Thursday, January 31, 2013
Monday, December 31, 2012
The last day of our travels
Up at 530 to catch the 630 bus to Alajuela- the city where the San Jose CR airport is. The trip down the mountain took over an hour and made me kinda sick. I didn't drink the night before (shocker) nor eat too much so it must have been the road because I'm convincing myself that the food I ate is totally fine. That's a tricky thing to do when all you can think about it puking like you want to die.
We arrived at the airport at 10 and took a cab to Alajuela where we were staying at Hotel Cortez Azul. We shared a cab w/ another couple for $5. It's hard to get used to these prices when you're used to paying $1 for a cab ride. Whatever we are almost home. We checked into our private room (yay!) and headed out on the town to look for a shirt for Andy and a hammock for me. It was getting hot so we got an icy drink from a street vendor this thing was sugar crack. Layered in with the ice was condensed milk powder and then red sugar syrup and on top liquid condensed milk. It was kinda gross. We tried to eat it by layers but theres no way you should eat powdered condensed milk. Once we mixed it together it kinda tasted like strawberry shortcake but it was still gross. We were prepared to go into diabetic shock.
The hammocks at $25 here, twice the amount in Nicaragua. I don't even feel like bargaining w/ these people at these prices. A dude in Honduras got one for $7 so I'm sure as shit not going to pay $25. It's OK, I'll just make one at home. We pretty much walked around town and didn't see anything too impressive, it's a smaller city w/in a bigger city. A lot of stores were closed so we went to the hotel to figure out where we were going to celebrate NYE.
We figured we could go to San Jose for NYE or we could just stay close and it would be just the same but much cheaper. We do have to be at the airport by 4am so it's going to be a early night. I found a restaurant we had some cocktails at 4pm and walked around for a bit. It's so early, how the hell are we going to make it to midnight? There are cops everywhere. Is that a good sign that we'll be protected or a bad sign that they need cops everywhere? TBD.
We found a place to have drinks so Andy got us a small bottle of Absolute and we made our own drinks because the one thing we have learned is that Central Americans make shitty mixed drinks (they gave us tonic instead of soda water but oh well). We headed to the previous restaurant for dinner, Andy had to the churrasco and I had to sea bass- delish. All we wanted were martinis, is that too hard to ask? Have we not learned anything about not ordering items that aren't familiar in the area? Apparently not because the martinis were really fucking weird. It's like they looked at a pick, saw it wasn't clear but cloudy, and since they put sugar in everything, they added caramel. Fucking weird and disgusting- and there were olives in the drink. OK, we learned another lesson. Just because it's a cocktail bar doesn't mean you can order something not on the menu and it worked out as you would expect it to.
I'm ready for bed but we are going to push forward and not crash NYE at 9pm. We head to the other areas in our 'map' to find other bars. We come across a 'biker bar'- seriously a dude was wearing a vest that said 'prospect' on it. It was OK- they were playing good 80's music. After a shitty beer we headed to the only other bar we saw. It turned out to be a nice bar so we ordered shots of vodka and this time they got the soda water right because I finally learned that soda= soda water in Central America. Next to the bar was a pizza by the slice place. You know we are def hitting that up before we leave! Several drinks and more 80s music later and it's pizza time. We have to hit it up before they close even if it's not new years yet. $3 for the biggest piece of pizza ever. Holla! Back to the hotel, we'll celebrate there. The fireworks are going nuts. Another early morning tomorrow. Happy New Years pinches!
We arrived at the airport at 10 and took a cab to Alajuela where we were staying at Hotel Cortez Azul. We shared a cab w/ another couple for $5. It's hard to get used to these prices when you're used to paying $1 for a cab ride. Whatever we are almost home. We checked into our private room (yay!) and headed out on the town to look for a shirt for Andy and a hammock for me. It was getting hot so we got an icy drink from a street vendor this thing was sugar crack. Layered in with the ice was condensed milk powder and then red sugar syrup and on top liquid condensed milk. It was kinda gross. We tried to eat it by layers but theres no way you should eat powdered condensed milk. Once we mixed it together it kinda tasted like strawberry shortcake but it was still gross. We were prepared to go into diabetic shock.
The hammocks at $25 here, twice the amount in Nicaragua. I don't even feel like bargaining w/ these people at these prices. A dude in Honduras got one for $7 so I'm sure as shit not going to pay $25. It's OK, I'll just make one at home. We pretty much walked around town and didn't see anything too impressive, it's a smaller city w/in a bigger city. A lot of stores were closed so we went to the hotel to figure out where we were going to celebrate NYE.
