Las Penitas (part dos)

The second night we were invited back to the Cocco Bar because Carlos, Thommas, and Patrizio were having a small get together for the official opening of his bar. Cody and Erika did not go, so it was just Anna and I. We got there and there were no more than maybe 15 people. When we got there Patrizio was about to start grilling the chicken in an old flat school desk. They had taken to top off and placed some kind of chicken wire on top. He shoveled the coals from the fire into the bottom of the desk and started to grill the chicken.

I talked with Thommas for a while and found out that Carlos was kind of a big brother to all the local kids there; he was always watching out for them. One of the kids got a blank surfboard, but had no fins, and did not have any money to buy some. So Carlos, Thommas, and Patrizio all put their money together to buy him some fins. I don't think I have ever seen any one person that was more happy than this kid. He did not have the money to buy a board, and then when he finally got one it did not have any fins, so now he was able to surf. The people here are some of the kindest that I have met in all of Nicaragua, everyone was very accepting of us and did not look at us as intruders to their homes.

The next day, which was our last full day, we were at the beach again and when we went into the water there was an older french woman playing in the waves with us. She was maybe in her mid fifties, but seemed like she was 17 in the water. She was a slightly robust woman who seemed to bob in the waves. There was another woman with her who was even older than she was, maybe in her mid to late sixties. We think she was maybe her mother, but either way they were definitely there together. After the younger one had her fun, she went back to the beach and grabbed her friend/mother/family member and they went hand in hand into the water together. The younger woman never let go of the other's hands to give her support in the waves. They got in about knee to waist deep, and just stood there at the waves, enjoying every moment of it. They were there for about thirty minutes laughing. After the older woman had enough, they walked back to the beach, and the younger woman went back out to play in the waves again, once again returning to 17 years old.

(The younger woman on the left and the older on the right)

(I have never seen bigger smiles on someones face than after this wave crashed into them)

Las Penitas (part uno)

While on the bus to Las Penitas, we met a guy named Thommas who was from France. He lives in Las Penitas on the beach at a place called the Cocco Bar. They rent out surf boards, give lessons, and have a tiki bar on the beach. We asked him where some cheap places were, and he said the cheapest place was on the beach. He told us of some other places too, but as got off the bus and walked around for a bit, we ended up coming back to the Cocco Bar, and the guy running it told us we could stay up in the tiki bar for two dollars a night, so that's what we did.

(Our view from the tiki bar)

(Our sleeping quarters)

Once we got settled in we went out and swam for a bit, walked down the beach for a while, and then made our way back to the bar. That night Anna and I slept on the beach for about half the night because of how bright and vivid the stars were, but ended up going back up because it got kind of cold from the breeze.

The next day we went to a another hostel called Barca de Oro that was more expensive, but we had to move because Carlos (the guy who was running the bar and surf shop) was opening the bar, plus they had no water. We checked in there and ate some breakfast before going back out to the beach. That day was spent mostly at the beach. We started to dig a hole in the sand, but the sides kept on collapsing, we settled for burying me legs in it.

(The beginning of the hole)

(Childish fun is the most fun!)

(The task completed)

Leon to Las Penitas

We stopped in Leon only for a day and decided to finish our trip off on the coast. After leaving our hostel in Leon, Cody needed an ATM so we started walking "towards" the bank, but there turned out to be no bank in that direction, so we just walked around in a circle for ten minutes. They finally found out where one was, but Anna and I decided to wait at a church for them (Anna's pack weighed about as much as I do). They were back in about ten minutes. We sat on the steps of the church for a bit longer, took a few pictures and then headed off to catch a taxi to another bus station across town. We caught the bus for about ten cordobas and made our way to our next destination, and our last of the trip.

(The gang re hydrating on some mango nectar mixed with orange juice...so tasty)

(The church we waited for Cody and Erika at)

(Erika and I being what we are.....awesome!!!)

Laguna de Apoyo

Today we all decided to check out this place called Laguna de Apoyo. It is a crater lake that is surrounded by mountains, and is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. It reminded me a lot of Lake Como in Northern Italy (clear water, surrounded by mountains). We were slightly apprehensive about going at first because the Bearded Monkey had a sign up sheet to go to their sister hostel there (the Monkey Hut) and it cost five dollars for the bus ride and then you had to pay six dollars just to get into their facilities, and that was not including food. We really did not want to pay that much money. We talked to a guy at breakfast the day before, and he told us that you can take a chicken bus to Masaya and from there you can take another bus to the lake. So we decided on that since the chicken buses are always cheap. It cost us no more than two dollars to get there, and the last bus stop was at a local/public spot on the lake, so we did not have to pay to get in. Once we got there we swam around for a bit, enjoyed the sun, swam some more, talked, lounged in the hammocks, and chilled some more.

