- we get up early and catch a taxi to the Leon bus terminal
- a couple hours on a mini-bus later, we arrive at a bus terminal in Managua ... right beside where we get out, there is another mini-bus waiting to take us to Masaya
- half an hour later, we wander from the parking lot where the mini-bus dropped us off in Masaya, through some crazy little local market, and then to another lot with chicken buses in it
- we catch a bus for Laguna de Apoya, and after another 30 minutes of travel, we´re dropped off at the top of a huge hill / small mountain, with a view of the crater-made lake below
- we flag a taxi and get conned into have to pay a gate fee as well as a taxi fare ... but it wasn´t crazy expensive ... just annoying
- we arrive at our destiantion - the Crater´s Edge - and at this point it´s about high noon, and we´re already hot and bothered from the heat and the morning of travel
- before we can ring the bell to be let in, the wooden gate-door opens, and we are greeted by the owner, Ann ... saying to us, "you must be David and Isaac ... we´ve been waiting for you!"
- the friendly greeting was a nice start, and we were also greeted by Ann´s niece, Lisa (visiting from Canada for a few months, helping her aunt run the Crater´s Edge), and then by Dorothy - Ann´s recently hired assistant
- we get signed in, and then Lisa gives us a tour ... with each step (there are literally like 100 steps from the entrance down through the reception area, the kitchen and dining area, the dorms, the bar and lounge area, and finally the lake), one can actually feel like getting better and better ... the weather gets a bit cooler, a breeze picks up, the ammenities are fantastic, the lake is gorgeous and inviting ... we´re told the water never gets cold, thanks to a volcanic influence ... and even better, the minerals in the water make is supposedly really good for your skin! There is even a really cool floating dock, a short swim from shore. Once we get the explanation of how evenings work (upstairs is quiet after 9pm, but you can hang out by the lake and the bar area at late as you want, and you just help yourself to beers and colas (or bottles of rum or wine) and anything else that you want ... just simply write down whatever you take) ... it dawns on us we´re pretty much in heaven
- we arrived just in time for lunch, which worked out well, since we hadn´t eaten anything for the day
- all the meals at the Crater´s Edge are served on these fantastic basket dishes, lined with folded banana leaf ... the meals are typically very tasty as well as very healthy
- for the rest of the week, we stuck to breakfasts (fruit, cereal, various breads, hard boiled eggs) and dinners (always something yummy, with a starch, a meat and at least one kind of salad)
- after our "this place is amazing ... thanks to Vinnie and Hanna for recommending we book our Easter week here ... this is exactly what we need after the hellacios heat of Leon" introduction to the Crater´s Edge, the rest of the week is a bit of a whirlwind blur ... so much happened, with so many good times ... I´ll just try to summarize the highlights as best as possible
- during the week, our mornings were quite routine:
- Wake up ridiculously early (i.e. 7:30ish) ... still drunk. (Isaac typically went down to the lake for a swim, whereas I´d wait for Lisa to get out of the bathroom ... unofficially electing her as my daily wake-up call)
- Stick only my head in the shower to try to become actually functional ... try to be dressed at the breakfast area by 8am ... have some fruit, bread and a couple hard boiled eggs ... try to keep the food down, and try not to upset the stomach too much
- Brush teeth, fill up giant water bottles, sign "Isaac and David" on the whiteboard to indicate we´ve headed outside Crater´s Edge
- Walk 10 or so minutes down the road, marvelling at how sunny and hot it already is, as well as cursing the fact that we drank too much the night before, and questioning why on earth we were awake so early
- Then we´d arrive for our 8am Spanish class (typically around 8:30, except for one day when Lisa slept in, not knowing she was THE alarm clock)
- she was very easy going, and she let us decide what parts of the language we´d focus on for each lesson
- everyday, we´d get 4 hours of school, along with a mid-morning drink break (where we would get fresh fruit juice, and we could chat with some of the other students for a bit)
- the classes were all outdoors, sitting on lawn chairs (and moving table and chairs as required to avoid the heat and glare of the sun)
- Aura´s daughter, Linda, would hang around during our lessons, running over to another instructor to get the Spanish/English dictionary whenever we needed it (must have been a pretty boring way for a 12 year old to spend her Easter week holiday, but she didn´t seem to mind)
