Day Trip to Masaya

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Tuesday morning was our first day of being down one girl :( Jil had to leave early for a six a.m. bus back to San Jose because she was flying back to L.A. on Wednesday where she would fly back to Korea where she's been living and teaching English. It was kind of sad waking up and seeing her bed area empty just because you get so used to being around these girls after traveling together for so long. I really enjoyed traveling with Jil and getting to know her over the past couple weeks. Crazy to think that just two weeks ago, I had a complete stranger meet me in the airport to fly to San Jose, and next thing I knew, it felt like I'd known her for much longer.

Today was the day we would visit a neighboring town called Masaya for some cool markets and shopping. Trent and Matt joined us in the morning to walk to the bus station on the other side of the main plaza. The five minute walked led us to a small, almost van style bus that we loaded up for Masaya. The bus ride took about twenty minutes to a half hour and then we got off in search of the downtown area. The locals told us it wasn't too far of a walk so we decided to skip the taxi and just walk toward the downtown and market part of Masaya. The walk there was a cool experience because we got to pass so many local businesses that you wouldn't get to really experience up close from a taxi. Stores like plumbing supplies or flooring stores or Matt's favorite, a guitar manufacturing place. It seemed like we had been walking for quite a while and getting no where. It wasn't necessarily bad, because all I had on my arm was my purse for the day, but I felt bad for Gloria. She was staying in Masaya for the night and then meeting her friend, so she had all her luggage with her, a huge and heavy backpack as well as a daypack on her front half. As we got closer, she decided to grab a taxi to her next hostel, so we said our goodbyes and continued until we reached downtown. I would miss Gloria and was very thankful I went kayaking with her on Ometepe and got to know her for those few short days!

Because the walk was a little farther than we had expected, food was the first thing we wanted to seek out. Walking by a small party store, Niki, Matt and I popped in for a fifty cent ice cream cone which hit the spot perfectly until we found a little Mexican restaurant a couple blocks down.

As we walked into the little local restaurant, I hoped and prayed it would be nothing like the Mexican food from the night before. The restaurant had about three or four tables, two of which we pushed together to fit our group. It was cool to support a little local place like this. I started with a bottled water and ordered nachos, hoping that that couldn't really get screwed up like my vegetables medley burrito from the other place.

Food took quite a while which is something you have to get used to quickly here because restaurants in Central America aren't like the ones at home with a large kitchen staff. Often times, the same person that greets you and gets you drinks, is in the back helping the one cook prepare all of our dishes. When our food arrived, everyone was pretty satisfied with their selection. The nachos I got weren't really like the ones at home, but they were good! I've noticed after visiting Mexico and now Central America, that we season our meat way differently than they do. Anything we make with burger in it usually tastes like tacos, but this meat was more along the lines of sloppy joe meat. It was good food and really hit the spot for our hungry stomachs.

After lunch, we set out to find the markets that our book described as a very cool area to by souvenirs and other local themed merchandise. Based out of some kind of old building with open archways along the walls, we found the market and began to look around. Colorful jewelry, paintings and trinkets lined the walkway along with little booths you could walk further into with more stuff. Most of the sales people were pretty set on their pricing, unlike places I have been to in Mexico where if you don't agree with the pricing, they'll work it down. This market probably gets so much traffic everyday that they don't really have to adjust their pricing. I looked long and hard at a kind of woven or braided necklace with a cool jade stone, but ended up passing on it because I couldn't see myself spending $30 on a necklace! Of course, now I am kicking myself because I think of it a lot!

Anyways, Niki and I somehow branched off from the other four and ended up in a booth with a ton of cool canvas paintings. The ones we were scoping out were brightly colored and very simple paintings of a woman's face. We both bought one for fifteen bucks a piece. I was super excited a out my purchase and cannot wait to have a place of my own to hang it in. The ladies were kind enough to un-tack it from the stretcher and roll it up for us to carry while traveling. I was sure to snap a picture before mine was rolled up all the way because I knew that once it was rolled up and taped close, I would want to look at it again. That is what the photo would be for, and so that I could show you guys before I got home.

During Niki and I's search for the perfect painting, time had gotten away from us and our group had moved on. We searched the market high and low and had no clue as to where they went. Niki even asked a couple of the locals at the main entrance if they had seen them and all we got were negative replies. Right when we decided to give up and that they must have just went back without us, we caught a glimpse of Matt at the end of the block, so we shouted his name. He turned around and signaled with his arm for us to make an immediate left. Doing so, put us right into a local bar where we found the rest of the group.

They were already a few beers deep and had made some friends apparently. "Oh my gosh you guys, they've bought us all this beer and keep buying more, you have to help us drink it!" they said with excitement as we entered. They really weren't kidding! I look on the bar and each person has two bottles in front of them, as well as a couple liter bottles on the bar too!

Now for those of you that don't know, I HATE beer! Everyone that hears that says one if two things: 1) What?! You are not a Stawara! Or 2) Oh, you just haven't found your right beer. In response to both shocked reaction statements, Yes I am a Stawara, I may just have been skipped on the beer obsession gene and I am a trooper and try every single kind of beer in front of me, and they all make me make the ugliest face as I gag it down. Hahaha.

Tuesday was another one of those stupid days I thought I would overcome this dislike for beer, or so I thought. I'm not sure where Matt had gone at this point, but there was an empty stool and a brand new ice cold beer in front of it, so I filled the vacant spot. The beer was free, so why not, right?

I couldn't tell what was making me want to gag more? The beer that I tried drinking or the middle aged Nica men that were in love with us girls. Matt and Trent were there protecting us, so I never felt threatened, and they were all in fun. It was the blonde hair again! The one guy kept pulling me out on the floor to dance in front of the vending machine and kidding my hand and stuff. The girls were sure to snap pics of me laughing my ass off at the hooligans. Us girls were behind the bar at times and having a good ol' time dodging the old creeper men. Best part was though, the drinks were free!

After an hour and a half or so, we said our goodbyes to our new friends and began our walk to the bus station to head back. One thing we learned throughout the day at Masaya was that the way finding wasn't great and that everyone just points you in general directions when trying to find a place. We finally found the "bus station" which was a dirt field of a bunch of retired school buses. Central America is the place where all of our old school buses go to retire and upon retiring, they get ghetto paint jobs, tinted windows and any thing else you'd see on an episode of 'Pimp my Bus' HaHaHa! The lots they were parked in looked like what the parking lots do after a week long fair. Matted down dirt areas with no remains of grass because of the traffic. Anyway, we trekked across the dusty lot, past people selling juice and pop in bags, snacks for the bus and candy, toward a bus headed to Granada. We boarded the bus and waited for take off. Niki bought a small marshmallow character on a skewer for cheap while we waited. As the bus filled, more and more people stood in the aisle. One of which was a middle aged black dude that didn't speak any English. He seemed three sheets to the wind already as he winked and smiled at me. He said something I didn't understand, so Nicki was nice enough to translate that he thought I had beautiful eyes and kissed the top of my hand. I laughed uncontrollably along with the girls around me as I quickly wiped the back of my hand on my skirt. I had the heeby-jeebies from his kiss but just laughed it off with my friends. Next thing I know, he's telling Nicki how he likes my hair as he began to pet me like a petting zoo animal. That was enough and so I pushed his hand away nicely, of course while laughing and told him no. I never felt threatened, more just weirded out because I'm not used to strangers reaching out at me like ET's creepy finger, and of course it made me laugh. He just smiled and laughed with us with his metallic dental work showing with each smile. Niki told me don't laugh anymore because he thinks its funny and that when he goes in again, hit him to enforce and confirm that I'm serious. It was when he went in for a second pet, that I smacked his hand with my rolled up painting and he jumped back. I tried as best I could not to smile over the fact that I just got to swat at a full grown adult on a public bus. I told him, "No!" and tuned into the local women on the bus cracking up at my willpower. They thought it was hilarious. Trent could tell it was getting annoying and uncomfortable for me so he stood up and tried to shoo the drunk and creepy man away. He kind of turned away from me enough for Trent to sit down, before he started winking and smiling again which obviously aggravated a local guy near him enough to say something. The man in the red polo shirt sitting next to drunk man nudged him and told him that that was enough. Drunkie, then decided to slap the guy on the shoulder because he didn't agree. We all sat back holding our breaths kind of, waiting for something to happen, but red polo man just held his breath and bit his tongue. They both got off at the next stop so your guess as to what happened after that is as good as mine. They got off with others so I'm sure it was fine.

