More Granada

Granada definitely has me under its spell. I'd initially planned to leave yesterday, but only because I'd wanted to take the ferry from Granada to Isla de Ometepe and it only leaves twice a week. Then I realized that I could take the ferry from San Jorge instead and not only would it be faster and cheaper, but it's also more frequent. The plan, then, was to leave today. However...I woke up and my very first thought was, "oh, I'll stay just one more day."

Ever since my walk past the Convent of San Francisco the other day, I'd been wanting to get back to see if I could get better pictures, ones that weren't being shot directly into the sun. I don't know if my timing was much better today, but it was a pretty morning and there's a good breakfast place across the street from the convent so it gave me a good reason to go there.

After breakfast it was still pretty early (and also not too hot yet), so I took advantage by doing a bit of shopping for a few essentials I needed. I took a bunch of random pictures along the way (as evidenced here) and had to laugh when a guy stopped me and asked "Are you just taking pictures of doorways or what?" Hey, buddy, are you the picture police? Let me take pictures of randomness and pretty colors if I feel like it! :-D

Other than that, it's pretty quiet around here. I've been hanging out in the courtyard of my hostel, enjoying the cool, shady breezy and the crazy intense smell of the guavas that keep dropping from the trees all around me, occasionally taking breaks to get another refresco, or water, or beer. I do intend to leave tomorrow, but let's see how I feel when I wake up...

ZIPlining!

Yesterday I alluded to fun plans for today and if you're paying attention (and read the title!), you've figured out by now that those plans were to do a canopy tour and go ziplining. My friends over at LaAventura Project had told me how much fun they'd had doing it, so I set out to find a tour company practically upon arrival in Granada. 

It wasn't easy, though. After deciding to use Leo Tours (because it's 100% Nica owned and operated, and because Leo was so awesome), I had to make multiple trips back to their office. You see, there was a two person minimum and clearly I'm only one person. I put my name on a list with Leo and checked back with him three times over two days to see whether any other groups had come along that I could join. Finally, yesterday he told me that he'd arrange for me to go today, even if it was just me, and it would be the same price. Awesome! Guess who's getting a five star review from me on TripAdvisor? :-)

This morning it was a short drive to the foot of the Mombacho Volcano and the Cutirre coffee plantation. The staff were really great about getting us safely strapped into the gear and explaining how the ziplines worked. The cables were up to 100 feet above the ground, with 17 platforms that had ziplines and bridges connecting them. The platforms give you pretty good views all around. I saw a baby falcon and a family of howler monkeys (who stared at us and seemed very curious about what exactly we were doing).

The guides take pictures with your camera so you can take it all in (and brake when necessary). You also have options to travel the ziplines in different ways:

(The "wonderwoman")

(The "monkey")

But most of the time, you're just right side up and zipping along. I don't know how fast you go, but you really move!

In that video, the guide just told me to keep looking at him (which is why I kind of look like a goon)...this is why I crashed into the other guide at the end of the line! You can hear me laughing as I say sorry. Whoops!

The last cable was probably the most fun, I think. It was the longest of all the cables and one guide was at the end, rocking the cables. This meant that I got bounced all around, swinging and swaying like crazy. It was really fun. :-)

It's pretty warm right now, so I'm lying low and taking it easy. But in a couple of hours I have a massage scheduled at Seeing Hands. Seeing Hands is one of those initiatives that trains blind Nicaraguans to give them a way to support themselves. I did this once before and really enjoyed it, so I figured I'd give it another try. Plus, why not? Massage. Who needs an excuse for that?

A Balm and a Salve

Granada. Granada is my balm and salve right now. Yes, I know those two words essentially mean the same thing, but I needed a lot of healing after the last few days so I'm using both.