We figured we could go to San Jose for NYE or we could just stay close and it would be just the same but much cheaper. We do have to be at the airport by 4am so it's going to be a early night. I found a restaurant we had some cocktails at 4pm and walked around for a bit. It's so early, how the hell are we going to make it to midnight? There are cops everywhere. Is that a good sign that we'll be protected or a bad sign that they need cops everywhere? TBD.
We found a place to have drinks so Andy got us a small bottle of Absolute and we made our own drinks because the one thing we have learned is that Central Americans make shitty mixed drinks (they gave us tonic instead of soda water but oh well). We headed to the previous restaurant for dinner, Andy had to the churrasco and I had to sea bass- delish. All we wanted were martinis, is that too hard to ask? Have we not learned anything about not ordering items that aren't familiar in the area? Apparently not because the martinis were really fucking weird. It's like they looked at a pick, saw it wasn't clear but cloudy, and since they put sugar in everything, they added caramel. Fucking weird and disgusting- and there were olives in the drink. OK, we learned another lesson. Just because it's a cocktail bar doesn't mean you can order something not on the menu and it worked out as you would expect it to.
I'm ready for bed but we are going to push forward and not crash NYE at 9pm. We head to the other areas in our 'map' to find other bars. We come across a 'biker bar'- seriously a dude was wearing a vest that said 'prospect' on it. It was OK- they were playing good 80's music. After a shitty beer we headed to the only other bar we saw. It turned out to be a nice bar so we ordered shots of vodka and this time they got the soda water right because I finally learned that soda= soda water in Central America. Next to the bar was a pizza by the slice place. You know we are def hitting that up before we leave! Several drinks and more 80s music later and it's pizza time. We have to hit it up before they close even if it's not new years yet. $3 for the biggest piece of pizza ever. Holla! Back to the hotel, we'll celebrate there. The fireworks are going nuts. Another early morning tomorrow. Happy New Years pinches!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Surviving the storm in the cloud forest of Monteverde
Up at 5am so we could get our bus tickets to San Jose for tomorrow am. We don't want to be stuck in this town when we need to be at the airport early the following day. We bought our $5 tickets and jumped on the 615 bus to Monteverde. There was only one other tourist couple on the bus, the others were locals.
At Monteverde at 630 and they open at 7. Where is everyone? It's 'raining' (misting from the clouds passing by and kinda raining) and the wind is blowing hard. We are the first to get our $18 tickets and we head out for the hike w/o a tour guide. We were told there wouldn't be any animals so we don't need a guide to point out flora and fauna. The wind was blowing REALLY hard. So hard Andy and I didn't walk together for a bit in case a branch crashed down on one of us. We also reviewed the emergency steps in case the other was hurt. Each time the wind blew really hard, which was often, I looked up in fear and was always prepared to sprint to safety.
We hiked to the top of the mountain and the wind was kicking so hard the rain hurt hitting our faces. It was fun once you took away the fear of being crushed. It was really nice hiking in the park, pretty much alone. When we entered the park the dude told us he would prefer if we didn't do a long hike due to the bad weather. We initially followed his advice and then decided to go for the long hike since this was our plan for today and we were prepared for an emergency. For the first hour Andy was in macro mode- meaning he took a step every 10 seconds and his head was near the ground looking for small mushrooms, plants, and bugs. I don't mind macro but I don't have the patience to walk at this pace for too long, plus there are big branches above us that might fall on us and we need to get moving. Andy did get hit in the head by a plant and I was hit by something small. There were branches crashing down around us. It was pretty freaky.
We eventually came to the Natural Trail- meaning it shouldn't be walked on in bad weather since there are no steps. What the hell we went for it. The path went up pretty steep, Andy and I slipping along the way. Andy gave me a big kiss as we started. I think it was to pre-make up for any 'incidents' that may occur such as me falling on my ass in a pool of mud. Since I didn't fall in the mud I can now say it was a lot of fun. There were areas where we had no choice but get our shoes really muddy so our socks were wet. Andy attempted to walk straight through the puddle until his shoe sunk in several inches. We hopped from side to side of the path trying to get a grip on some grass to make it up the trail. I had no idea how we were going to go down the other side, it was pretty steep and we were already slipping the whole way. Lucky for Andy there were 'steps' going down the other side.
