Donde Esta la Playa?

Saturday, December 22.

After spending a few hours in our still favourite little café, we left just as they were closing. Walking out the door, we saw our friends Nathan and Liz across the street!  We were pretty excited, as we didn't expect to see them again.  We went for a nice walk, caught up on Nicaraguan events, and made it down to the ferry dock just in time to catch a picturesque sunset.

It was short lived, but that was fine with us, as a day of blogging and emailing had left us pretty hungry, and we also had to get ready for our big redemption at round two of the end'o'the'world music fest.  As we were walking back, Nathan and Liz informed us that they were staying at "Yogi's place", which happened to be the same hostel that our Savior, Chad, told us he was staying at.  We decided we should follow them back there, and thank Chad for all his services from the night before.

There were a few people chilling at Yogi's, and the two guys asleep on hammocks (at 5:30 pm) were clearly nursing hangovers, but there was one person who clearly stuck out; Glen.  Imagine a 30 something year old Aussie child, suffering from ADHD, with shoulder length dirty blond hair, and a tan that looked like he has never worn a shirt.  Now imagine this person on crack.  That's Glenn.   He was pounding back drinks, and would light one large cigar with the lit butt of the one he had just finished. He would run around doing the chicken dance, make up his own mumbled Aussie lyrics to songs, and give every one kisses on the forehead! 

When Chad got out of the shower, he was very happy to see us, and we gave him big "thank you" hugs, and told him if he is ever drunk to the point of no return, to look us up.  We spent an hour or so, chitchatting and watching Glenn do his ADHD thing, when we realised we still hadn't eaten anything.

We walked a half block down the street, where the "chicken lady" had her nightly barbecue fiesta going on her front lawn.  We took the chicken with beans, rice, and coleslaw, (for the all time low price of 60 Cords, or $2.25) back to Yogi's, and it was on the top 5 list of best barbecue we've ever had.   In true-to-Glenn form, he was waiting, cigar in mouth, for us to finish, when he cleaned everyone's plates (and bones) of food.

Now that we had filled our bellies, we showered, changed, and made our way back to the music fest.  This time we managed to last until 2:00 a.m., and actually remembered what it was all about.   There were a few hundred people listing to house music on the beach, most of whom were very drunk, and all of whom were being entertained by Glenn, who's craziness had caught many people's attention.  He was doing his chicken dance in the lake (no bathing suit), and even managed to get the camera crew, who were filming the event, to follow him for a solid 15 minutes.

 

 

Sunday, December 23.

 

Sunday was a travel day.  Even though it was a late night, we set our travel alarm (graciously donated by Natalie and Dan) for 7:30, to make sure we were on the 9:00 a.m. ferry off the island.  We packed up our bags, and were down at the ferry dock for 8:30.  We met other travellers, from Holland,  who were also waiting for the ferry, and we traded stories, and accepted some tips from them.  9:00 rolled around, and there was no ferry in sight.  10:00 came and went, and it was not until 11:00 that the ferry finally arrived.  By that time, all those who wanted to be on the 9:00 ferry combined with all those who wanted to be on the 10:00 ferry, which made for a sardine-like situation, and we ended up on the top deck, sitting on a pile of backpacks.  We watched as the security guards from the night before pounded back two large bottles of rum, and made attempts at speaking English, although we shouldn't judge, as their broken English was far superior to our broken Spanish.

 

A quick cab ride from the ferry got us back to the chicken bus terminal in Rivas, where we waited for the bus to San Juan Del Sur. As we waited, in true chicken bus style, local merchants would walk up and down the aisle and try to sell anything from a meal in a plastic bag, to flashlights or bandannas.  We ended up going for a "taco de pollo" each, after the woman yelled "taco de pollo, pollo, taco" at least 50 times.  Unfortunately our buying of the two tacos didn't stop her from deeming it necessary to keep yelling.  They were great, though, and they only cost us 30 Cords for the two ($1.20 or so).

 

We finally arrived in San Juan Del Sur around 3:00 p.m., and checked into our new abode, "Hostel Brisas Y Olas". The accommodations were nothing more than a bed and a bathroom, but that's okay, as it is what we have come to expect. 