A little while later, our bus came to a stop in downtown Granada and we headed back to the hostel to shower and get ready for dinner. Matt and Trent broke off for a little while and we met back up a little after sun down to head to another clown show at the same bar as the night before. Plus our buddy Allister had met up with the clown group and weaseled his way into their performance which was going to be awesome to watch.

When we got to the bar, we called dibs on some good seats for the show and then Niki and Erin headed out to get some take out from The Garden Cafe to eat during the show. They returned with veggie sandwiches and wraps that we chowed down just in time for the show to begin. We were seated on a patio courtyard of the building around a stage that opened to the sky. As the show started, kids rolled and flipped and juggled, mimed and did tricks with a special yo-yo. It was an amazing show and really had us shouting out loud at times at how impressed we were. After the clown school's performance, Allister took the stage as a quirky OCD character in a skit that involved members from the audience and had people cracking up! He did a great job and had us wiping tears from our eyes from laughing so hard.

After the show, we headed back to the hostel and packed up our things for a morning departure and hit the hay after a bit of blogging and Facebook checking, of course.

Photos:
1) My painting I bought at the market
2) Dancing with the local dude at the bar
3) Niki and I in the bar
4) Niki and I with Trent (looking a tad bit like Edward Cullen!)
5) Me, Erin, Niki

Walking Around Granada

Monday, January 21, 2013

Going to bed Sunday night, we decided to sleep in and get our day started whenever. Niki, Gloria and I woke up around the same time and Nicki and Erin had been up for a little while already.

The game plan for the day was to check out downtown Granada, its restaurants and churches and find the festival we had heard about from some fellow travelers on Ometepe. Unfortunately, for the two days we had been in Granada already, no one really knew what we were talking about. We had skipped a city to make it to Granada in time for this festival that was starting to sound non-existent.

We grabbed some toast again for breakfast and then headed out for some sightseeing on foot. Our hostel was only a block from the downtown plaza so we headed that way. Jil and Gloria were leaving the next day to head home, so they had to run by the bus station to buy a ticket. Erin and Nicki had already walked around a bit to check out the town so Niki and I headed to find a church we had read about in our Lonely Planet guide book. Walking through the Central Park area, we passed a ton of vending tents and carts selling baked goods, purses, vases, jewelry and more souvenir items. Horses and carriages lined the curbs waiting for riders. A couple blocks from the main plaza area, was Inglesia de La Merced, completed in 1539, sacked by pirates in 1655 and restored in 1862 (according to our book). The baroque, but beaten up facade didn't look like much from the outside, but was beautiful inside. The caretaker at the door stood behind a glass counter full of prayer books, rosaries, and saint medals greeted us. For a dollar, we read that we could climb the bell tower for a look at the city, the main reason we set out to find the church. Niki and I went to the cathedral area to check out the alter, snap some pics and then headed to the bell tower. The very narrow spiral concrete staircase took us to the top for a beautiful view! We looked out across the tile rooftops and could see the parque central cathedral, a main landmark for our way finding throughout the city. I loved it up there, especially after having studied so many churches in art history class! To know the piece of history we were standing on was a very cool feeling. Heading down the stairs wasn't as fun because if my fear of heights, but I survived :)

From the church, we headed to a main street off the main plaza area that was loaded with restaurants, bars and shops. For lunch, Niki and I ended up at Garden Cafe which had an amazing and nutritious menu of veggie items like hummus, smoothies, and a goat cheese and veggie sandwich on a wheat baguette that Niki and I split. It was great food, good for us and a nice change up from rice and beans.

After walking around checking out churches and the town, we headed back to the hostel to get out of the afternoon heat and see what the other girls had planned. Nicki and Erin arrived not long after us, and we grabbed our books and electronic devices and hit the hammocks. Jil and Gloria walked in about a half hour later to tell us they were headed to the spa. Jil had booked an hour massage and Gloria was going to use the pool with a cheap day pass. We elected to hang back until we headed out to dinner.

At about four thirty or five, we headed back to the main plaza where Nicki and Erin had found the clown festival we had heard about! Allister, that we had met on the ferry to Ometepe, was one of the people we told about the festival when we heard about it because he is a professional clown. He had told us on the ferry of how he went to school for it and stuff so we had to tell him about the festival!

There were a lot of people gathered in the streets and vendors were set up selling art and souvenirs. About five minutes into shopping, we hear loud festival music begin outside and rush out to see a large crowd of clowns! Mostly all of them were about our age and decked out in colors and makeup riding unicycles, doing backflips and juggling. There were mats set up in the plaza that people started to gather around so we followed suit to make sure that we could get a good standing spot. The festival leader took the mike and addressed the crowd for a few minutes. I didn't understand much so I applauded when everyone else did and felt a little out of place when everyone else was cracking up.

The applause faded, music started up and two kids took the foam mat stage. They were clearly the comics in the group, dressed in a cow suit and the other in normal clothes. They acted a bizarre skit to open the start of the show which was confusing as hell to even my Spanish speaking friends. From there though, it made a quick turnaround. Groups of teenage boys rushed the mats doing backflips, front flips, and more acrobatic tricks. My jaw was dropped at the talent amongst the group as they switched to duet routines, to juggling, to human pyramids.

As they performed, I took a minute to look around the crowd and soak it in. Adults were just as intrigued as we were, their children sitting cross legged around the perimeter of the mat, hands in lap, bright eyed at the stunts, laughing at every comical moment possible. Mixed right in with the kids, enjoying the show just as much, if not MORE than the kids was Allister, also sitting on the ground. We were so glad to see he made it to the city in time.

At the end of the performances and the show, a clown school staff member walked around with a hat collecting donations, which we gladly added to. As we were turning to leave for some restaurants we ran into Matt and Trent, who we met back in Santa Elena, Costa Rica during our first week of travel. We bumped into them again at our hostel in Ometepe and again in Granada! They were only in Granada for a couple days before they had to return to Ometepe island for some volunteer construction work.