We came across the suspension bridge that could only hold 10 people. They need to specify if they mean 10 non-Americans or 10 Americans- big difference when you're only talking about 10 people. The wind started to calm down a bit and the sun peaked out from time to time. We headed to the waterfall where we had lunch. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Ferns, moss, and flowers everywhere. Andy even found a deadly black centipede. It was now 1230, we had been hiking for over 5 hours and we were done. On the way back we came across a hive that had fallen on the trail from the strong wind. We saw one black hornet on the hive and wondered what he was doing alone. We were swatting by the hive when Andy looked up and saw hundreds of hornets on the side of the trail. I then looked up and saw them 5 feet from us down the trail. There were everywhere. While Andy was taking macros I was trying to figure how I was going to handle this situation. These hornets were huge and I figured would do serious damage if they started freaking out. I told Andy to let me know when he was done taking pics so I could prep myself for the flee. We calmly walked away and didn't disturb the hornets. That was pretty crazy.
We headed back to the entrance and waited 45 min for the bus. They shut the park down while we were hiking due to strong winds. We were so lucky we caught the early bus and got to the park when we did! I would have been pissed if we couldn't have hiked since that's what we came up here for. People arrived at the park and were turned away. No bird watching today. It was late and Andy was impatient so we walked back to the hostel. I really wasn't in the mood for the additional hike but the weather was now sunny and I was working up an appetite for some tacos. It was now 3, the hot shower was amazing and so were the fish and pork tacos we had. Time to relax for the rest of the day (which will likely only be another 5 hours since our days have been ending at 9 recently). To wrap up this great day, my baby went to the store by himself because I was tired and made me hot chocolate! It was perfect.
At Monteverde at 630 and they open at 7. Where is everyone? It's 'raining' (misting from the clouds passing by and kinda raining) and the wind is blowing hard. We are the first to get our $18 tickets and we head out for the hike w/o a tour guide. We were told there wouldn't be any animals so we don't need a guide to point out flora and fauna. The wind was blowing REALLY hard. So hard Andy and I didn't walk together for a bit in case a branch crashed down on one of us. We also reviewed the emergency steps in case the other was hurt. Each time the wind blew really hard, which was often, I looked up in fear and was always prepared to sprint to safety.
We hiked to the top of the mountain and the wind was kicking so hard the rain hurt hitting our faces. It was fun once you took away the fear of being crushed. It was really nice hiking in the park, pretty much alone. When we entered the park the dude told us he would prefer if we didn't do a long hike due to the bad weather. We initially followed his advice and then decided to go for the long hike since this was our plan for today and we were prepared for an emergency. For the first hour Andy was in macro mode- meaning he took a step every 10 seconds and his head was near the ground looking for small mushrooms, plants, and bugs. I don't mind macro but I don't have the patience to walk at this pace for too long, plus there are big branches above us that might fall on us and we need to get moving. Andy did get hit in the head by a plant and I was hit by something small. There were branches crashing down around us. It was pretty freaky.
We eventually came to the Natural Trail- meaning it shouldn't be walked on in bad weather since there are no steps. What the hell we went for it. The path went up pretty steep, Andy and I slipping along the way. Andy gave me a big kiss as we started. I think it was to pre-make up for any 'incidents' that may occur such as me falling on my ass in a pool of mud. Since I didn't fall in the mud I can now say it was a lot of fun. There were areas where we had no choice but get our shoes really muddy so our socks were wet. Andy attempted to walk straight through the puddle until his shoe sunk in several inches. We hopped from side to side of the path trying to get a grip on some grass to make it up the trail. I had no idea how we were going to go down the other side, it was pretty steep and we were already slipping the whole way. Lucky for Andy there were 'steps' going down the other side.
We came across the suspension bridge that could only hold 10 people. They need to specify if they mean 10 non-Americans or 10 Americans- big difference when you're only talking about 10 people. The wind started to calm down a bit and the sun peaked out from time to time. We headed to the waterfall where we had lunch. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Ferns, moss, and flowers everywhere. Andy even found a deadly black centipede. It was now 1230, we had been hiking for over 5 hours and we were done. On the way back we came across a hive that had fallen on the trail from the strong wind. We saw one black hornet on the hive and wondered what he was doing alone. We were swatting by the hive when Andy looked up and saw hundreds of hornets on the side of the trail. I then looked up and saw them 5 feet from us down the trail. There were everywhere. While Andy was taking macros I was trying to figure how I was going to handle this situation. These hornets were huge and I figured would do serious damage if they started freaking out. I told Andy to let me know when he was done taking pics so I could prep myself for the flee. We calmly walked away and didn't disturb the hornets. That was pretty crazy.