I'd been looking forward to Granada since way back when, so I was bound and determined to shake off the last bit of funk that was hanging on. I added my two favorite albums to a playlist and that cheered me immediately, but as if that wasn't enough - air conditioning on BOTH of my buses! So unusual and such a treat, I couldn't help but be happy! Then...I first laid eyes on the cathedral at Central Park and I just could.not.stop.grinning. 

I spent today wandering around contentedly, taking pictures, drinking refrescos (cold drinks made from everything ranging from grains and seeds to fruits - I had dragonfruit and a variety of passion fruit), and making plans for tomorrow (how's that for foreshadowing?). I'll share some of my pics, but I apologize in advance for the quality - first it was overcast/cloudy and then I shot into the sun later.

(The aforementioned cathedral, built in 1712)

I took a bunch of pictures at Iglesia La Merced which I'd heard and read had a tower that you could climb for awesome views of the city (and for only C$20, i.e. <$1).

(A close up of the outside of the church)

(Coral loves Granada, too!)

(Selfie shot that took some *amazing* maneuvering) 

After meandering for most of the morning and early afternoon, I ended up back at my hostel to rest a bit and it was around 3pm that I realized I hadn't eaten yet today. Whoops! The heat dulls my appetite, I think. The last few days I've been eating one meal a day, usually around 4 or 5pm. I got gallo pinto con cerdo (gallo pinto translates as painted rooster, but really it's rice and beans, with pork) and another refresco. Then it was back to the hostel for more resting and blogging and chatting, and the plan for later is a drink with some of my dorm mates.

Finally, how about a couple of my favorite shots from today, however random they may be?

(Convent of San Francisco - I like the light and dark colors with the telephone wires coming from all over)

(Just a man in a doorway with his bike...but I like it!)

(Random stairway to nowhere behind bars in the stairwell up the tower of Iglesia La Merced - I was digging how the shadows and lines were playing together)

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Colectivos and Chicken Buses

I know I've mentioned both colectivos and chicken buses as forms of travel I've used extensively since beginning my Central American travels. But I thought I'd explain a bit more to maybe give more insight into the culture of this type of transportation.

When you think about it, the concept of shared transport makes a lot of sense, especially in areas where people don't have a lot of money which makes owning their own cars out of the realm of possibility. Let me explain one more time how it works: Let's say you want to go somewhere, but the taxi ride there will cost $10 (just to use a nice, round number; that's actually quite a bit of money here). You don't have $10, but there are other people going the same general direction as you, so you all pool together to come up with the fare. (The only US example I can think of is people in Manhattan sharing a taxi. But I kind of think that mostly just happens on tv and in the movies?) You save money and you help the environment (one trip for the driver instead of multiple), but you definitely don't save time. You have to wait around until you have the necessary number of people to fill a particular vehicle - not so hard for a four person sedan, a bit harder for a shuttle bus or lancha, and quite difficult for a full size bus.

Chicken buses are only a little bit different, but there is a distinct difference. They're not exactly colectivos because they usually run to *some* type of schedule and will leave even if not full (because it most certainly will be soon enough). The countries of Central America are not particularly densely populated. (Sorry in advance, but you'll have to scroll about halfway down for that info. I was too tired to deal with learning that bit of html code.) Guatemala, the largest by population, comes in at #66 on the world population list. With people that spread out, it makes more sense that people would just hail a bus as it drives by (and just let the driver know when you're ready to get off). And how do people know the bus is coming without just waiting by the side of the road for potentially hours on end? Easy. The driver honks like hell as he drives down the road and if people come out, he stops. That's actually the most annoying thing about chicken buses for me because that horn is LOUD. In case you're wondering what these things look like:

(Converted school bus! One of mine the other day still had Kanawha County Schools - West Virginia - printed on the side.)

