WEEK 8

WEEK 8 - Isla de Ometepe and San Juan del Sur
- Ruby and I catch the 7am boat from Little Corn to Big Corn
- at the airport, we luck out and get in on standby for the morning flight
- an hour later, we´re landing in Bluefields (as I see a guy actually filling up a barf-bag as we land ... guess the puddle-jumper doesn´t agree with some people ... maybe he had a hangover)
- we stay on the plane as a couple more people board, then we´re off again to Managua
- from the captial, we immediately grab a taxi to Granada (costly, but we were trying to get a LOT of travel in on this day)
- people joke about how many times they tend to stop and stay in Granada ... this was only my second time stopping there, and I spent maybe half a day total there ... still, it´s a nice town ... similar colonial feel as Leon, but somehow "nicer"
- we had a really cheap and yummy (and huge) lunch at the restaurant across from Amigos hostel (where we knew Laura was staying, but go figure, she´d gone to Crater´s Edge for a day trip ... we left her a note)
- we then headed to the dock at the edge of town, where we caught a ferry for Ometepe (an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, with a volcano at each end, with towns scattered along the lakeshore between the volcanoes) ... it was a pretty big coincidence that we were even able to do this ... the fairy runs at 2pm every Monday and Wednesday ... that´s it!
- the four (or more) hour ride across Lake Nicaragua was fairly peaceful and relaxing ... even though there wasn´t much in the way of actually chairs
- we got a spectacular sunset towards the end of the trip - the sun turned a crazy shade of blood red ... and it was next having the sun behind us, with a huge volcano in front of us
- then things got a little hairy ... we actually hit land after the sun had gone down, so it was completely dark
- we were in one of the main towns in Ometepe, Altagracia ... we started asking if we could get to Playa Santo Domingo ... a 30 minute drive, but the mini-bus people were saying $25!!! We refused that absurdity, and we moved on to find a taxi
- as the last bus left, little did we know there were NO taxis!! Suddenly, we found ourselves stuck at a boat dock (at least 20 minutes walk from town, down a very dark and ominous looking gravel road), without any clue what we were going to do
- luckily, the last vehicle there (a truck with sacks of rice in it) offered us a bumpy ride into town, for $1 each
- we got dropped off at a hotel on the main road, and it turned out to be pretty nice for pretty cheap ... so we called it night
- next day, we took a bus to Santo Domingo for all of $2.50!
- we checked into a hostel, and it all seemed pretty nice ... a gazillion hammocks, a decent looking beach ... BUT there were these aphid-esque bugs EVERYWHERE ... the hotel manager said, dont´worry, they don´t bite ... but there were so many by the door to our room, that it was impossible not to be covered in them any time we went in or out ... and there were a bunch of them on our beds, etc. ... it got WAY worse towards dusk ... thousands and thousands of them ... in your eyes, up your nose, in your mouth ... it seriously make staying there a pain in the butt
- at the same time, Ruby managed to forget her PASSPORT(!!! ... sin of all sins!) ... luckily, she left it in Altagracia, so she was able to bus there and back in just a couple of hours
- in the meantime, I walked around and discovered there really wasn´t much of a town, no real store, and only a couple (expensive) restaurants
- I also went for a dip in the lake ... it wasn´t cold, but it didn´t come close to competing with Laguna de Apoyo and Little Corn
- we stayed for the night, and then headed to the south side of the island the next morning, to check out Charco Verde
- we caught a bus right in front of the hostel in Santo Domingo, so that was nice ... but the bus dropped us off nowhere near anything other than a sign for Charco Verde ... so we had a long walk, hauling our bags (did I ever mention that Ruby was hauling the biggest/heaviest backpack anyone has ever seen!?) along this winding dirt road ... and we eventually wound up at the Charco Verde Nature Reserve (and Hotel)
- the place was pretty huge, and I guess it seemed a bit swanky ... when we asked for a room, the price was astronomical (especially when we looked at the room, and there was nothing at all appealing about it)
- at the same time, the weather turned sour ... wind and rain and dark cloudy gloom
- we ate and the restaurant there ... overpriced mediocre food ... and right there and then, we need it was time to say goodbye and good riddance to Ometepe (granted, a LOT of people we met had similarly unenjoyable experiences at Ometepe, but many people also love the place ... I think we may have been hit with bad timing in general - bugs, weather, etc. ... when Isaac and Doro went later, they loved it ... but yeah, I´m not eager to ever go back ... so many great places in Nicaragua, but I can´t say I´d put Ometepe on that list)
- we overheard some older people had booked the hotel van to get to Moyogalpa (the other (and bigger) main town on the island, and the way to/from San Jorge and the mainland to the south), so we piggybacked off them, and got dropped off at the docks for about $1 each
- the ferry ride to San Jorge is much shorter than the one from Granada ... you can see the mainland from Moyogalpa ... and from San Jorge, you can see pretty much the entire south side of Isla de Ometepe
- from San Jorge, it´s about 30 minutes to bypass Rivas and get into San Juan del Sur (by taxi)
- we got dropped off in front of the hostel Casa Oro, and things were suddenly looking much better (very similar to arriving at Crater´s Edge from Leon)
- overall, the hostel isn´t amazing, but it is pretty nice, and it´s only a block away from the beach (and just a few blocks away from most of the night action) ... we checked out a private room, but it wasn´t going to work for us ... but staying in the upstairs dorms was pretty decent ... the hostel also ran a bunch of the tours and shuttles in the area (zip-line, surfing, other beaches, etc.), and it had six computers with FAST internet (fastest we´d seen in Central America), free to use