Cody, Anna, Erika, Jo, Staci, and Me

Cody, Erika, and Jo

We hung out for a couple more hours and then grabbed something to eat at one of the restaurants on the lake; it was a little more expensive than what we were use to paying (it cost about 6 dollars instead of 3-4 dollars) but we figured it was worth it for the hammocks and the view we had.

The newly engaged couple enjoying some hammock time!

The view from my hammock while waiting for some dinner, che bello huh!?

After we ate, we laid in the hammock for a bit longer, and then decided to go back before the market at Masaya closed. Masaya has a large market and is known for their hammocks, or so the book says. We got there and looked around for a bit, and realized that the market was huge, they had everything there from food, machetes, hammocks, to just about everything else. Staci decided to ask a woman there if she could direct her to where to "colorful bags and hammocks were", as soon as she smiled I knew that she would want something in return, so Cody, Erika, Anna, and I kind of slinked back and made our own way through the market. When we saw Jo and Staci again sure enough the old lady was following them around because she wanted them to buy something from her when they were down and she wanted to make sure that they came back to her stand when they were done. They finally convinced her that they would come back so she would leave.

We all got our hammocks and began to make our way back to back to the bus station to go back to Granada. Once back at the Bearded Monkey, we all showered and chilled out for a bit. Once Jo finished packing (she was leaving for England the next day), we all went to this pizza place that was pretty cheap and had fantastic meal to end the day.

A pig and his hair!!!

So the other day we were walking around Granada and ended up in the central park. I was kind of hungry because Erika and Anna both got some fresh mango with salt, so that just wet my appetite. I wanted to try something local, something typical. I ended up asking this lady who was eating something that looked pretty good. I asked here where she got and she told me where I could buy some. After I got the food and sat down, I figured out what most of it was. It was boiled yucca, cabbage, with some kind of chili sauce on it, but it also had some sort of fried......something. I was not sure what it was, but I had a pretty good guess.....fried pig skin. After I had a few pieces I was more confident in my first guess. The piece that I was currently eating had something different about it then the others, it had all these little black things on it. When I looked closer, I realized it was hair. After that I slowly put the piece to the side of my dish and continued to eat the rest. The dish was pretty good, but the hair was a little too typical for me. All and all it was a good meal, I did not get sick and now I can say that I have eaten fried pig skin........and his hair!Well you can't really see the hair all that well but this was one of the pieces.

Near death and Mombacho!!!

Today I woke up, drank some amazing Nicaraguan coffee and had a typical breakfast here of gallo pinto (rice and beans mixed), scrambled eggs, fried plantains, and bread, it was freaking delicious. After lounging around for a bit we decided that we wanted to climb the volcano Mombacho. We took a bus from Granada to Rivas for 6 cordobas (about 26 cents), then from Rivas we took a little three-wheeled motor taxi to the base of the park.

(On our way up to the Ranger station: Staci was in the front, then Anna, Erika, Cody, and Me.)

We were hustled a little about why its better to spend the extra money to ride in the back of a truck instead of walking and that it would take us like 8 hours to go up and down and even though it was only about 5 km to the top it was really steep (the really steep part was no lie); but we wanted to walk anyways. After about thirty minutes of walking I ran/walked back down to get a motor taxi for someone who could not make it all the way to the top. I wisely decided to leave my shoulder bag with Erika and Cody because I figured that I would catch up to them sooner than later.....yeah things did not really work out that way. Also, my bag had my shirt and my water bottle in it, along with my rain jacket and some other stuff. Well I was hoping that the motor taxi could take me back up to Cody, Erika, and Anna, but I only got about half way to where I turned around, and they never stopped because I told them not to wait for me, smart I know.
After I got out and started walking I figured that if I could walk for 5 minutes and run for 2 that I should be able to catch them in about thirty minutes to an hour, but as it turned out I could only run for about 1 minute and I had to walk for about ten minutes; eventually it got to the point to where I could not run at all.

(This was the moment that I realized I could no longer run. I used taking a picture as an excuse to take a break.)

After about an hour of walking, I eventually met up with Anna, but she had stopped and was waiting to catch a ride down because of a blister on the back of her foot. This was at the base of the canopy of the rain forest. From there an old man told me that it was only 2 km to the top and it should not take me but 40 min to an hour, and it took me the full hour to walk to the top.