And a shot from the inside:

(Not my photo. From www.happinessplunge.com)

I think the payment system on chicken buses is really interesting. There's a guy (almost always a guy, I think I've only seen a girl do the job once) whose job it is to shout down and gather potential riders, as well as handle all of the money. Usually a person or five or 10 will get on the bus, find their seats, and it's some time later before the money handler makes his way down the aisle to collect payment. He never watches where they're sitting so how he keeps track of everyone is pretty amazing. He also always remembers who's due change and where they're sitting, too (and people don't just stay in the same seats, either). I suppose it's not all that different from waiting tables and I did that for eight years, but it SEEMS different. :) On the bus leaving Coyolito from Isla del Tigre, there was even a kid who was in training. He and his mentor were so cute working together.

Earlier in this post, I talked about how sharing rides helps save money. For the solo traveler such as myself, this is one of the few times we're not getting the short end of the stick and having to pay more for traveling alone. It comes in handy...when it works. But when it doesn't, like for my lancha ride from Isla del Tigre, solo travelers are back to wishing they were traveling in a big group. Sure, it was only $2.50 that day, but the colectivo boat at Lake Atitlan is less than a dollar and the private one is more than ten times that, so it can make a difference.

Bringing it back around to the culture I also mentioned earlier, the common threads are waiting and sharing. The idea of "central America time" begins to make more sense when you realize people are used to waiting for things and waiting for an extra half hour past the scheduled departure time is just not such a big deal. Besides just sharing the fare, riders do also tend to share snacks and such as well, although not to nearly the extent that it's shared in India. 

So what do you think? If you were to ever travel in this part of the world, would you partake of the chicken bus experience or stick to the more expensive, private shuttle buses (I've used those, too!)? And if you've already traveled to this part of the world, did I do a good job explaining or is there more I should've added?

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(Also: happy birthday shout-out to my brother-in-law who never comments, but I'm pretty sure he's out there reading anyway. I'll have a Nicaraguan beer today in your honor!)

Churches of Leon

This morning, the only thing on my mind was finding a panadería for some bread and finding a shady spot to eat and people watch. I had no idea what the filling was in the sugar-crusted bread that I pointed at and requested two of, I just hoped it wasn't icky. Caramel! Oh my god, it was this yummy, not too sweet, not too sticky caramel. Why I've never seen or heard of this creation before, I don't know, but it was GOOD. It was also just the smile I needed after my last few days.

I hadn't specifically set out today to do a walking tour of the city's churches, but that's somehow what I ended up doing. I suppose it was even appropriate since it's Sunday and that's where most of the city's citizens were anyway. ;-)

First, though, let me show you what it's like trying to find your way around León. Here's a picture of a map that the city has posted at Central Park. Let me know if you notice anything...strange about it:

Give yourself a round of applause if you noticed that there are no street names on this map. The guidebook says that, unusual for this area, Leon actually has street signs. It does, but they are very randomly placed and you can't exactly rely on them. My strategy is to consult the map when there ARE street signs and count the numbers of blocks to my destination or turn.

My map shows ten churches and I think I only saw half of them. The cathedral located at Central Park is the largest in all of Central America and seemed as good a place as any to start, (especially since I was already there in a shady spot with my bread). It took almost one hundred years to construct (beginning in 1747) and definitely shows signs of its age and being battered by volcanoes, although it is currently going through a renovation.

 I don't really know much about the history of the other churches, unfortunately. So I'll just share a couple of my favorite shots of the day.

(La Merced Church in the background)

(The facade of La Recolección church dates back to 1786)

Other pics are posted, go check 'em out if you feel so inclined.

Tomorrow I'm off to Granada for a bit of adventure!

Isla del Tigre and travel to Nica

It's kind of hard to know where to start with relaying the events of the last few days. On the one hand, I'd like everyone to keep feeling envious of my travels and all the wonderful people I'm meeting along the way; on the other hand, sometimes there are just hard days and hard situations. For the sake of fair and objective reporting (you mean I'm NOT a journalist? Oh. Oh well.) and the hopes that maybe the full telling of the story will be therapeutic, I'm gonna share all of it...

