Nicaragua: Julio 23- 27 (primer installment)

Towards the end of July my close friend from college, Jennifer, visited and allowed me to drag her to Nicaragua. Apparently, after 4 straight years of being subjected to me as her roommate, she STILL hasn't learned her lesson. like all previous traveling trips, this one was equally disogranized and fun. after finding out that we could NOT buy bus tickets for the next morning, we decided to visit Volcan Poas on a day trip from San Jose. I blame the cagey man I talked to on the phone who assured me that there would be plenty of room on the bus, not my own scatter-brainedness and inability to have more than just one coherent thought at a time (most of the time they arent that coherent, either). Voclan Poas was beautiful and a refreshingly cold change from la selva. we got to see the smoke sulfur fumes, crater lakes, and go on a little hike.

Volcan Poas

UCR campus , San Jose

the next morning we piled onto Ticabus before the sun up to make our way SLOWLY through the penas blancas boarder crossing and eventually north to Granada. where, since we got in at 4 in the afternoon, we had trouble finding a place stay. our hospedaje left much to be desired, the walls were pressboard and broken. no windows, yet we still got bug bitten. and humid. very very hot and humid.

the next day we took off for Rivas to catch a ferry from San Jorge to Isla Ometepe en la Laguana de Nicaragua. which involved some aimless wandering down the streets of granada, trying to find the well hidden 'bus station.' it wasnt so much as a bus station as a gravel lot behind a bunch of produce stands, with a bus in it. Granada is an interesting city, lots of spanish influence in the architecture. it has a nice little central park with fountains and a few statues. the streets are lined with street vendors, selling everything from watch bands and bananas to clothing and used electronics.

the bus ride to rivas was fun: an old, creatively painted school bus crammed full of people: people crawling in the back entrance, hanging onto the back outside the bus. our 'ferry' was not so much a ferry as a wooden boat. that you boarded by walking along a narrow wooden plank 15 feet above the water, with 2 nicaraguan men making sure you didnt fall into the lake. the lake had a yellowish tinge to it and water had a tendency to come inside the boat when we hit 'swells.' we got a clear view of both volcanos on the island from our boat ride (which lasted almost 2 hours with lots of rocking). very beautiful.

when we arrived and disembarced in Moyogalpa, we found out that there was no bus service. because it was Sunday afternoon and apparently there are NO buses Sunday afternoons. we wanted to get to Merida so we could hike to the top of Volcan Madera the next day. but managed to get a shuttle bus driver to take us along the unpaved, muddy and sandy road to the hostel. the hostel, by the way, was awesome. plenty of hammocks to lounge in, right next to the water with kayaks to rent. and they fed us VERY well (which we were especially thankful for because there was nothing more in Merida other than the bus stop and a small food stand selling plam fruit, pickeled carrots and cauliflower, and fried potatos). That night we were able to find a guide to take us up the (inactive) volcano the next morning and move onto phase 2 of traveling with Erin. I will not only be disorganized and scatterbrained. but i will forget that my visitor has not been living in the tropics for the past 5 months and decide we should go on a death march to the top of a volcano after 2 days of almost no sleep. sorry jen!

Granda

Boat to Isla Ometepe

Volcan Concepcion y Volcan Madera

Jen at the hostel