- pretty much the only real complaint anyone has about Casa Oro is that they make you wear these stupid wrist straps (that can´t be removed), to prove you´re staying there
- so we walk around, and there are decent stores a block or so away for snack and drinks, there is decent shopping (Ruby needed an outfit for her birthday), yummy food all over the place, and some pretty cool bars on the beach
- as evening approached, we decided to head up the hill to this big resort hotel, called Pelican Eyes (Piedras y Olas) ... thanks to Laura, we learned that they have this amazing happy hour on Wednesdays (and by complete coincidence, we happened to arrive on a Wednesday) ... the 2for1 drinks were spectacular, and the view of the city and the ocean was amazing, especially at sunset ... the bar is by a gorgeous swimming pool, and the hotel gives off a distinct high-end resort feel (even the urinals were filled with ice cubes and slices of lime) ... and it turns out they have the same happy hour on Fridays, so we already knew we´d be returning
- then we heard a rumour that people who aren´t staying at the resort can still use the pool during the day ... so we wound up spending a couple of glorious days there, laying in the sun, cooling off in the pool, and enjoying the view and the tranquility of it all ... that is until they finally informed us we were supposed to pay to use the pool (more than we were paying for an entire night at the hostel!) ... we never paid, but that was the end of our daytime fun at the resorty ... so then we had to settle for heading to the ocean, where the sand was decent and the water was so-so
- along with getting sun, the daily tradition was to head over to the restaurant Big Wave Dave´s, for super yummy and super cheap food (be it breakfast or brunch) ... we also had dinner there a couple of times, because the food there was simply that good
- another dinner hit was sitting at a restaurant patio, overlooking the ocean ... and eating delicious fish and shrimp
- Ruby and I also discovered an evening basketball league, played on an outdoor court near the beach (under the bright lights) ... we watched a game, and Ruby picked one of the local guys to be her "boo" - turns out he runs one of the bars in town - but Ruby had competition from an older tattoo shop and biker bar owning Canadian chick who had just bought property in San Juan del Sur
- three days flew by in a fun-filled blur, and suddenly it was Saturday - the day before Ruby´s 26th birthday, on the 26th of April (but we´d already decided to celebrate her b´day on Saturday night) ... she was determined to make her "golden birthday" a night no one would forget, and she succeeded
- Isaac and Doro showed up in the early afternoon, and we recruited the others in our dorm room to join the celebrations, including a German girl named Sinikka - who hit it over with Doro immediately
- earlier in the week, we´d found a woman who does customized piñatas (for cheap), and we got her to make a pretty huge replica of a Flor de Caña bottle ... the Nicaraguan rum that we´d all become *very* familiar with in the past couple of weeks
- we filled the piñata with cheap candies, and Ruby carried it around with her and we hopped from bar to bar ... first Iguana; then Tsunami; and finally (in the wee morning hours) we ended up at the dance club called the Crazy Crab ... there, they strung up the Piñata from the high rafters, and Ruby went to town trying to bash the living daylights out of it
- when the piñata finally broke, it was unreal how quickly the local people moved ... within about 30 seconds, ALL the candy was nowhere to be found ... absolutely crazy
- we drank and danced the night away, and got home at some ridiculous hour in the morning
- everything in San Juan del Sur seemed very easy going and relaxed ... and we thought it was safe ... a bit of a wake-up call occurred the very next night, when three girls (who were at the same bar as us, and left maybe 30 minutes after we did) got mugged on the way back to Casa Oro ... apparently, one girl had a knife held to her neck!! Sickening to the stomach, especially when you consider we´d been walking those same streets every night (not to mention just a few minutes before they got mugged) ... she only had a bit of money stolen, but she was definitely emotionally traumatized ... the next night, the beach streets were suddenly populated with quite a few police
- the rest of the time in San Juan del Sur was more of the same ... beach, sun, food and drinks
- one day, Isaac, Ruby and myself did a zip-line canopy tour ... 17 zip-lines over the mountain-side to the east of San Juan del Sur ... definitely not as elaborate as many of the canopy tours people talk about in Costa Rica, but it was much cheaper (and because of Ruby´s fast approaching fly-home date out of Panama City, we already knew there wasn´t going to be much time in Costa Rica anyway) ... it was pretty fun - definitely doing once to see what it´s like
- days came and went in San Juan del Sur faster than anywhere else ... suddenly we´d been there for almost a week, and I was in no hurry to leave
- however, after days of trying, Ruby got a hold of her host mom in Costa Rica (she had done a long homestay in Costa Rica about 3 years ago), and it turned out she was about to fly to the States in a couple of days, so we had to leave the very next morning, if Ruby was going to get a chance to see her before she left
- Doro and Isaac had plans to see Ometepe ... and after that, Doro wanted to take Spanish lessons and do a homestay in San Juan del Sur for two weeks ... Isaac indicated he wanted to do something similar ... so the decision was made that I would travel with Ruby up until see left Panama City on May 8th, and then Isaac would head straight there after his week of Spanish lessons and homestay, meaning we would meet up around May 12th
- Ruby and I had a mellow last night in Nicaragua, as we had to get up early for another long day of travel
- EoW