We headed back to the entrance and waited 45 min for the bus. They shut the park down while we were hiking due to strong winds. We were so lucky we caught the early bus and got to the park when we did! I would have been pissed if we couldn't have hiked since that's what we came up here for. People arrived at the park and were turned away. No bird watching today. It was late and Andy was impatient so we walked back to the hostel. I really wasn't in the mood for the additional hike but the weather was now sunny and I was working up an appetite for some tacos. It was now 3, the hot shower was amazing and so were the fish and pork tacos we had. Time to relax for the rest of the day (which will likely only be another 5 hours since our days have been ending at 9 recently). To wrap up this great day, my baby went to the store by himself because I was tired and made me hot chocolate! It was perfect.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Last stop- Costa Rica!
Up at 440am to catch the 5am bus back to Rivas and then another to the border. Good thing I remembered to get off at La Virgen for the transfer. When we were waiting for the transfer a guy told me not to stand on the grass. OK, not sure why but I'll move. 10 seconds later my feet were burning. I thought I had thorns in my feet from crab grass but it was ants biting the shit out of me. Bastards! The other bus shortly came and we had to run to get it since it passed us. 'La frontera!' the guy who told me about the ants yelled. We ran and jumped on quickly. Before we knew it we were at the border AND we got to sit on the bus. Excellent.
We waited in line for a bit to get into Costa Rica. The sign said we needed our flight schedule (which I didn't have) but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal because these guys usually don't care. I was wrong. He said I needed a paper showing our itinerary. That's fine but I don't have it and I don't expect you to have internet and a printer I can use. Luckily a guy from Nicaragua who spoke English was on the same boat and needed his car reservation printed. We headed over to CR to find the car rental place wasn't open until 8 which was another half hour and the bus wasn't going to wait I figured. What the hell are we going to do? Everyone else had passed through immigration so the Nicaraguan guy talked to immigration and showed him his reservation on my phone. There's no wifi and I was searching for the reservation to no avail. I started to freak. Luckily gmail saves items that are starred to your phone so I was able to access it since I'm smart and stared the confirmation. Immigration let us through! We ran, scanned our bags, and ran to the bus. Success! Is our luck starting to run out?
Two hours and a nap later, we arrived at our stop for Las Juntas. The stop was actually 6km from Las Juntas- no problem, we'll take the next bus. The taxi driver was trying to tell me I needed to take a cab to the town because the next bus for Monteverde was leaving at 10 and it was 940. Well I didn't understand/believe him so we didn't take a taxi. We hitched a ride and got to Las Juntas at 1030. The bus for Monteverde did leave at 10 and the next one doesn't leave until 330. Shit we are in this small ass town for hours. So much for waking up early. We walked through town wondering the best way to handle this. Along the way Andy spotted something in the river that flows through town. It was the biggest iguana we've ever seen. The body was probably 4 ft long and the tail another 3 ft. We kinda freaked a bit. If these suckers are just walking around town, what the hell are out in the jungle? It swam across the river without any problem. Thus thing could eat a baby. I guess there aren't any cats in this town.
Locals stopped us along the way and gave us support in reaching our journey. Since we so easily hitched a ride to the town, Andy was all for hitching a ride to Monteverde. A taxi wanted $70 because it's an hour on shitty road and pretty high. No way we are paying that. We started walking through the town toward Monteverde. Andy stopped a chick who gave us a ride to the Y. Andy was on a mission. I guess we are doing this! Not long after she dropped us off, a van came by w/ a man, woman, and a little girl. Andy talked the guy into giving us a ride and moved all the stuff out of the way for our bags. OK then!
An hour later and we made it! Who know hitching a ride was so easy?! Costa Ricans are so freakin nice. Unfortunately Santa Elena is packed full of gringos. Oh well, you can't always be the only gringos around. We got dorms at Pension Santa Elena, in separate rooms once again. Next was lunch. It was 1230 and time to celebrate our arrival. Next to the hostel is a taco place that's packed. Just what we wanted! Two orders of fish tacos and two beers and we were good to go. While we were waiting gringos were annoyed that they had to wait for their food. Ugh. I'm not even home yet and they are already annoying me. You're on vacation right?! Chill the fuck out.