The boys ended up joining us for dinner at a Mexican restaurant downtown where we thought there would be some awesome food. We were able to get really cheap drinks for starts and then were really disappointed with the food. The vegetarian burrito I ordered was described in the menu as a flour tortilla filled with beans, onions, lettuce, peppers, cheese and sour cream, but was nothing like its description. Upon delivery, it looked amazing! A big burrito with cheese and a sauce in top, but cutting into it was a huge disappointment as I basically cut into a vegetable medley. Carrots, green beans, broccoli, and cauliflower with a itty bitty bit of refried beans is what filled my tortilla. You totally know what veggies I'm talking about too! The ones you buy frozen from Schwanns or the grocery store or the ones that are served at cheap banquet meals. It was bizarre and gross and I was thankful that my Pre-dinner mojito had curbed my hunger so I didn't eat it all.

At seven, Jil, Gloria, Matt, Trent and I paid our bills and headed to a hotel that was around the corner from where we were staying for some free salsa dancing lessons. Jil and Gloria had checked it out when they booked their bus tickets earlier in the day and somehow, we convinced the boys to join us.

After walking quite a few blocks, we entered the hotel lobby for info on our lessons. While the girls talked with the secretary at the desk, multiple sweaty people walked by the boys and I and exited the building. Jil turned around to tell us that we just missed the class. It turns out it was at six instead of seven like everyone told us and we were actually kind of bummed out! We were able to work it out where we walked with the instructor a few blocks away to another hostel where he started another lesson. It would only cost us like a dollar or two so we began our lesson.

This lesson was actually intended for the guests of that hostel as a perk of staying there, but no one wanted to dance, so it was just us five. Best part about this lesson that we were about to begin was that this guy didn't speak a word of English, which I thought was going to get interesting. How in the heck were we supposed to learn something from someone with a different language than us? Turns out it was actually a lot easier than I thought! All he really did was count with each step and I know how to count in Spanish :)

We started practicing each step individually, then we split the room into guys and girls. By this point, quite a few people had shown interest and joined in so we had about six or seven people on each side. I got paired up with the instructor which turned out to be very helpful because he was such a good leader. At one point, Jil and I switched and I had to jump over to the guys side, which was super difficult. To reverse the removes and have to be the initiator for every step was tough! We practiced salsa for over an hour and worked out butts off. We were dripping in sweat by the time it was done and laughing so hard.

We walked back to the hostel to meet the girls and hit the bars for a little afterwards. While we were at dance, Niki, Nicki and Erin did work with some drinks and were a little ahead of us so we had some catching up to do...haha! We caught back up with the clown crowd and hung out and danced with them at the local bar.

Gloria and I ended up heading back around midnight because we were so tired. Your body really gets used to early mornings and early bedtimes, so by the time even midnight rolls around, it feels like three in the morning. I laid in bed with the intentions if typing more about my day on the blog, but fell asleep with my phone on my chest and didn't move until morning! Goodnight Granada!

Pics:

1) La Merced and bell tower
2) Inside La Merced
3) View from bell tower
4) View of plaza cathedral from bell tower
5) Niki and I on bell tower
6) Cool Granada buildings
7) Another downtown church
8) Hummus for lunch
9) Vendors at Clown Festival
10) Acrobat show
11) Stars of the show
12) More cool buildings

Laguna de Apoyo

Sunday, January 20, 2013

What looked like an amazing bed, turned out to be an even more amazing sleep! I slept next to my backpack and my belongings because there was no room on the floor around me, but slept like a total baby with a fan on me and a outlet to charge my phone by my side.

The alarm went off about eight thirty to wake us up for a day at the lake. Our hostel had told us of a crater lake about twenty five minutes from our hostel that we could spend the day at called Laguna de Apoyo. The cost was only ten dollars and that covered our transportation to and from the lake as well as free use of the kayaks and tubes.

I grabbed some toast, a banana I had leftover from traveling and orange juice for breakfast, while playing on the wifi. Then we suited up, lathered ourselves with sun lotion and loaded up in a van taxi at ten a.m.

On the way there, I got a better look of the city of Granada. Like any city, there was a lot of garbage in certain areas like streams under bridges and all up and down the curb. Ignoring that though, the town was quite cool and not like anything we had seen yet. It definitely had a very Spanish/European influence to the buildings and city streets. Granada is a very old town, founded in 1524, and has a very colonial feel to it with it's elegant churches, center town plaza, bright colored adobe walls and use of decorative columns.

We worked our way out of the city and into the countryside. The road became dirt and I caught my first glimpse of the lake in the distance. They called it a crater lake for a reason, because it was surrounded by tall and green hills that our van slowly made its way down closer and closer to the water. Just like the lakes in Michigan, it was a small dirt road that wrapped around the lake and worked closer and closer to water level.

The van stopped in front of a beachside hotel and we piled out. The hotel was where we would stay for the day which was posted on the steep hillside over looking the lake. Hammocks hung unoccupied in the trees around us and a tiki looking bar sat right by some cushioned lounge chairs on a flat area chiseled into the hill. Below that, were rocky stairs leading down to the pebble covered shore of Laguna de Apoyo. It was gorgeous and blue and a lot bigger than I had expected.

My small toast and juice breakfast had worn off so I was ready for a small snack. I ordered plantain tostadas and pico de gallo. Plantain tostadas are bananas or plantains sliced very thin length wise and fried like a chip. These are super common and sold at every roadside cart and super yummy.

As we lounged, read and sunbathed, we watched a group of about ten teenage Nicas hanging out on shore by the hotel's dock and swimming area. They were horse playing, drunk and shouting things which made us not too comfortable for swimming yet. It's not that we saw them as threatening, because they were just having a good time, but based on how much attention we get on the streets, we weren't about to go down there in swimsuits and dive into the water near them. After a little while, the hotel guy running the bar keyed in on them and asked them to leave. Once they moved down the beach a little, we headed down to check out the water. The shore line was very stoney, so our only option was to dive in off the big dock which was great. The girls in the water before me prepared to judge me and the couple other hotel guests' dives. The guys in front of me were averaging sixes and sevens and then I showed them up with a perfect ten :) HaHa.

The water was crystal clear, the perfect temperature, and best of all, not salty! The fresh water lake was pretty wavey for a lake and entertaining to us for a while. After our fingers and toes were nice and pruney, we headed back up to our lounge chairs for some fresh fish tacos and another small relax session before our taxi returned at four to take us back. I enjoyed an ice cold Sprite out of a can with a straw while we waited and it was awesome! It's funny how I don't really drink pop at home, but the other girls totally agree that when you travel, there's just something about a cold Coke or Sprite.

We piled into the taxi van when it arrived and it began the ten minute climb up the steep dirt road out of the crater lake area. On our way back, we passed a funeral procession on foot, as well as a guy riding a motorcycle holding a birthday cake out in the open, no wrapper or box or anything. It was interesting to see how other people were spending their Sunday.

We got back to the hostel and showered, ordered some food from the hostel's restaurant which was a bit pricey, but convenient, and relaxed for the rest of the night. I worked on blogging for a little while until we went out to the front lobby couch to watch a movie. After a long and very relaxing day in the sun, we were surprisingly tired, dozing in and out during the movie. I am my father's daughter when it comes to watching movies....I get out right to sleep no matter how good the movie is. Instead of fighting it, I brushed my teeth and hit the hay in my own comfy and clean bed that was calling my name and fell fast asleep.

