, really an old school bus, was fine until we got to Rivas which is a major hub in sw nicaragua. As soon as you get off the bus anywhere, you are accosted by the chaotic situation. Vendors selling anything they can to travellers, guys yelling out the destinations of their buses and taxi drivers trying to get you to use their services instead of the buses. My spanish isn´t really good enough to enter that situation cold. We did end up taking a taxi a taxi for the 40 minute ride from Rivas to San Juan Del Sur, for all of $5 per person. Take that DC cab drivers!
SJDS is relatively small beach town on the Pacific coast. Its temporary home to a multitude of surfers from everywhere. I guess it must be good surfing because there are a hell of a lot them there. Like any surfer/beach town it has a very relaxed vibe. There´s a beach right in town, but it is not such a good one for swimming or surfing. It is, however a great beach to sit above in one of the restaurants and watch the ocean, birds and the folks.
There are some gorgeous beaches just 10 km north of ton, however to get to them you have to take what, in the rainy season, must be one of the worst roads in central america. Once, we took a 4wd gypsy taxi and that was fine. The next time it was in one of those old army transpor trucks that you see in safari documentaries. I think I still have a few bruises from that one.
On the beach with Nick and Helyn
Spent the days there swimming, hiking up to the old lighthouse on the point, drinking and eating. And oh yeah, I tried my hand at surfing. I did manage to get up, kinda, but i´m not sure its my things. I´ll always go for the cheaper and more reliable ride of body surfing. It was fun though and was a good way to add more bruises.
More wildlife, giant goats!
Surfing Playa Madera
After a few days in SJDS it was time to say adios to Nick and Helyn and head inland to the La Isla de Ometepe with is a an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua with 2 volcanoes on it, only one of which is active. That was one hell of a long travel day. Bus to Rivas, Taxi to San Jorge, ferry to San Juan (Ometepe) , a bus ride to the crossroads followed by an hour and a half wait for the next bus to reach our hostel an hour after dusk. At this point I was traveling with Bhris and Becky, a Canadian and Brit, who are doing a year´s worth of travel in 6 months. I´m exhausted just thinking about it.
A parade in honor of ¨Santo Domingo¨or the god who became Santo Domingo after the conquest. This parade delayed our journey a bit but was pretty cool.
We stayed at a place called Hacienda Madera. This place is deeply in the middle of nowhere. I heard it was actually a Samoza family retreat back before the revolution...which brings me to Commandante. There we were just having dinner when someone notices an odd older nica gentleman hanging out eating as well. He stuck around all evening and after I got cleaned up and was ready for a few cocktails I ended up sitting and chatting with him (and a few yoouuungg americans) . Turns out Carlos is a sandinista commandante in the army. The government sent him (with a company of soldiers, natch) to Ometepe to watch for election related problems in the town of Altagarcia.
Quick diversion into politics: Daniel Ortega, who you may remember from such times as the 80s and the Iran-Contra affair, returned to power a couple of years ago after receiving 37ish% of the bote after his main opponent died on the campaign trail. 2 Sundays ago, Nicaragua held its regional elections for governors and mayors. Turns out, surprise, there was fraud. Now I´m not going to judge who committed the most, but the Sandinistas did a better job of it and won handily. Since then, there have been sporadic protests in managua and a bit in leon (a story for another post). And back to the commandante....
OK, so here is Carlos, sent to a town 2 hours away from this hostel, pouring johnny walker black scotch for a bunch of gringo tourists. He had the air of a soldier philosopher spouting off on the pilosophy of love and the state of politics in his country. The philosophy, however, may have just been for the young girls, who he seemed to fancy. He was definitely educated, having gone to school in the US (Cornell) and Cuba and the USSR. He had been shot 3 times over the years and you could tell he was cautious. Always checking out the room, to the point of being nervous about one of god´s most harmless creations, a middle aged Canadian. Anyway quite an interesting evening, scotch with the commandante, served by his bodyguards. Don´t know why he came there, but I guess he like the gringos.
Next day we went on a hike up the volcano, but I won´t talk about it because it sucked.
Vulcan Concepcion
Eventually, I left ometepe and headed back to Granada for a maintenance (shopping and stuff) day and a coupel of nights of getting hammered with australians and canadians and norwegians (oh my). All good, clean, international fun.
Getting drunk with the international set
Mas tarde....
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