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
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