Pics from my camera of the lake

Granada Bound

Saturday was the day we would leave Ometepe and head for the city of Granada, an old downtown area on the northwest side of Lake Nicaragua. We slept in until about nine in the morning, and packed up our things. The night before, we had discussed where we were all going next and found that some other people were heading in our same direction, so we would travel together. Gloria's friend Joke, was headed to a different city and Gloria liked the sound of Granada, and decided to hang with us for a few days. I was really glad to have met Gloria through my kayaking adventure the day before and was happy that we were able to visit a little longer with her. Jaimie from the UK and Lorenz from Germany, both guys our age that the we played catchphrase with our first night and who the girls hiked the mountain with, were also leaving Ometepe and decided to join our cab and ride the same ferry as us on our way out.

After gathering our things, paying our tab from the past couple days of lodging and eating, we gathered in the pavilion area to wait for our cab/van to arrive. We said goodbye to all of our new friends we had made at the Santa Cruz hostel on Ometepe and I jotted down everyone's names so that we could keep in touch through Facebook. Our large group of friends piled up for a big group photo and then we loaded up into the van. My eyes were opened at that point of how cool traveling can be in the social sense. Preparing for this trip, everyone told me I would meet so many cool people, and that is exactly what happened. Just on Ometepe alone, I met people from Germany, The Netherlands, the UK, Canada, Colorado, Columbia and more. I loved that melting pot feeling, because even being from so many different parts of the world and having so many differences culture wise, we still all shared so many similarities too! I was kind of bummed to be leaving some of them already.

We waved out the window of the luggage packed van at our friends and headed toward the ferry. It was about a twenty minute ride to the docks and then we hopped aboard. This ferry was much more official feeling than the one we took to Ometepe. Rather than sitting on the top metal deck, there was seating below with restrooms and TVs playing a fuzzy picture of Grease.

The boat ride was about an hour long and then we pile into taxis to take us to the bus terminal in Rivas which was just as crazy and overwhelming as the couple other bus stations we had visited. People shouting taxi and city names, trying to round us up like cattle. We last minute, boarded an old school bus for Granada and squeezed in nice and tight with the locals. As the hot and crowded bus waited for departure, Nica women with aprons and giant plastic bowls on their head walked up and down the isle selling soda, candy, empanadas, and baked goods for cheap.

The bus grumbled to a start and headed toward Granada. It was actually a bus headed toward a different city, but the driver had said he would drop us off at the road headed to Granada. When we approached that point in the trip, the locals on the bus helped us know that our stop was coming up and signaled us toward the door. A couple of us exited out the back and a couple out the front. As we waited by the bus to get our backpacks from the top of the bus, one guy was rattling something off in Spanish in a very persistent and kind of annoying way. A lot of the locals assume that because three of the girls speak Spanish so well, we all do. I asked Nicki to translate for me and he was saying we have to pay. I had already paid on the ride there when the guy walked up and down the aisle collecting the fares. Then we realized he along with about three other workers meant that we had to pay to get our bags down, which we were not told ahead of time. As the girls tried to talk with them and stand up for ourselves, the rest of the workers just kept insisting and insisting while the bus driver slowly started to creep forward. They got exactly what they wanted out of us as we shout, "Wait!" and give them their money before they drive off.

I get my backpack on my bag as we gather our thoughts on the side of the road. Who am I kidding though...in a situation like that, you don't even have time to recover your mind because then six more guys with little motorized wagon taxi looking things hound us about a ride to Granada. They all spit out prices, competing with each other, while staying WAY higher in prices than what a ride like that should be.

We ended up getting a truck taxi that we piled into the bed of and took to our hostel. Piled and squished in the back of the truck was not my favorite moment of traveling. By that point, I was so hot and tired and irritated of feeling taken advantage of on pricing.

That all changed when we entered the lobby of our hostel, El Momento. The lobby was quiet with tall ceilings, marble floors and a very friendly and welcoming staff. Through the double doors of the lobby, was a beautiful courtyard surrounded by an awning, comfortable wicker seating, and a bar. We walked into the dorm area we were staying in and my jaw about hit the floor at how awesome it was. The room was very big and tall with marble floors, bunk beds bordering the room and large wooden cabinets for each bed number. The beds were all doubles that we thought he would point to and say, "two here, two here and two here", but we all got our own. Each bed had a shelf next to it, plenty of outlets for charging our cameras and iPods, a fan pointing right at the bed and a paper lamp. I was so pumped for some personal space like that and so were the other girls. After paying for three nights, we all grabbed our iPods, Kindles, tablets, or whatever else we wanted for some relax time and hit the hammocks and wicker couches. I ordered some chips and pico de gallo to accompany my iPhone and I. I remained on that couch for the rest of the night and was in bed early. El Momento was just what the doctor ordered and we enjoyed every minute of our evening there. I worked on catching up on my blog as well as Skyping with my family. Niki and I had such a late night the evening before at Little Morgan's bar, that we knew it would be an early night. The clean and crisp white sheets called my name from the dorm room, and I gladly answered with some well needed shut eye.

Pics:
1) Dorm Room
2) Courtyard Bar
3) The wicker couch I called home for my blogging and relaxing my first night
4) Hostel lobby facing the courtyard

Kayaking on Ometepe

All night, I dreamt and slept heavily. I dreamed of waking up for this atrocious hike we were about to embark on come morning. My dreams dished me two scenarios. One was that I followed through and went on the hike and discovered it was truly a ten out of ten difficulty wise. Two, was that I told the girls I was going to stay behind and it was perfect. I woke up about an hour before our alarm was to go off and laid there still struggling with my decision. I wanted to see the view and experience the hike, but I didn't want to be miserable in the process. At six thirty, the alarm went off and we had a half hour to get ready until our guide would arrive. I went with my gut and dream's predictions and told Niki I was staying back. She was cool and my mind had raced so much that there was no going back to sleep for me, so I grabbed my phone and began to work on my blog. A little while in, Rhed awoke and we chatted for a while. It was so cool to lay there and chat with someone from a different country about their ways, their history, and their opinion of the U.S. At one point, I was summing up America's history that we learned all throughout highschool in about a ten minute nutshell. I was asking Rhed about the UK's and he had a great point of the fact that they had so much more history to cover in school, simply because of the differences in ages of our countries.

After chatting for a couple hours, I headed out to the pavilion area to get some breakfast. That is when I met Gloria and Joke again. They were like, "hey, I thought you were hiking today?" and I explained what my plan was. I planned on catching up on my blog and hanging out. They were still up in the air a bit, so we just hung out in the pavilion.

I went back to the cabin at one point to shower, and totally forgot about what a Central American shower involved. What I thought would be a relaxing and refreshing shower, turned out to be my coldest shower yet. I had to lean my head back as far as I could to wash my hair because the water was so cold on my body. It felt good to squeeze the water out of my hair, because that was the only opportunity I had at warm water. The water sitting closest to my head had absorbed some body heat and felt great running down my chilled body. At one point, I had to wash my body so I soaped and jumped in and super rinsed as fast as I could. That was when I wished for home and a warm shower!

Returning to the pavilion area, Rhed had asked me if I wanted to kayak later and I was totally excited! I didn't want to sit around and wait for the girls. I wanted to do something exciting and take advantage of the beauty this island possessed so I told him I was in!