 

As we had been craving some beach time since we had first landed in Managua, we immediately threw our bags down, put on bathing suits, and went to the beach.  We were excited as we walked down to the beach with our travelling buddy Huw, from New Zealand, but were sorely disappointed when we got there.  It was rather large, but deserted, had hard packed sand, and lots of rocks.  We were also the subject of about 30 different offerings of new sunglasses, which was annoying, but on the bright side, inspired Huw to teach us to say "Ya Tengo, Gracias" which means "thanks, but I have some already".  We were also the subject of a group of younger locals sitting pretty much on top of us, and we can only assume making fun of us, in Spanish.

 

Eventually we "threw in the towel", and decided to go get dinner, which consisted of, yet again, chicken, rice, and beans for a very low price.  Thankfully we hadn't gotten sick of it just yet, so it was enjoyable.  We said goodbye to Huw, and spent the rest of the night reading, and catching up on sleep.

 

Monday, December 24.

 

As we had already discovered that the main beach in San Juan Del Sur was not exactly to our liking, we did some research and discovered that there were two much nicer beaches about a half hour away.  We were told that there were shuttles leaving from a hostel called "Pacha Mamma's", which also happened to be the hostel our friend Huw was staying at.  It was about a 15 minute walk, being on the other side of town. We stopped at the Canadian owned "El Gato Negro" café for breakfast, where we had bagels with egg, cheese, and either avocado and tomato, or ham, depending on whose bagel you looked at.  We also had the best cup of coffee that we'd had to that point.  We were ready for the beach.

 

We arrived at Pacha Mamma's and quickly decided it was the coolest hostel we'd seen thus far, as it had a huge bar, a pool, and an open concept common area, which was half indoors and half out. The staff was very nice, and they immediately invited us to their Christmas Eve pot luck dinner later that evening.  We accepted the invitation graciously. 

 

 

 

The "shuttle" was actually a pick up truck, and we rode in the back, in true Nica fashion.  We got to the beach after several mouthfuls of sand courtesy of the pickup trucks ahead of us, and saw that it was indeed much nicer than the main beach in San Juan Del Sur.  We parked ourselves in a spot, and enjoyed a long awaited beach day.  We played volleyball, went for a long walk, tanned, and were harassed by the exact same group of kids who had been harassing us the day before!  It didn't bother us as much the second day, though.

 

We left around 5:00, and stopped at the local market to grab some food for our contribution to the pot luck, which was a bean salad consisting of chick peas, corn, beans, and onion.  We quickly showered, and were off to our first Christmas dinner!

 

 

 

The mood was naturally festive, and we didn't hide the fact that we were Jewish, and hadn't had a Christmas dinner before.  Everyone was very welcoming though.  The main dish was a large sea bass that was prepared by the hostel staff, and it was an amazing meal!  After dinner we drank homemade (hostelmade) eggnog, and took swings at a snowman pinata, that we soon found out was full of candy, gum, and cigarettes.  Then arrived a group of 30 or so pub crawlers, which consisted of our Savior Chad, who we gave, as always, big hugs.  He introduced us to his travelling companion, Paul, who when introduced leaned over to Alice and whispered in an English accent, "Is that guy's name Chad?".  We thought this was pretty funny, as Chad had just told us that they'd spent the last week or so travelling together.  And that was Christmas Eve.

 

 

 

Tuesday, December 25.

 

We woke up early, and headed over to Pacha Mamma's both to say hi to our new friends, and to catch the pickup to the nicer beach.  We had planned on going to the Canadian café again for breakfast, but it was unfortunately closed for Christmas.  We settled on a local joint, called the Barrio café, which met our needs well, although it took quite awhile to get the bill.  We have become accustomed to this, though. 

 

We had another nice relaxing day at the beach, and will spare the details, other than to say that we finally were not harassed by any local children, which was pleasant.  It is noteworthy though, that the waves at this beach were particularly impressive, and we have a new found respect for the sport of surfing.

 

 

 

We spent the night finishing our books (The hobbit, and Catching fire; the second of the hunger games trilogy), and attempted to book a hostel in the town of Tamarindo, as our first destination in Costa Rica.  Unfortunately, we were unable to find any accommodations. We were contemplating just "winging it", as was the advice of Huw, when we received a facebook message from an old friend of Alice's.  Apparently, Alice has some old friends, in high places, as this particular friend owns a loft condo in the very ritzy Playa del Coco, just 10 minutes away from Tamarindo.  Adios Nicaragua, Hola Costa Rica!

