. Here's a recap of life so far: We arrived in Managua at 3:30am, and got to our hostel around 4:00am. After a brief 3 hours of sleep, we were up bright and early to get the hell out of Managua. But first, we needed to change some money and get a SIM card for my cell phone. So we got directions to Metro Centro, walked in the wrong direction for 10 minutes, finally swallowed our pride and asked for directions, and then arrived there 15 minutes later. The idea of tourists walking in Managua (or anywhere for that matter) seems to be foreign to the cab drivers. Every time they pass us, they will slow down and honk, urging us to get in, then drive away laughing when we keep saying "estamos bien". After fumbling through the cell phone store, I finlly ended up with 200 cordobas (10 dollars) worth of minutes. That gets me about half and hour of international talk time. (Although I got a text message in Spanish from Claro, the cell phone company, that said my balance was quadrupled, but I couldn't fully understand it. Hope it's true!). Anyway, we were having some trouble finding the bus station to take a bus to Laguna de Apoyo, but as we were talking futilly around a huge traffic circle, a bus with a dude leaning out the door screamed "Masya, Granada, Masaya, Granada, Granada," which was the very bus we needed to take. It was as if it was sent from heaven to take us out of the god-forsaken city of Managua. We promptly hopped on. Life was good.
After getting of at the road to Laguna de Apoyo, we again refused a taxi, opting to walk the 6km instead. Every 5 minutes for the first 2kms, the same taxi kept pulling up to us and asking us if we were sure we didn't want a ride. At that point, our pride took over. We made a pact that we wouldn't take a taxi that day, even if we were close to fainting on the road. The hostel that night, The Monkey Hut, was glorious. Spectacular views over a pristine lake, and beer on the honor system. We took a dip in the water, which was the perfect temperature, and then fooled around on some kayaks. We ended the day with some comida deliciosa, then played gin rummy by ourselves from 7-11pm. The next day, we did some 'sploring. We went to Parque Nacional Volcan Masaya, where we toured a bat cave and hiked to a wonderful mirador. We were also able to pee into the crater of an active volcano, something that highlighted the lack of concern about negligence lawsutis in this country. After playing some cards with Patrick and Kerry (American) and two Dutch women (my favorite country) we headed in for the night, and spent a while laughing with the Dutch women about how our dorm beds looked like prison cells (they thought it was funnier than we did, but we were just happy to be laughing with some new friends). The next morning, we bought some eggs, onion, and a bag of rice for 28 cordobas ($1.25). After that, we were off to La Libertad Hostal in Granda (we had planned to stay in another hostel, but people's tales of $5 dorm beds and a lively party scene were too enticing. And, indeed, La Libertad has so far lived up to our expectations.
We spent all of yesterday biking around this peninsula called Asese, which turned into a pretty epic journey. About 3 minutes after we left the bike rental place, one of the pedals just fell off one of the bikes. We could deal with the broken gears and brakes on the other two bikes, but a bike with one pedal was a challenge. Every three pedals, I had to kick the pedal shaft back towards the bike, so it would stay on. We were following directions from the Lonely Planet guidebook to a beach on the peninsula. As promised, the road quickly deteriorated, but we couldn't for the life of us find any beach. We spent 15 minutes stumbling through backyards and running into dead=ends, before someone pointed us to "el restaurante". Being our only landmark, that became our destination. We then crossed many people's private property, took every wrong turn, and passed not a foot away from a dude shaving in his living room before stumbiing into "el restaurante". We felt like true jungle warriors......until we saw all the tour boats filled with tourists drinking rum and blasting Bob Marley. This restaurant clearly existed to feed them. But it was still a delicious meal, consisting of fish and chicken, both freshly killed. The waiter turned out to be a really chill dude who had the screw we needed and fixed our bike. We headed back to the hostel to experience a good Friday night in the hostel.
So that's a summary of what has happened. Here are some cool things:
We met this Australian dude Adam, who we got really drunk with at the hostel last night. He said that when he was younger he used to make poor decisions, but it is very clear that although he thinks he has outgrown it, he will forever be a poor decision-maker. He ended up getting punched on New Year's Eve while trying to buy cocaine in San Juan del Sur. He also restored our faith that is safe to buy weed in hostels (but we won't anyway, so don't worry).
We did some cool Shabbat prayer with some Israelis.
We have already changed our plans many times, and will do so many more. I think we might add Leon (in the North) to our trip.
Nobody in Nicaragua (and I mean nobody) speaks English. Our guide in a National Park didn't even speak a word of English. On the plus side, I have been pleasantly surprised with my own Spanish skills. It's been more htna enough to get by.
We just had the craziest night in a treehouse last night. Chad, the owner, kept pouring everyone free shots and dancing (read grinding) on Eric. Twas funny. I will upload pictures soon.
Love and happiness,
Ben
Sent while drinking Flor de Cana.
Please excuse mistakes.
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