Wednesday started with a bright and early 6am bus. By about 10:30am I'd arrived at Comayagüela, just outside the capital of Tegucigalpa...and was thoroughly disgusted in relatively short order. I'd been warned that a taxi here from where the bus dropped off was absolutely necessary because of the danger. I don't know about danger, but I was completely gouged by the taxi driver (who charged me almost the same amount for a five minute drive as what I paid for a four hour bus ride AND laughed in my face when I called him out on it) and then practically attacked by touts who were grabbing at me to go with their bus company and not the other guy's. I was then routed onto one particular bus where I got to wait for the next hour until we actually left. That wasn't so bad, kinda comes with the territory in these parts. What WAS bad was that during that hour I got to basically see the worst of humanity. Touts harassing anyone in their grabbing vicinity, blatant littering of the worst sort (trash cans were *right* there), lots of nose picking, junk grabbing, and spitting. Plus, it was hot and dusty.

Multiple bus changes later and I was in the town of San Lorenzo which I knew to be the closest place to Isla del Tigre to get money from an ATM. I haven't had any problems at ATMs thus far, but of course this was the one ATM that wouldn't work for me. (Did you know that MasterCard isn't as widely accepted in Central America as Visa? Guess which one I have...) I was still an hour away from the island by this point and I was quickly convincing myself that if I could find a hotel that accepts credit cards (did you know that's not particularly common here, either?), I was going to suck it up and pay a lot of money for a private room with a/c. It took multiple attempts, but I did eventually end up in an overpriced, somewhat run-down room in a currently-being-renovated-hotel. But at least it was icy cold, was right on the water, and had sunsets that looked like this:

(When the tide was in, that little spit of land in the foreground completely disappeared.)

For my two days or so on the island, I was indeed the only foreigner visiting. Actually, during some parts of my wanderings, it felt like I was the only person on the island, foreigner or otherwise. It was almost creepy how few people were out and about. Aside from the roads in the main town of Amapala, the island just has one road that goes all the way around it, about 18km distance. After spending some time at the pool (too icky to go in, so I just sat next to it) trying to wrap my head around what the next five weeks will look like planning-wise, I took a tuk-tuk almost halfway around the island to Playa Negra - my first black sand beach, as far as I can remember. It was nice enough, but nothing too special if I'm being perfectly honest, and not much to it. The people there mostly just gathered around me and gawked, staring, not trying to make conversation even if I initiated. And the quietness was shattered when a boy who was old enough to know better tossed a glass bottle into the air and let it smash into a million pieces on the sand, right where people were walking and playing. I know it's kind of mean, but I almost wished that he'd cut himself. He would've deserved it. Lucky for him, my wishing had no impact.

(Playa Negra, pre-broken glass)

Friday came and it was to be another long travel day. The guys at the hotel front desk told me I could pretty much get a lancha any time, but that on the hour would be my best bet. Unfortunately, they hadn't told me that the boats are colectivos which means they don't leave until there are enough people to fill them. After waiting for about a half hour, one of the drivers offered to take just me for 50Lps instead of the usual 15Lps (more than triple the price, yes, but still only about $2.50 and I figured it was worth it since I had such a long travel day ahead of me).

That was actually the most waiting I had to do for the rest of the day because I was pretty much shuffled along without incident from there. In fact, in Guasaule I was shuffled so quickly onto a minibus that I barely had time to realize there wasn't really a seat available for me. I was essentially sitting between a guy's knees, facing him like we were in a marriage counseling therapy session, except it would've made the weirdest session ever since we'd never even seen each other before. There were about 20 people on that 12 seat bus and I had a cramped knee and an asleep leg about 10 minutes into the 45 minute trip. At one point there was a security checkpoint - fairly common, but it was my first where we all had to pile out so the bus could be searched. I still don't know what exactly happened, but one less person got back on the bus than got off.