At 1:30, Rhed, Gloria, Joke and I loaded up in the back of a pickup, sitting on a truck bed toolbox and headed for the kayak place. The guy at the front desk wasn't kidding when he said taxi was the only way to access it. The road headed to the kayak company was the worst we had traveled yet. We honked past cattle and bumped and bounced our way to a little lakeside hut where we prepared for kayaking. The man gave us large, recycled mayonnaise jars or something like that to store our dry belongings in that would be in the kayak with us. Meanwhile, a young boy was tying together three kayaks and then attaching the rope to the back end of the boat. As they set up, we gave a small calf tied to a tree a visit and took some photos with him. He had been snacking on bananas or plantains for the day.

When the young boy signaled that he was ready, we boarded the small speed boat which taxied us to the end of the lake bay where the river mouth was located. The guide anchored the boat and him and the boy helped us into our kayaks. Rhed and I shared one and Gloria and Joke shared the other while our guide hopped into a single kayak to show us around.

The river wasn't like I expected. It was more like wetlands and the amazon. Long vines hung from the tree tops and white heron birds patrolled the area for snacks. Our guide took us down a small branch of the river, through lilly pads and under vines to a beautiful little area. He pointed to the trees and showed us some monkeys. As we paddled slowly, he was looking hard for more wildlife. We looked over to him and one point and he had his finger over his lips like, "shhhh", as he pointed into the plants on the edge. He waved his hand calling us over and whispered in Spanish. Thankfully, the Dutch girls could understand bits and pieces enough to translate that there was a crocodile holding a bird in it's mouth. We looked and looked and looked as the guide pointed. Rhed was the first to spot it so he guided our eyes until finally, after like five minutes, we were able to make out a small part of it's nose and the feathers. Our guide told us that this croc was about four or five feet long. I was pumped now!

We continued to paddle up and down small little tributaries of this very slow paced river. About twenty yards away, our guide pointed out another crocodile that none of us could see until the very end when I saw it waddle off. The portion of the tail that I saw was way bigger than I had expected. I took a ton of photos as we weaved our way through the beautiful scenery with the volcanoes in the background. This was such an awesome way to experience the wildlife of Omotepe without having to hike a grueling mountain. I was already feeling very thankful for my decision.

After the river, we paddled our way down the shores of the lake until we got back to the hut where we started. Our arms had quite the workout and the sun was about an hour from setting, so the guy that had organized this trip, started the long and bumpy journey back to our hostel. Right when we were talking about how bad the road was, and that we can't believe how these vehicles take such a beating, we heard a very unsettling hiss from the front passenger tire. We knocked on the window to tell him his tire was going flat, and quick! The driver put it in reverse and turned around so that we were headed back toward where we came from. Once we got to flat land, right in front of a house/store, he killed the engine. The tire was way too flat to continue so we piled out of the truck and he began the long and hot process of changing a tire on the bumpy and very dusty road.

Like any kids would do, the young boy and girl that lived at the house, approached the street to check out what was going on. The house was small and dark, with a dirt front yard sprinkled with chickens, chicks, dogs and a pig. The animals pecked and rooted around the yard for food and even the animals expressed interest as to what we were doing in front of their house. Our driver told the young boy to get us girls some juice or something to make us feel welcome, but we didn't need it. A large front window on the porch served as a store window where they sold a small selection of toiletries and snacks. I headed into the yard to check out the store and the animals. Just through eye contact and simple hand gestures, I was laughing with the kids about their dog. Next thing I know, they call me to their porch and the girl disappears behind a door for a second to a little lean-to coming off the house. She returns holding a small little black puppy, with really short and smooth hair. Similar to a hound, but without the elongated body, and this one had long and skinny legs. The seven year old, Margarita, extended her arms in my direction, offering for me to hold the pup. I gratefully take the puppy and tell her thank you! After a couple of minutes of holding and playing with the puppy, I handed the puppy over to Gloria for a turn. The puppy in my hands, was quickly replaced by a small peeping chick that Eduardo, about eight years old, eagerly placed in my hand. These kids were smiling ear to ear to have us on their front porch holding their animals. We asked them what the fruit was that they had in the bowl on the porch and they offered us a try.

In my hand, they placed a grape sized, brown fruit. The shell was hard like a peanut shell but thinner and more delicate. It looked like a baby kiwi before touching it. Inside, was a white-ish green soft fruit with a pit or seed like a grape. It was so extremely sour and the kids cracked up at our faces.

We took photos with the kids and the mom and the pets and showed them on the screen of the camera and they loved it! I let them use my camera and take photos of us. After photos, we went around behind the house so we could see their cows. It was really cool and comfortable talking with the kids because I wasn't intimidated to try my spanish. I told her that I have cows at my house and she understood.

After about an hour, the driver called us and said the tire was fixed. I hugged the kids and thanked them for an awesome time and we headed out. They shouted "¡Adios!" for a ways as we disappeared down the road. I was ecstatic driving back to the hostel because of the cultural experience I just had. The other travelers we were with were like, "You've never been to a home like that and had that up close and personal experience?" I assured them that this was the first time I had ever gotten to do something like that and it was amazing! I felt so thankful to be able to bring so much joy to those kids and for the memories I got to walk away with in exchange.

When we returned to the hostel, the girls and the friends they had made on the mountain were all sitting around the tables under the pavilion. Some had just showered while others sat barefoot next to their socks and mud covered boots, looking like they were going to pass out. As we walked up, they were exchanging stories of the mountain and before I even had the chance to ask how it was, the girls just say, "Oh my God Sam, you made the best decision out of all of us!" They said they'd rate it as a 12 out of 10 for difficulty and that I would have been miserable. The two girls who out hiked me, hands down in Santa Elena, were exhausted and completely drained. I was so happy that I went with my gut feeling, plus it was cool to do something on my own. I had made a couple good friends out of it.

Gloria, Joke, Rhed and a couple other friends and I went to a local comedor for a cheap and delicious dinner. It was cool to be in more of a local place with a sassy little Nicaraguan lady serving and cooking. She reminded me of a sassy little Italian lady that you wouldn't want to give any crap to, but from Nicaragua instead. The food was probably the best Nicaraguan food I had had yet. Our choices were grilled chicken or fried fish. My chicken was pounded thinly with a barbecue and slight charcoal grill taste with gallo pinto, fried plantains and a coleslaw sort of dish. The people at my table who ordered the fried local fish, were presented a full bodied fish on their plate....teeth, eyes, fins and all. It was cool to see fish prepared that way, but I was definitely happy with my choice of chicken.

We ended the night by going up the road to another hostel called Little Morgan's. It was a group of about ten of us that walked down there which turned out to be quite the party at their bar. Our hostel was definitely the grab a bite to eat and use the wifi sort of place where this was the loud music, pool table, party place. I had a ton of fun, made a lot of good friends and slept very well after a long and eventful day!

Had to take pictures of my camera screen to show pictures from my day because I didn't have my phone, but it's better than nothing!

Motorbikes on Ometepe Island

Despite the creepy crawler scare before bed, I slept like a rock. We woke up Thursday morning and researched some scooter rentals. For $35 a scooter, the employee would drive them to our hostel for us and we could ride until six or seven at night. This was great because the island was so big and there was so much to see. Only problem was that they only had two scooters and the rest were automatic motorbikes. The girls were not capable of driving an automatic so I agreed to take the manual, even though it had been a while since I'd ridden a dirt bike. My first car was a stick and I have driven plenty of manuals, but I was a little nervous because a dirt bike is a different story. I wasn't too nervous though, because it was only a 125.