 

 

 

*a note to our friends* 

We have had several people email us, saying they've been having trouble posting comments. It appears you may need a "google account" to add a comment.  We think that signing in with a gmail address would suffice.  However, we are okay if you don't post comments, given this trouble, we just want you read along and enjoy with us.

 



Exodus

After months of planning, prepping, selling, buying, insuring, and packing, we have finally arrived at our first destination, Isla de Ometepe in Nicaragua!  We thank you all for taking an interest in our travels, and we are very excited to share our experiences with all of you.

Tuesday December 18.

We began our trek by driving to Buffalo, NY.  As many of you know, it is much cheaper to fly out of Buffalo than it is Toronto.  We were having a nice time, and trying not to be too anxious, as we approached the border.  The customs lady was nice enough to scare the crap out of all of us (Allan, Debbie, and Dalice) by informing us that the Nicaraguan Customs agent would not let us into the country, if we didn't have a departing flight booked. Thanks to her, the next couple of hours were pretty anxious.  After stopping at Walmart for some last minute items and a present for the Parents, we had our last North American lunch at Denny's, and headed for the Buffalo Airport!

While checking in to United Airlines, the agent's face suddenly turned sour.  "Is something wrong?" we asked.  "Well, unfortunately, if you don't have a departing flight out of Nicaragua, I can't let you board the plane!".  We were starting to see an alarming trend.  The nerves kicked up into high gear again.  After a few phone calls, disconnections, and what seemed like hours on hold, the agent finally told us that they would let us through to our connection in Houston, where we could sort the situation out there.  We gave the agent a team hug, and said a tearful goodbye to Dallan (there were two criers, but we wont mention any names) and were on our way!

We made our first connection in Washington, which was pretty painless, and flew to Houston.  We arrived there at 1:00 am, and were not flying out again until 9:00 am, so we attempted to sleep on the cold, tiled, dirty arrivals area in the airport.  Only one of us was successful. When the United check in desk opened at 5:00 am, we were told that we may or may not have a problem at the Nicaraguan border, but was much more positive and reassuring. So we headed to our gate for another 5 hours of waiting. 

Wednesday December 19.

After being told on the runway that we were experiencing "technical difficulties", we were treated to a two hour delay, and a plane swap, but eventually we made it to Managua, Nicaragua at 2:00 pm.  We approached the customs agent, and were understandably nervous about what he would say.  Fortunately, he didn't say much other than "Have a good time", after he stamped our passports. Apparently the Americanos care more about these things than the Nica.

We were greeted by 30 degrees and high humidity as we exited the airport, as well as a large group of locals offering cab rides, gum, bracelets, and candy.  We did accept a cab ride, but nothing else.  It ended up costing $50, but we were exhausted and couldn't wait to get to our first Hostel in Granada.

The ride was, interesting, to say the least.  No one ever told us that Nicaragua was a third world country!  Jokes.  But it really is! Houses are shacks, cars share the road with donkeys, horse drawn carriages, and cattle drivers, as well as what can only be described as an incredible number of stray dogs, all sadly pretty thin.  We also witnessed a group of vultures having a meal of a dead cow, just off the side of the road, as we drove through Tipitapa. 

We arrived in Granada around 4:00 pm, and stepped into our first accommodations, Hostel Mochilas.  It was pretty much how we expected; a simple queen sized bed with a sheet that belonged on a double, a fan, and a very third world washroom.  We were pleasantly surprised by the colour tv in our room though, and all in all, we were happy with the Hostel.  We set out for a walk to explore the town, which was a little intimidating at first.  We received many looks and whistles, and were apparently the only gringos in the town.  We began to feel more comfortable, though, as we approached the "park centrale", and started to see more travellers like ourselves.  We dined on pizza from a truck, which cost 36 "cordobas", or approximately $1.50, for two slices.  We were excited about that!  We took our anti-malaria pills, and decided to turn in at the early hour of 8:00 pm after the 24 hours of travel and sleep deprivation.

Thursday December 20.

We woke up at balls a.m. (a term we stole from our soon to be friends Nathan and Liz), and were feeling good.  We ate at a local café, and had a "grilled" cheese sandwich (not grilled), and burritos el pollo (chicken burritos).  The service wasn't great, but we didn't know how to ask to speak to the manager in Spanish, nor did we care all that much anyway. She was kind enough, though, to pre add a 10% tip, which apparently is the custom here in Nicaragua. 