- we also had a few dogs that would hang out with us during class ... one of them being a complete psycho dog ... Simba was his name (aka Chucky, as in the movie) ... way too much pit bull and not enough anything else (including brains and the ability to feel pain) ... this dog should also be tied up on a leash ... but that´s not how they do things there ... every day Simba would get in bloody fights with other dogs ... totally crazy stuff ... but during our classes, he would just lie under our table, usually at Isaac´s feet
- the first couple of days, we went over vocabulary basics, as well as learning many Spanish words for everyday/useful items
- the next day or two, we did a lot of regular very conjugations, while also learning many Spanish verbs for everyday actions
- the last day or so, we broke free from learning lessons, instead opting for lengthly conversations in Spanish only
- for only five (somewhat hungover) half days of class, I´m amazed at how much Spanish I learned ... definitely a good way to spend our mornings that week
- twice a day, a shuttle bus came to Crater´s Edge from Granada and returned 30 minutes later ... once at 10:30 and once at 4:30
- people checking in and out of the hostel often rode on one of these shuttles, but there were also many "day trippers" would were staying in Granada, but wanted to just come hang out at Crater´s Edge (and get away from the city heat) for the day
- this led to an interesting dynamic for Isaac and myself, as we´d return from class and see new faces everyday ... and we typically wouldn´t know until the 4:30 shuttle if the people who only day trippers or if they were staying overnight
- still, it´s the amazing people we met at the Crater´s Edge that made are week as great as it was ...
- Ann, Lisa and Dorothy. Lisa actually stayed with us in the dorms, and even partied with us a couple of times.
- Eric and Jasmine ... Alberta couple ... met them on the first night ... Jasmine was suffering from too many bottles of wine the night before, Eric was on a rum mission ... Isaac and I gladly joined him on his adventure ... then they left for a couple of days, only to return for the end of the week.
- Lindsay ... aka Scarecrow, Box Punch, and 1/3 of "our brain" ... another Alberta girl that we met on the first night ... she too was suffering from too many bottles of wine the night before ... but we got her back on the booze the following night, and she was one of the gang until she left for Corn Island mid-week.
- Rob and Ernie (aka Courtney) ... cute Alberta couple (yes, it would appear everyone we met on the first night was from Alberta ... but they didn´t know each other before they met at Crater´s Edge) ... thanks to some miscommunication on a bad phone line, Ann was expecting the couple "Rob and Ernie" ... which made for a good laugh when Courtney showed up, much too pretty to be an Ernie ... naturally we called her Ernie from that point on.
- Eric from Seattle ... aka the Lone Jackal (LJ) ... as in a hunter, chasing a pack of wild animals (women), going after the weakest one (anyone left alone for a second), but continuously failing in his attempts to make a kill (I have a private room, why don´t we go to my room, hey come sit on my lap, we should go to my private room, could I be any creepier and/or socially retarded, did I mention I´m married, but keep scaring my wife about the dangers of Nicaragua so she won´t join me here) ... in the few days that he was there, we know of at least 5 girls he freaked out, trying the same disturbing lines over and over ... but rest assured, no one fears the Lone Jackal anymore ... (please note: "LJ" is also a verb ... for example, when a socially retarded loser tries to slime you with his come-ons, you should immediately walk away, go to your friends and tell them you just got "LJ´d").
- Adam, Annie and Sarah, the travelling trio from England ... they were a blast, and together with the 3 thirds of a brain (Isaac, Lindsay and myself), we formed the "Super 6" (officially documented, as that is how we signed out on the white board one night) ... what made us so super is that we decided to invade the other big name hostel in the area one night ... we brought the party with us, we drank *all* their wine, and then we brought the party back to where it belonged ... good times, good times ... the Brits scored a last minute flight to Little Corn, and took off with Lindsay mid-week.
- Dora and Nicole ... same Dora from Leon ... she showed up (with her German friend, Nicole) as a day tripper early in the week ... they both enjoyed it enough to return a couple days later to stay for a night.