After grabbing some breakfast and packing up a backpack, the guys arrived with the scooters and bike. One guy called me over and had me hop on the bike to show me how to kick start it and give me the run down. It was your usual, one down and four up gear shift...simple enough, but when it was my turn to kick start, I couldn't do it. I don't know why because I had done this a number of times, but for some reason, this was tough! "Here, here," the Nicaragua guy would say as he'd have me hop off and he hopped on. He would get it on his first try, hop off and then I'd be unsuccessful again. At one point, I got on and told them it wasn't in neutral and they kept insisting it was. I rocked the bike back and forth and knew it wasn't so I clicked it up into neutral from first gear and then felt the bike roll back and forth with ease. Niki had snapped a pic of me and all the guys gathered around me so I just laughed and started to feel like an idiot...until another guy at the hostel hopped on and wanted to try. He couldn't get it either! A third guest hopped on and also struggled. Clearly, it was a tricky bike and the employees were just used to it. The hostel guest hopped off the bike and explained to me that he rides a bike like this at home and this one was just testy, which made me feel way better.

Through bits and pieces of the Spanish I understood, I gathered that the guy was gonna run back to his shop and switch it out for an electric start bike. Rhed had woken up by this time and showed a lot of interest in the bikes so I told him to come with us but he didn't know how to drive a manual. When I walked back to the table where the girls were waiting I apologized and told them I felt like an idiot. No one likes having to try something like that in front of an audience, but they just laughed and assured me I didn't look dumb. Niki had snapped a pic because she thought it was hilarious that I was telling THEM when the bike was in neutral and that I was one of the few out of the group of hostel people that could actually ride that, even the guys. They were impressed that I knew what I was doing, because they weren't expecting the employees to be rolling up on a motorcycle and gave me mad props for being brave enough to ride it.

About ten minutes later, the guy returned with another 125cc, but this time with a push button start...much better! The guy hooked me us up with these cheesy little metal cap helmets and we were ready! We headed out the drive, which ended up being the roughest, bumpiest, and most difficult part we'd encounter all day.

Once we hit the paved road, it was a breeze! I shifted with ease and felt liberated to get away from the hostel's audience and the motor shop employees and figure it out myself. Nicki and Erin led the way on their shared scooter, followed by me on the bike with Niki bringing up the rear on her scooter. Jil had decided to stay back and rent a bicycle instead. It was a perfect temperature out and the sun was shining. We rode down the hilly and windy country roads, over speed bumps, past banana filled trucks, and through small little towns. We stopped at a small roadside beach to check out the view and feel Lake Nicaragua for the first time. It was beautiful to see a volcano to the left and another to the right. The gray sand beneath our feet was a product of volcanic rock and was a lot different than the sand in Costa Rica. We snapped a few pics on the beach, a few by our rides, and were ready to ride again.

I turned the key, made sure my kill switch was off and that my bike was in neutral, but couldn't get the bike to start. Great! I knew what it was, my bike had cooled down, and it just needed to be choked, but I had no idea where that'd be on this bike! Niki's mind was already blown that I knew what that even was, but was even more excited to see me find it, start it, give it some gas, and be ready to go. It was at this moment that I was so thankful for my dad! Growing up, it was important to him that Katie and I knew how to work equipment, whether it be a weed whacker, a lawn mower, a quad, or even a tractor. He taught us the basics and explained that once we knew that, we should be able to hop onto any piece of equipment, or in this case a dirt bike, and be able to fend for ourselves! Way to go Dad! Who would have thought those country summer lessons would help get me out of a pinch somewhere on an island in Nicaragua one day?

We continued to ride back in the opposite direction for the long stretch of our ride. Back past the hostel, past a ton of local homes, and through more towns. As we rode, we past many people on bicycles and walking and I couldn't help but feel bad. Some of these people we passed were on long and steep hills, walking to get where they need to go, while we blew by on motorcycles. Some of these people probably never owned a bike their whole life, and here we are just renting one for the day for fun. Between that and passing the typical shack homes with pigs, chickens, skeleton skinny dogs and other animals running around their yard, I felt very thankful for where I've grown up. We don't get to choose what land and area we are born into, so I am beyond thankful that I was born into the family I was.

I thought being a group of American girls got us a lot of whistles and waves, and being a blonde got even more, but being a blonde girl on a motorcycle definitely took the cake in the whistling department. Haha. Every group we passed, we got whistles and shouts and kisses blown and it was hilarious.

At about two or three, we stopped at an English tea house for some lunch. Unfortunately, they only had tea and desserts so they pointed us a couple buildings down to a hostel that had a restaurant. I wasn't very hungry because of the heat so I just got the vegetable plate, which was basically a plate of boiled carrots, potatoes and this mystery green veggie. It was like a zucchini kind of, but it was not seedy. It was more the consistency of a boiled carrot or even more like broccoli stems? We asked our server what it was and he said it was a chayote and he went to get one from the kitchen to show us. It was cool to see what he was talking about and it was a vegetable that none of us had heard of.

After lunch, we went back down the street to the tea house where our bikes were parked to have some dessert. An English woman and her Nicaraguan husband and their baby John ran this small business on the front porch of their home. We ordered ice cream and brownie cake and while we waited, went around back to check out the baby goats that were less than twenty four hours old. It was so cool to see a local farm like this. Not a ton of animals, but enough to be self sufficient. They had goats, chickens, and a piglet. Nicki and I went right into the pen without hesitation after the brother in-law offered it to us. Little baby John came in with us in his rubber boots and showed us his animals. John wasn't even two yet and reminded me so much of my childhood playing around the animals in our favorite rubber boots. I got to pet the piglet and hold the baby goat. Even though I've grown up my whole life with animals, this was still super special and one of my favorite parts of the day. The brother in-law of the owners snapped pics for me and then we headed inside to wash our hands because our dessert was almost ready. It wasn't like ordering dessert at a cafe, but more like being at a relative's house and they bring you dessert on a dish while you sit and socialize. I enjoyed a small scoop of chocolate ice cream on the breezy and shady patio of their front porch while we enjoyed little John's company. He was in love with Nicki and grew even more fond of her when she decided to share her ice cream with him. We chatted it up with the family for a while and finally had to say our goodbyes, I didn't want to leave.

Nicki and Erin split off on their scooters to see a coffee plantation while Niki and I branched off to visit a natural spring and swimming hole called Ojo de Agua. Leaving the tea house for our next location was bittersweet. When traveling, you meet so many cool people and connect so well and before you know it, you're on the road again to find more. Makes you kind of sad to leave and go in different directions, but I'm thankful I got the opportunity to meet them in the first place.

Cruising down the road this time, you couldn't wipe the smile from my face! Niki and I cruised the open road holding the "rock on" hand signal up to each other. I was feeling so thankful for that exact moment in my life. I breathed in the sweet smell of warm weather and sweet plants and tried to take it all in! A soundtrack played in my head as we headed toward the natural springs.