We walked over to the tour office to decide what to do with our day, and came to the decision of renting a double kayak to paddle around las islas de Lago Nicaragua.  We then met the aforementioned Nathan and Liz, who had also just rented a double kayak, and shared a cab with them to the Lake.  We paddled for 3 hours or so, and had a great time exploring, chatting with our new pals from Indiana, and even took a swimming break, where Nathan informed us that Lake Nicaragua is the only one in the world with freshwater sharks that kill.  We got back in the kayaks after that discussion. 

We got back to Granada close to 4:00 pm, and agreed to meet our pals for dinner in about an hour.  We took lukewarm showers that were surprisingly refreshing, and killed a large cockroach that Dave managed to keep secret from Alice until we checked out of the hostel the next day.  We met Nathan and Liz at the park centrale, and they introduced us to the main calle (street) we hadn't explored before. It was a cute cobble stone road filled with restaurants, bars, and tons of lively people. We sat down at a Mexican restaurant where we ate tacos and cheesy fries, and this time we gave a little extra tip on top of the pre-added 10%.  We then went to an authentic Nicaraguan Irish Pub, and found out that dos litros (2 litres) of beer costs approximately $4.  We were there for awhile.  We got to know our new friends, talked about life, sports, and how to improve Canadian/American relations one beer at a time.  We were also treated to a spontaneous show from some local kids doing their rendition of "gangnam style" on the street.  We gave them a tip too.  We also met our first of probably very many "favorite strays" who we affectionately name Scar, as he had a rather large one on his head. 

 

The night ended with fireworks (literally), and a nice walk home with our new friends, who we had to unfortunately bid farewell to at that point.  We went to sleep happy that we had such a good first official day of our adventure.

Friday December 21, Doomsday.

So what should two adventurers do on the day the world is supposed to end? We felt the most appropriate thing to do was to head over to an Island that has two volcanoes on it, one of which being active. 

We walked through the "less touristy" part of town to get to the bus station.  It was like something you'd imagine seeing in Bangladesh, or India.  A little bit of culture shock there, but we are sure we will get used to it eventually.  The streets were narrow, very crowded, and full of merchants selling anything from shoes to baby chicks. 

We arrived on what had heard was called the "chicken bus", and were pleasantly surprised at how vacant it was.  It was an old school bus from the U.S. which still had the English signs like "respect the driver" and "rules of the bus" posted.  As we were driving, the bus made several stops, where more people got on board, and eventually all the seats were taken, and there was no standing room left in the aisle.  We knew then why they call it the chicken bus. 

We were dropped of at the bus terminal in Rivas, where we found more shoes, baby chicks, and random merchants, but decided not to buy anything.  We took a cab with some new friends we had met on the bus (Taylor from Vancouver, and Johanns from Germany) and headed to the ferry port, where we took a very crowded and.. nauseating.. ferry to Ometepe Island.  We parked ourselves on the top deck, where we met more travellers and found out that we had conveniently arrived on a day that also housed the "end of the world" house music party at the volcano.

We got lost on our way to our new hostel, which is something we've already become accustomed to, but eventually found it.  It is very quaint; in the central part of town, with lots of hammocks, a fully equipped bar, a nice private room for Dalice, and oh ya, monkeys!  There are also deer in what they have set up to be a mini zoo.  The one bad thing is the lack of running water, which means no shower. Oh well.

We started drinking local rum at around 5:00 p.m., forgetting that all we had to eat that day was a granola bar each, and yet another taco.  Needless to say, that little amount of food did not support the large quantity of rum that we drank, and unfortunately, as soon as we arrived that the end'o'the'world party.. well.. We'll spare you the details.  It ended up being an early night. We want to send a special shout out to Rad Chad from PEI, for all the help.  Thankfully, the world didn't end, and there is "round 2" of the party tonight, so we will be a little more cautious of how much we drink (and eat).

Saturday December 22.

So here we are, at 10 in the morning, at a café on a double volcano island, telling you all about our travels to this point.  We thank you all again for your interest, and welcome any questions, comments, suggestions on writing style, suggestions on maybe putting less detail into the blog, and also any cash donations you may have ;).  We look forward to sharing more experiences with you next time we get the chance.

With love from the volcano(es),
Dalice