Hola!! We made it to Nicaragua. Our last days in El Salvador were great, like the ones before it. We got in the water every day... at least, I did. Jered was suffering a bit from an ear infection or swimmer's ear, but it's cleared up now. We had a big rum and juice party the night before we left. Got a little crazy with several digital cameras and a video recorder and will have lots of memories to fill in the gaps. It's always so hard to move on when travelling. You meet amazing people, like our crews from Whistler and Santa Cruz and then you just have to muster the ganas to up and go and realize that at the next stop, you'll meet as many wonderful people and the circle will continue to grow!
So, at 3.30 in the morning, we awoke with Alex, the big sexy Salvadorian dueno of our hostel and drove into San Salvador to hop on the famous Tica Bus line straight to Managua. Tica Bus is awesome and runs through all of Central America and some of South America. It's a big fancy line with air conditioning and movies... and a mere $25 to travel the distance of three countries... So, I got a Honduras stamp in my passport but only saw the country from the bus window and of the country I only saw a little corner of it. The border crossing was fun. The bus stops a block prior to the border and makes everyone walk through. So we do the run around from one window to the next, getting stamps paying fees and then get back on the bus and pass on through to the other side!
On the bus, I was reminded why sometimes people in other countries think we're a little bizarro... one of the movies they showed was called Undisputed 2.... Well, never heard of Undisputed 1 either... a stupid very violent movie about a boxer who gets framed by the Russian mafia so that he ends up in prison in Russia just to fight a champion boxer in prison so the mafia guy can make money off him.... violent and full of fabulous new English vocab for the lovely people of latin america... did I mention violent? Of course in the end, the American boxer defeats the Russian champ, rescues the old vet in the wheelchair who lives in the prison basement and becomes his Mr. Miyagi, who was imprisoned because he took the heat for his brother since his brother's wife was pregnant... and boxer boy takes mr. miyagi, the mentor guy out of prison with his blood money and reunites him with his long lost neice... an emotional encounter at the train station that really did bring a tear to my eyes... but you know me! Really, Americans are so predictable.
When we got to Managua we were assaulted by taxistas pulling me this way and that shouting out potential destinations to take the gringos with the big packs and the long surfboards.... [Did I mention we bought boards in El Salvador on day two to avoid rental fees. Jered scored a brand new 7'2 made by a local and dinged it on day three when it fell onto the sidewalk... I bought a used fat, as in chubby, not phat, 6'8 Rusty ... floats like a dingy but won't move into the wave for shit!....] We were also offered kilos of coca for sale [cocaine obviously...] and that was just shouted out casually as if they were selling coca cola...
So anyway, finally found a taxi driver with an honest face who manages to get the two boards into his tiny Toyota Carolla somehow, beyond my comprehension and faith, and we were off! He was awesome... tested out some minimal English on us, told us about the tourist sights we were passing, such as Massaya the town, Massaya the lake and Massaya the volcano.
We arrived in Granada shortly thereafter and got denied at a few hostels [price and space reasons] and as we were finding out that one place we were investigating cost a rediculous [by local standards and States standards] $40 a night, a gringo [american fellah] walked by and clued us in to his diggs up the street... the lovely La Libertad. We have a room to ourselves at $15 total a night in a very colorful hostel with an open roof main area, a fountain, enough tropical plants for San Diego Zoo and a gatito [kitty]. When I say colorful, I mean, puts my house to shame... and then I remember where I got my inspiration! Purple, blue, bright green, yellow, orange, dark green, peach, pink, ... all blended without thought for 'what goes together' from trim to roof to stripes on the walls to contrasting walls... and I love it!!!!
Last night we had a yummy dinner in a cute quiet restaraunt with open air seating and another in house jungle... I even think there were parrots in the tree above me. Then we went to the plaza in the center of town and watched a series of children's dance performances in honor of la madre, their mother's day celebration. Some little chicos came up and recited cute poems to their moms and others came up and got shy and just repeated the same thing over and over... ''I want to tell my mom that la ama, la quiero besar, la ama, la quiero...'' Basically, love ya ma!
Today we're venturing up to a little remote lake, Lago Apoyo, to swim and kayak. Then tomorrow we're hiking up a volcano on la isla ometepe in the huge lake of Nicaragua. After those adventures, we'll continue to the sea and surf our butts off again... that is, I will paddle my arms off and hope that a wave will let me come along for the ride here and there.... Rumor has it the break is more friendly than where we were....
Anyway, this hostel provides free breakfast, all you can drink cafe and free internet with the cost of the room... and it's not even in the gringo guidebook! So, I'll be checking mail til we leave [and drinking cafe til I have liver damage]... so drop a line... Of course, many of you won't get this until Monday and I'll be outty cuatro, but I bet I'll find another spot to log on real soon!
Chau and chill! Life is short!!!
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