We turned down a dirt drive labeled as the Ojo de Agua and slowly worked our way to the park entrance. A man greeted us and took our money for admission, showing us where to park, where the bathrooms and changing rooms were and where the springs pool was. It was absolutely beautiful! As we approached the swimming area we hear, "Hey guys!" and look over to see Jil. She had just gotten out from swimming but joined up with us and went back in. For some reason, I was expecting hot springs, but no biggie. The water was room temperature and crystal clear with a sandy and rocky bottom. The man explained that this water was full of minerals that would be great for our skin and hair. We played around with Niki's underwater camera for a while, cooled down and finally got out of the water because the sun was setting and we needed to get the motorbikes returned.

This ride back was a little more chilly than the others because we were wet. The guys at the motorshop watched us pull up and I told them that practice had made perfect! I was sad to be parking the bikes for the day because we had had so much fun on them! Niki and I walked across the street to meet up with the other three girls at a beachside vegetarian joint where we split a grilled veggie sandwich and a pineapple smoothie. We were basically killing an hour so that we could get a ride back to our hostel from the motorbike company.

After we returned to the hostel, we got into our comfy clothes for the night and I started to work on my blog that was a couple days behind. The girls started up a group game of catchphrase again and I opted out so I could get caught up on my posts...well at least for about fifteen minutes anyway! Just like in San Jose, this game had attracted more travelers and it was becoming quite the group. I didn't want to miss out on the socialization, so I decided to put off my blogging...again. After about twenty minutes of playing, we had rounded up about ten players and quite a few observers too. Max from Colorado, Jamie from the UK, Gloria and Joke (pronounced Yolk-uh) from the Netherlands and a few more. Niki and I backed out and participated as shouters from the outside of the ring for a bit as we split a giant bowl of veggie soup and then got right back into the game.

As it got later and later, we thought more and more about bed. We were planning on a seven a.m. hike to the top of one of the volcanoes that would last eight hours, so sleep was very important. To tell ya the truth, I had been dreading this hike since our ferry ride because of my negative experience in Santa Elena. The girls assured me that I'd be fine and that it would be well worth the work!

The view from the misty and cloudy top of the volcano was supposed to be breathtaking and the swim in the frigid crater lake at the top was pretty cool too. We had heard mixed opinions on the difficulty, but were definitely prepared for the knee-deep mud we would encounter along the way which seemed to be a common denominator to everyone's stories about the hike. As we were going to bed, the two Dutch girls said they had done it a couple years back and that the guy that said it was a 3 out of 10, difficulty wise, was nuts. They said it was extremely difficult where you literally had to pull yourself up in some areas.

That was the wrong thing for me to hear before bed because I was already questionable about it and now it was only about eight hours away. I told Niki as we were getting into bed that I wasn't so sure about the whole hike thing. I fell asleep to bad thoughts, thinking that I'd get about an hour into it and regret my decision. I finally decided to see how I felt in the morning and drifted off to sleep.

Photos:
1) Guys setting me up with the bike
2) Beach view of volcano
3) Me by my ride
4) Peace from my dirt bike
5) Our bike gang hahaha
6) Veggies from my lunch
7) The English Tea House
8) Animal pens behind the tea house
9) The Piglet
10) The baby goat and I
11) John enjoying Nicki's ice cream
12) Niki and I in the spring pools
13) our underwater photoshoot

Nicaragua, Here We Come!

Nicaragua here we come...

On Wednesday morning, our alarms got us up at four thirty, four forty five-ish. We packed up the last of our things and were headed out the door by about ten after five. As I was leaving the bedroom, I happened to look down and right by the doorway was...you guessed it, another frickin' spider! Why was I the only one spotting it? Ugh! Contemplating whether or not to even take care of it, the girls decide to get it outside and we headed out for our walk to the bus stop. Like every small road in this town, we stumbled across the crushed rock and dusty road with the stars over our heads and the sound of monkeys howling in the distance. If we didn't know they were monkeys, you would have sworn that the zombie apocalypse was beginning. Eerie, but very cool to hear. The bus stop that we arrived to was very nice; paved with a metal roof, and before I could even get my backpack off, a bus had arrived for the town we needed. The bus schedule listed a five and six a.m. bus and we were shooting for the six o'clock bus, but it was our lucky day, and the five bus was running late. We were loaded onto the old retired school bus by five thirty and now ahead of schedule as we bumped and rattled our way down the dusty countryside for Nacoya.

The sun rose and the sky became warmer and warmer with colors, and before we knew it, we were pulling back into the dirty, loud, and chaotic, Nacoya bus station. We stopped at a little food vendor and had some eggs and gallo pinto for breakfast and then walked a few blocks to the next bus station.

Almost everyone had to use the bathroom before our next long bus ride, so I purchased our tickets while I waited. I was proud to have done it on my own, and all in Spanish. Just like the first bus, we had caught this one at a perfect time and were able to be on the road within five minutes of arriving. This was another old
school bus that would take us from Nacoya to Liberia, where we would board our last bus for the day. The bus ride seemed short this time, and we had arrived to the Liberia bus station. I have noticed bus stations, airports, and any other station of travel like this can be so hectic. Not to mention, we are a group of five so although we are together, we all get asked different things. People literally do everything but pull at you to ask where you're going, if you need a taxi, and trying to get you to come on their bus. Nicki, Erin and Niki, seem irritated and overwhelmed at times, but I envied them, because at least they could understand what the people were shouting. Actually, I haven't decided whether not knowing what they are saying is an advantage or a disadvantage only because at times, it's kind of nice being able to tune it all out.

Again, we timed it perfectly and were able to board the bus instantly. Men stood by the boarding line exchanging colones (the currency of Costa Rica) for the new money of Nicaragua, the cordoba. This time, we climbed aboard a larger bus, similar to a greyhound and headed for the border. It wasn't very crowded like the other busses we had ridden, so I was able to sit alone and spread out across two seats. All morning, I had been too busy taking in the scenery to even care about sleep. It had finally caught up to me though and the moving bus was working it's magic, like a car ride does to a baby. I dozed in and out until the bus came to a stop at the border. Butterflies fluttered around my belly as we got off the bus, just because I wasn't sure what to expect through the immigration process, plus I was nervous to enter a less developed and more poor country.

We started the immigration process by waiting in a line and filling out a half sheet of paper with our information, until about ten minutes later when we entered a government building. It was very similar to our Secretary of State buildings or other government facilities, just without the seating area. When it was my turn, I handed my paperwork and passport under the the glass to the woman and she gave me my exit stamp from Costa Rica and sent me on my way. I was excited to be getting more stamps in my unexperienced passport. The girls I'm traveling with have had to add inserts into their passports for more room like two times already.

From there, we walked past the entrance line into Costa Rica, and toward the Nicaraguan border. People on the outsides of the chain link fence barricades flashed wads and wads of cash in their hand shouting things to get us to exchange our currency with them. We continued to walk the stretch toward the Nicaraguan offices besides lines of semi-trucks, also waiting for entrance. Going through a couple different gates, we had to show our exit stamps to officials and continue on our way. I couldn't believe how unofficial the border walk was. It was just a asphalt and sometimes even gravel driveway leading us to the next country. It was totally limbo. When we finally made it through, we were, of course, BOMBARDED by men asking about taxi services. Everyone was trying to get us to go with their service. A young guy by the name of José offered us a ride with his cab service from the border to Rivas, (about an hour ride), for way too much a person. We walked away figuring a bus would be cheaper than a cab and after following us for a while, José finally met our price offer and helped us through immigration. I don't know what we would have done without him. He basically walked us through the whole process, showing us where to go, how to get through quickest and even communicated with the employees to help us out. He showed us how to wait in line for immigration while one person goes to pay our exit tax of $1. Approaching the Nicaraguan immigration counter, the employee behind the glass collected our passports and prepared our visas. The cost for a visa was six US dollars and we were on our way, except she was totally being difficult. First was, it HAD to be in American dollars, next, it had to be exact change, and paid together as a group. The Spanish speaking girls of our group, along with José argued with her for a little bit because we didn't all have change for each other and stuff, but we finally just had to do it her way to advance. It's those little road bumps where you have to give in that drive me cuckoo because you feel totally take advantage of. All that mattered was that we got our entrance stamps and we were good to go.