Next came la frontera and it was probably one of the more maddening border crossings I've ever experienced, if not the most. A guy in a pedi-cab snagged me as I got off the bus and was cycling me from point to point, telling me what to expect next. By the time he told me about the fee to cross into Nicaragua, I'd already exchanged my Honduran lempiras for Nicaraguan córdobas and was beginning to feel panicky that I wouldn't have enough ($12). (Not that I wouldn't have enough, exactly, but I also needed money for my bus into León, etc. and didn't want to have NO money.) The ATM at the border also wasn't working for me, but I managed to piece together enough dollars, lempiras, and córdobas to pay the fee AND have some left over. As my pedi-cab driver and I were officially driving over the bridge into Nica, we were stopped by some soldiers. I'm not really sure what the point was - were they trying to bribe me? search my bag? something else entirely? - but I didn't even have to play dumb because I really didn't know what they were trying to say to me. It was mildly intimidating because the one soldier had this baton that he kept tapping against my leg, but the whole situation was over in probably less than a minute and a half. I finally got to where the buses into Nica were parked and this tout tried to gouge me, too. He was suddenly insisting on 200Lps, more than ALL of my travel up until that point had cost, combined. I gave him the rest of my lempira, about 80Lps I think, still too much, but I'd had enough and wanted to get away from him. As I thanked him and walked away, he was still calling after me that I owed him more money, but he did eventually give up and bike back the direction we'd just come.

My arrival and first 18 hours in León have presented their own challenges, but that will have to wait for another day because this has already gotten long enough. Suffice it to say that I have cash now and can eat something substantial for the first time in a couple of days, so things can only go up from here, right?

Sorry if this was a bit of a downer of a post, but I had to get it all out. Here, about a cheerier picture to wrap things up?

(Because how can you not smile with this guy staring down at you like that?)

Pulhapanzak Waterfall

My adventure for today was a trip to the Pulhapanzak Waterfall. But "today" is actually Tuesday and you're not seeing this until Thursday because I scheduled it that way. Wednesday is a travel day and I'll be on an island without internet on Thursday and Friday, so I figured I'd space the postings out a little bit.

ANYWAY. I hadn't exactly planned to go to las cascadas, but a couple of people from my hostel were going and since I didn't have anything better to do, I figured I'd tag along. The three of us hired a taxi and made the 20 minute trip. Had I done this on my own, I probably would've opted for public transport, but considering how far away it was I was kind of glad that I didn't end up doing it that way.

It's 60Lps ($3) to enter the park and another 130Lps ($6.50) to go behind the waterfalls with a guide. We all quickly decided that going behind the falls was a must, so we made our way to the office to get our tickets and meet our guide.

My lucky streak with good guides continued with Luis. He was a guide not in the let-me-educate-you-about-this kind of way, but truly in the you-need-to-follow-me-to-make-it-through-this sense. He was awesome because he told you every step of the way what to expect, helped you along the slippery parts, and even lent me his hat so that I wouldn't lose my contact lens as we moved through the super powerful falls.

You see those falls right up above? They are 43m high, the tallest in the area for sure. THAT'S what we walked/scrambled/slipped behind. It was pretty awesome. There were opportunities to do some cliff jumping, too, but my dorm mate sliced the bottom of his foot pretty badly doing just that. Sliced it enough that he thinks he may end up having to cut his trip short by a month and go home. I let his misfortune be my warning and played it pretty safe.

Tonight I'm picking the brains of some of the staff here at the lodge to figure out logistics of getting from here to Isla el Tigre tomorrow and then from there to Nicaragua a couple days later. I'm feeling a little anxious about it because it's well off the beaten path, there aren't a lot in the way of budget accommodations, and I may well be one of the few foreigners around for miles. The owner of D&D said the best way around it is to knock on doors and ask about lodging and even meals. Wow. Wish me luck! Since there's no internet on the island, so I'll be back (from Nica) sometime over the weekend.