(This was right after I met up with Anna, and just before I reached the canopy)

On my way up though, once I started getting into the fog, it started to rain lightly and eventually a little harder. The canopy was thick enough that if I stayed to the side of the trail it kept most of the rain off, but I was still getting pretty wet. I honestly did not mind this at all because I was so hot by then that I welcomed the cool rain and wind. It was high enough that it started to cool down a lot, but as long as I kept walking I was never too cold; but I still had no shirt or water, and this was about two hours after we had all parted. I was really hoping to find Cody and Erika mostly to get my water and shirt. Once I reached the top, I could not see more than 20 to 30 feet in front of me because of all the fog. I still did not find them. After waiting for about 10 minutes, I thought that maybe there was another trail that led back to the main road that they had taken, so I started to walk all the way back down the mountain. It took me at least another hour and a half to get back down to the base of the park; still no Cody or Erika, which means no water or shirt, hahaha. Well there were no motor taxi there, so I just started to walk to were I knew that I could catch a bus back to Granada. It was about another mile in a half to two miles back down the Rivas (where we initially got off the bus from Granada). When I was about a quarter mile away, the same driver that took us up saw me and asked me where all my amigos were. After explaining to him that I had not seen them for a while and that I had walked to the top and back down by myself in my italian and very broken spanish, he asked me if I wanted to ride back to the base of the park and wait for my friends, and I told him yes welcoming the break from walking: by then my knees and legs were so tired they were shaking with every step, it was not the distance that was so exhausting, but how steep it was; many places it was as steep as strawberry hill at fletcher, and it did not plain out it in many places. After talking for a bit he asked me if it was cold at the top and if I was still cold, not understanding the second part of the question I said yes. Immediately he stopped and took off his undershirt and gave it to me, I protested but he kept saying tranquilo, tranquilo (thats like, don´t worry about, chill out). I tried to pay him for it but he would not take the money, so I just shoved it in his pocket and thanked him like a million times for his kindness.

Up to the point of meeting Daniel (the driver) I was really enjoying the solitude of being alone in a place where I did speak the language very well, and being surrounded by such beautiful scenery. God really blessed me in keeping my body from getting too dehydrated and giving me the strength and resolve to keep going with no food since breakfast. He also gave me the gift of understanding and the gift to communicate what I wanted to say sufficiently. It was a fantastic day that I enjoyed mostly to myself and my thoughts.
Well when we reached the park entrance we waited with some of the rangers for them to arrive. They were talking and laughing and I was catching bits and pieces here and there. After about thirty minutes of joking around, Cody and Erika finally showed up. After I explained to them what had happened they gave me my bag back and I drank about half of the liter of water I had in my bag. Daniel had told me earlier that the last bust to Granada had already left and that he would take us for about 80 cordobas a piece (about four dollars). This was much more expensive than the bus (costing only 6 cordobas), but I wanted to give Daniel the business since he had helped me out so much. So he drove us all the way back to Granada in his little three- wheeled motor taxi; it only took about 20 minutes. We paid him, and then went back to our hostel for showers and food. All and all, it was a great day and truly blessed by God.

(Right before he dropped us off at our hostel)

We are alive!

We arrived in Managua early this morning. Our original ¨plan¨was to sleep at the airport until we could catch a bus in the mourning, but we thought that we would try to take a taxi straight to Granada, but it turned out the guy wanted like thirty bucks, which is really not all that bad concidering, but we knew that we could get there for cheaper if we waited till the morning. We got on a ¨chicken bus¨ (so called because they put every living thing on these busses including chickens, but we were fortunate to only have people) and went to a station called Huebes. That cost us about 10 cordobas for all four of us, which is rounded to about 50 cents. Then from the station we took a taxi to another station which cost 100 cordobas (about 5 dollars) for all of us to UCA (university of central america). From here we took a 15 passenger bus to Granada which was another 80 cordobas, ill let you do the math on that on; its about 20 to 1. So we arrived in Granada safe and sound, with little less than a worry and spent no more than about 2 dollars and 50 cents a piece to get here. I have forgotten the pure joy of going summer and not really knowing when to get off or really where you are going. The simpleness of needing to get to your destination and the joy of actually doing it, and then looking back and realizing that it was not nearly as bad as you thought is one of the coolest feelings in the world and it´s one I have not felt since Italy. It is a joy in its own to be in this beautiful hostel, the Bearded Monkey. Its an old colonial house with an open court yard in the middle with hammocks surrounding troppical plants, it really is beautiful. We are staying in their hammocks for 5 dollars a night. Well this is about the extent of our trip so far, but I just wanted to let all the worried old farts that we are okay, jk, but seriously yall are getting kind of old.......and you are starting to smell a little.....but i guess that is why I love you all so much. It is only 10 AM and we have been up since 5, and we are about to walk around town to look for some food. Love yall muchos (thats spanish for muchos).