Trying to leave the immigration office was overwhelming as people again, bombarded us with snacks and taxis and busses and more. José was a champ in stiff arming them and signaling that we were with him. He leads us to a group of taxis from his company. I took one look at the 1990's street racing looking beaters with signs in the dash labeled 'TAXI' and thought, "No way, José!" Haha. The girls assured me that it was fine and that is what taxis are down here. The guys loaded our things into the trunk and loaded all five of us into the beat up little Mitsubishi Lancer. José said his goodbyes and our driver drove away, feeling like a total badass with five cute American girls in his car. Guys whistled and blew kisses as usual and we hit the open road.

Charlie, our cab driver continued to compliment how beautiful we were for the first five minutes of our drive. We thanked him and the girls started up their usual icebreaker conversation. I just looked out the window at the new country rolling by. We were into the country pretty quickly and I noticed a big difference already in the type of housing. Homes were much more shack looking. To our left, a line of stopped semi-trucks waited for miles and miles to exit the country. Before long, we could see Lake Nicaragua to our right along with the infamous island formed by it's two volcanoes, Ometepe. That was where we were headed and it looked awesome! Windmills lined the coast of the lake, taking full advantage of the renewable energy whipping across the lake.

Charlie was nice enough to stop at an ATM for us as we got to Rivas. He parked on the street corner and we took turns in groups, heading down the street for the bank. A security guard pointed us to the ATM room (ATMs are indoor and in a separate room down here). We waited for each other as we figured out the exchange rate and punched away at the machines, enjoying the only air conditioning we've felt in Central America. Us girls tucked our things away safely in our money belts and returned to the main doors of the bank to break our bigger bills with the cashiers. We had to take a number like at the Secretary of State and wait. I asked the cashier, when it was my turn, if she knew any English and she kind of just shyly shook her head no. She said some, but it wasn't really the case which made a bank transaction interesting. Ha.

We headed back to the taxi and continued to the boat dock. At one point, we had started cheering "Charlie! Charlie! Charlie!" and he was loving it! We pulled up to a boat port in San Jorge, and were bombarded by a guy selling tickets to the boat before we could even pay Charlie. The girls that know Spanish spoke exactly what was on my mind and basically told the dude to hold his flippin' horses! We paid Charlie and arranged our fifty cent ferry ride to the island. Who would have thought this would be such a social moment for us.

Some guys helped us across a crappy wooden plank basically to the ship deck. Thank God it was quick because it was very dangerous and high up and I would have flipped out had I given myself the opportunity to fear.

We dumped our bags in an area on the ship deck and moved to a different area to sit with some guys our age. This was such an unprofessional ferry because we were literally sitting on a metal floor and holding on tight.

We exchanged introductions with Rhed (pronounced Red) from the London area, Sam from Canada and Allister from the Vancouver area. In group introductions like that, so many names are thrown around that you can only retain so many. Sam, of course, was the only one I retained. Turns out, these guys were all traveling alone and had met up a ways back and were headed to the island to meet more of their fellow travelers. They were all on their way south and had been on the road for a couple months so far. We chatted it up with them for the hour ferry ride as Sam sat quietly nursing his, now seasick, hangover. The view from the ferry was amazing and I was sure to snap some pics of the volcanoes as we got closer and closer.

Approaching the shore, we discussed who was staying where, and decided to ride in a taxi together to keep the price down. After an hour of chatting and playing word games on the boat, we seemed like we had known our new friends for a lot longer than we did. A van taxi loaded us up and started to drop us off at our hostels. As our friends hopped out, we said our goodbyes and that we'd hope to see them around the island. Rhed had no one so he ended up coming with us. The cab driver was awesome about driving us from hostel to hostel to find a place with vacancy for six people. We finally ended up at Santa Cruz hostel where they had two more cabañas open. They worked out to be like eight bucks a person. Niki and I got a double and Rhed got a twin, and the other three girls were in a neighboring cabin.

By this point, it was like six at night and we hadn't eaten since the Nacoya bus station so food was very high on the priority list. The main structure of the hostel was a large grass roof pavilion with about six dinner tables and chairs with a full restaurant menu. We ordered smoothies and food, vegetable curry was on the menu for me again and we conversed and got to know Rhed. The girls were working a great conversation to convince Rhed to move to Korea like they did. By the time our dinner came, and we ate, we were ready for bed. It was only like seven o'clock, but it had been a very long day of traveling so we split up and went our separate ways to shower, read, blog, or whatever.

Rhed had gone to meet up with friends at another hostel and Niki and I headed back to the cabin. "So these are the bathrooms I was telling you about," says Niki as she kicks open the bathroom door and flips on the light. "These are the ones where you open, light, and wait a sec to see what scurries." I was so grossed out by the three time spider incident at Dan's that I was hoping for the 'coast is clear' announcement. She announced it was clear and I continued to unpack and put on my PJ's. As Niki, uses the bathroom, I happen to look up at the woodwork on the door jam and my apparently "awesome bug spotting eyes" spot a bug from everyone's nightmares. It was way bigger than at Dan's and totally gross! Niki was able to sneak out of the bathroom without it moving and was just as freaked out by its existence. Once we realized it wasn't going anywhere, I was able to grab a photo of it and zoom in on my camera screen for a safer and more curious look at the creepy crawler. After confirming its nastiness, we knew what had to be done....spider extermination! Nicki the spider saver was not around and this spider was not going to be sharing a room with us. I grabbed my iPhone to document our two minute and fifty some second strategizing and screaming before we finally squashed it with a book. The deal was that if Niki smooshed it, I would get the toilet paper and clean it up. Let me just tell you, that a spider that big isn't full of air. It left a huge gut pile that I had to wipe and sanitize off my book and the woodwork.

From there on out, I wanted to cry. I looked up and down, and left, and right, and all over again. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep with creatures like that around me. A cabin in Nicaragua is, by no means, airtight. Nooks and crannies are everywhere, creating little entry ways for bugs of all types. We looked all over the cabin with my flash light to inspect if there were anymore and there weren't, but I had to get out for a little. I headed to the pavilion for a bit of a breather on Facebook and Skype.

Niki and I pulled down the mosquito net from over our bed when we returned to our room. Magically, the mosquito net around us and my sleep sack (like a sheet sewn like an empty sleeping bag underneath me, I felt, for the most part, in a safe zone. I tried my best not to over think it, and away I went to dreamland.

Photos:
1) In line for immigration
2) Limbo area between countries
3) one of Ometepe's volcanoes
4) Ometepe home
5) funny swan towel found on bed at check-in, which was then rolled up and shoved in front of door at bed time.