greetings once again, this time from sunny Nicaragua. and no its not a typo, or evidence of a severe lack of geographical knowledge on my part (which, lets face it, is doubtful, as I AM, after all, top of the travel game board amongst my friends on facebook, har har snicker snicker), that is where I am as part of my 'Costa Rica and Panama' trip.
And one need not score too high on that little travel quiz to know that i´ve gone basically in the wrong direction here, but as a sign I came across in Puerto Viejo read 'a good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving'. Although to be fair, it's not as though I just woke up one morning and said, hey, why don't I just switch up the itinerary a bit? no no...I confess, I latched on to someone else's trip. After randomly meeting Norbert, a German with a similar amount of holiday time to myself during an ad-hoc group dinner in a pizzeria in Puerto Viejo 2 days before I was set to head on further south, to make a long story short the seed of this idea was planted.
The mercenary traveller in me wanting to appease the country number count gods thought hey, one more to the list while i am here, and it was, after all, a country I had considered during my travel planning process (that generally took place during working hours, of course) and it was now occuring to me I COULD have it all..hah.
Not to mention seeing something new and with word that the Pacific coast had been dry and sunny and the carribean..not so much...I realised I had quite possibly budgeted entirely too much time to those little Panamanian Islands where everything was centred around things I could only do in good weather (well, for me anyway, as that would include poss more surfing lessons and definitely some diving, etc.). This one paragraph realisation had taken the better part of a sleepless night, and the next day after some slight persuasion on my part, it was agreed I'd be joining on the trip north rather than heading south.
I have to admit, that I wasn't entirely sure of the decision and travelling with someone else (well, as it ensued, not only me)..not to mention the amount of time required on buses, boats and any other forms of transport might be rather draining. And there were some...what i shall label with the all-encompassing term 'technical difficulties' to the point I nearly got on a bus straight back to where i'd come from, but after a great week, that would have been a mistake.
after being waitlisted for tickets at an ungodly hour the next morning, we got our tickets to Granada. oh, and one note for any future tica bus travellers reading this; pack your winter gear. yes, one would not think to need it, but the tica bus love affair with air conditioning is going strong. otherwise it was a quite scenic journey that passed far quicker than i had expected it to. the inaugural city of Nicaragua was Granada, a city well endowed with beautiful colonial architecture and giving off an entirely different feeling than being in the carribean. We checked into one of these colonial structures, the hotel Esfinge, which is mere blocks from where the chicken buses run to the other parts of the country. Its located right on the main market street, which is a flurry of all sorts of activity, however once inside the confines of the hotel, it was amazingly peaceful.
Unfortunately a good lot of time was taken up sorting out onward transport, and in my case, transport back as I did still need to end up in Panama at some point for the flight back to LA. thankfully once that was sorted there were still some daylight hours left check out the town and enjoy coffee and cake.
the next morning was off to Omotepe island, a trip that went relatively smoothly, and with lady luck helping out a bit..after finding out the previous 2 days no boats had run. By this stage I was catching a cold (the after effects of the tica bus turbo air con i presume) and was ready for some relaxation whilst Norbert decided to head up a volcano. something I wanted to do as well, but the illness and lack of proper footwear meant it wouldnt happen. Although in the end he wound up ill with another sort of ailment, and hence the Omotepe thing was a bit of a non event, spent only at the hotel we stayed at which was in the middle of nowhere. Which would have been very peaceful if it were not for some geese that made otherworldly sounds..i couldnt figure it out at first, it sounded like dying aliens.
but for me, the peace was fine. the rest allowed me to recover, and whilst making my way to my hammock du jour, Gary, an American with a balloon delivery service (you meet all types out in these parts...) starting enquiring about the surrounding acomodation and I had a good chat with him, getting some info about San Juan del Sur, the next destination. Gary later joined us for lunch and he could really TALK...politics, traveling, age guessing and tales of smoking up with wanted mass murderers in Mexico, and all this rolled into one afternoon. shortly after he took off on his bike back to town and left us to formulate some plans for the next and last segment of the trip..the one i looked forward to...finally... a BEACH. After much deliberation and more drama, and more of me saying, why the f*** did i do this, we decided to stay in San Juan del Sur itself and head out to the other beaches on a day trip.
Got sorted with some accomodation at the small and simple Rebecca Inn, run by the welcoming Martha and seeming more like it was her home with a few rooms to rent, and met Seth, a nice young lad from Guatemala trying to find work and study English as well. It was a nice atmosphere. We got a taxi to take us out to Marsella beach, which was pretty much deserted by the time we got there..which was perfect. swam in the sea, got stung by jellyfish and just missed the sunset, but thoroughly enjoyed it. had our last dinner at a place called Marie's bar, which was less than impressive, and a few drinks over the road at what seemed to be the centre of social life in the town that night..a bar i can't recall the name but i've dubbed it 'the pirate bar' based on a drawing of a pirate both outside and on the menu.
the next day did not leave enough time to head to another beach so a chill morning at the beach here (minus jellyfish swimming), and I put Norbert on the bus back to Granada, to catch the tica bus back to san jose..the same bus i should have been on but seats seem to be randomly available, so hence i will go 2 days later. It was a strange feeling to be on my own again, and although I am not even vaguely god's gift it took only a matter of seconds before the local men started earning their machismo reputation with suggestive 'hola's' ringing out all around me.
I had, what I realised, was my first meal alone on this trip (I had met the 2 Daves and Erik straight away upon arrival in Puerto Viejo and had company each night after that), but it was not long until I found myself conversing with Nancy, a retired lady from the US who had just moved to Costa Rica and was doing a visa run holiday here. We watched the sunset whilst sipping margaritas and chatting about travel before moving over to the Pirate bar (and yes, i do know the barman by name and we are recognised there...), and more randomness occured there as an Argentine lad with implaceable accent encroached on our nachos with promise to buy us drinks later to compensate for having some of our food....never happened, Nancy left, i stayed and conversed with some American lads who had been there the night before before lurching 'home' to Rebecca and awaking some hours later to barking dogs and killer hangover.
However, this time I did not raise the white flag against the hangover and crawled to the beach via the shop to get some water, of course coming in contact with all alcohol ads imagineable..ugh....
the sea helped me recover, but when the jellyfish came back i got out, got a few rays and then headed off to find some food and shower. Nancy and I had yet another drink at the Pirate bar, and out of nowhere Mr. Argentina shows up proffering 2 beers saying 'here is my debt..see you tonight!'...chuh, i dont think so, cos here i am writing in my blog instead and quite happy to do so...as i fully intend to get up early and make the most of the day before I myself make the trip back to Granada and finally the journey to San Jose and even more finally, the flight to Bocas del Toro (presumably holding a sign reading 'Panama or Bust', as I am quite excited to get there and after the stories from the 2 Daves and Erik, along with Nancy's tales....).
So until Panama (or who knows, at the rate I am going maybe the next message will be from Venezuela)...
Ciao!
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