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
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