- Holly ... from close to Bismark, but living in DC (but actually living/working in Nicaragua at the moment) ... she was way fun until she got langostafied (sunburned lobster red) ... unfortunately, she was only at the hostel for a couple of nights.
- Ariana ... fantastically fun Nicaraguan who speaks very good English and can appreciate the art of sleeping in ... comparing cultures over bottles of rum was a forte.
- Taco and Tamara ... adorable couple from Holland ... responsible for introducing me to the card game called Sets (from the makers of Uno) ... now I´m dying to meet more people who own the game ... both of them (especially Taco) turned lobster red their last day at the hostel (apparently Easter is typically the hottest day, and I guess the sun is extra deadly with the glare off the water).
- Laura and Alyson ... Ontario girls that showed up just for one day, but really they were just coming to pick up Lindsay, as the three of them were travelling together to the Corn Islands.
- Heiko ... fun guy from Austria ... he showed up late, but fit in nicely.
- Brad ... from San Francisco ... nice enough guy, but angered people a bit when he freaked and killed a little scorpion one night.
- Stephan and Marianne ... nice German couple that arrived at the end of Easter week, just as everyone was leaving.
- Ruby ... aka Lady Blackpacker ... from the poor streets of southern Chicago, now living in Minneapolis / St. Paul ... tough as nails ... she might scare you at first (sure she always carries around 2 to 3 pieces of "protection" at all times), but get to know her, and everyone loves Ruby! She showed up towards the end of the week, and within a day or so, she´d decided to join us to our next destination (Little Corn Island).
- almost everyone´s last day was Easter Sunday. Ann help her 4th annual Easter Egg hunt ... approximately 300 little chocolate eggs were hidden all over the hostel grounds ... the hunt began at 6am (the chocolate was already melting in some sunnier spots) ... the competition was split into two categories ... tourists and locals (Nicaraguan employees) ... the locals had a BLAST ... sprinting here and there, grabbing as many eggs as possible ... this would include Ariana - who didn´t quiet master the art of the hunt, but woke up extra early for the event, and got all gussied up in a pretty dress (until someone explained the actual hunt, and she changed into more pratical clothes) ... Ruby stole the show though, showing up with war paint under her eyes, a do-rag on her head, and fingerless "tough-girl" gloves on her hands!! ... one of the night watchmen destroyed everyone with 38 eggs, and won the employee competition ... in the mid-20 range of eggs, Eric (not LJ, he was already gone) won a massage (there was a blind man that offered varoius massage deals during the day ... I never got a massage, but everyone said he was great value for the price ... Isaac got at least 2 hour-long massages during the week) ... Isaac got second place and won a free dinner ... Brad, Heiko and myself all tied for third place, meaning we each got a free dessert with dinner that night! :) (mmmm, warm brownies in ice cream)
- the full moon showed up towards the end of the week ... it was amazing over the lake ... better still was swimming out to the floating dock late at night, warm water, peaceful calm and nothing but clear skies (with a massive and bright moon, along will all the stars) overhead ... the very last night there, the group that was left all sat in silence as we watched the incredibly fast and scenic moonrise over the lake
- midweek, we fought a fire ... that´s right, "volunteer fire fighter" can be added to the resume! We were down by the water one night, having a drink ... Ann shows up and mentions that a wild fire broke out on the hill across the street ... next thing you know, every single person staying at the hostel is pitching in, cutting the edges off with machetes and/or filling and carrying bucket after bucket of water ... the fire itself was probably 15 feet by 15 feet (maybe 20x20), and it´s quite probable that it was started by a careless late night partier from down the road ... the crazy thing is that the ground there is super dry ... to the point that you´d think the fire would spread like nothing ... so it was fairly impressive how well this fire was contained ... within an hour, it was mostly out ... quite a few extra buckets of water later, we were all a sweaty mess, and we hit the lake for a late night swim, followed by Ann giving the gang a free bottle of rum as a way of thanks
- the week was amazing, the people we met were incredible, and the next step was to try to get to Little Corn Island in time to reunite the Super 6 (plus extras)
- EoW
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