The tacos from Taco Taco were awesome (take that Swedes)! Ice cream topped it off nicely and we relaxed for a while before our night hike. We headed for the rain forest at 6pm w/ ~40 other people. There were 8 of us to a guide but when there's 5 other groups walking around in the same area it creates a bit of a shit show. The guides had walkie talkies so they could communicate when they found something and we'd all run over to see it. It was fun, it's just hard to compare the experience to the Rambo dude we had in Ecuador. We saw a three toed sloth in the trees- that was pretty cool. It looks like a huge teddy bear crawling around upside down. We also saw a green viper, crickets, stick bug, red striped tarantula, a cool spider, a coati, and a honey bear that's not a bear but looks like a cat. Well we didn't really see the coati and honey bear-cat. We heard coati's fighting and then the guide pointed to the tree where I saw a furry animal behind leaves. We 'saw' the honey bear-cat from 50 yards away. The whole time the guide was saying- can you see it, isn't it amazing? I can see something in the tree, it could be what you are saying or it could be a stuffed animal. We also got to walk w/ a chick who was new to using a headlamp and a dude who took forever to take a damp pic. The guide said we needed to be quiet. If we don't see any animals it's because we are talking. Right- as Andy said it has nothing to do w/ you loud walkie talkie. We enjoyed the show and headed back to the hostel at 8 and got two hot dogs and quesadillas (Velveta cheese and canned mushrooms- yum). It's been a long day. We passed out in Andy's bed ~9.
We waited in line for a bit to get into Costa Rica. The sign said we needed our flight schedule (which I didn't have) but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal because these guys usually don't care. I was wrong. He said I needed a paper showing our itinerary. That's fine but I don't have it and I don't expect you to have internet and a printer I can use. Luckily a guy from Nicaragua who spoke English was on the same boat and needed his car reservation printed. We headed over to CR to find the car rental place wasn't open until 8 which was another half hour and the bus wasn't going to wait I figured. What the hell are we going to do? Everyone else had passed through immigration so the Nicaraguan guy talked to immigration and showed him his reservation on my phone. There's no wifi and I was searching for the reservation to no avail. I started to freak. Luckily gmail saves items that are starred to your phone so I was able to access it since I'm smart and stared the confirmation. Immigration let us through! We ran, scanned our bags, and ran to the bus. Success! Is our luck starting to run out?
Two hours and a nap later, we arrived at our stop for Las Juntas. The stop was actually 6km from Las Juntas- no problem, we'll take the next bus. The taxi driver was trying to tell me I needed to take a cab to the town because the next bus for Monteverde was leaving at 10 and it was 940. Well I didn't understand/believe him so we didn't take a taxi. We hitched a ride and got to Las Juntas at 1030. The bus for Monteverde did leave at 10 and the next one doesn't leave until 330. Shit we are in this small ass town for hours. So much for waking up early. We walked through town wondering the best way to handle this. Along the way Andy spotted something in the river that flows through town. It was the biggest iguana we've ever seen. The body was probably 4 ft long and the tail another 3 ft. We kinda freaked a bit. If these suckers are just walking around town, what the hell are out in the jungle? It swam across the river without any problem. Thus thing could eat a baby. I guess there aren't any cats in this town.
Locals stopped us along the way and gave us support in reaching our journey. Since we so easily hitched a ride to the town, Andy was all for hitching a ride to Monteverde. A taxi wanted $70 because it's an hour on shitty road and pretty high. No way we are paying that. We started walking through the town toward Monteverde. Andy stopped a chick who gave us a ride to the Y. Andy was on a mission. I guess we are doing this! Not long after she dropped us off, a van came by w/ a man, woman, and a little girl. Andy talked the guy into giving us a ride and moved all the stuff out of the way for our bags. OK then!
An hour later and we made it! Who know hitching a ride was so easy?! Costa Ricans are so freakin nice. Unfortunately Santa Elena is packed full of gringos. Oh well, you can't always be the only gringos around. We got dorms at Pension Santa Elena, in separate rooms once again. Next was lunch. It was 1230 and time to celebrate our arrival. Next to the hostel is a taco place that's packed. Just what we wanted! Two orders of fish tacos and two beers and we were good to go. While we were waiting gringos were annoyed that they had to wait for their food. Ugh. I'm not even home yet and they are already annoying me. You're on vacation right?! Chill the fuck out.
The tacos from Taco Taco were awesome (take that Swedes)! Ice cream topped it off nicely and we relaxed for a while before our night hike. We headed for the rain forest at 6pm w/ ~40 other people. There were 8 of us to a guide but when there's 5 other groups walking around in the same area it creates a bit of a shit show. The guides had walkie talkies so they could communicate when they found something and we'd all run over to see it. It was fun, it's just hard to compare the experience to the Rambo dude we had in Ecuador. We saw a three toed sloth in the trees- that was pretty cool. It looks like a huge teddy bear crawling around upside down. We also saw a green viper, crickets, stick bug, red striped tarantula, a cool spider, a coati, and a honey bear that's not a bear but looks like a cat. Well we didn't really see the coati and honey bear-cat. We heard coati's fighting and then the guide pointed to the tree where I saw a furry animal behind leaves. We 'saw' the honey bear-cat from 50 yards away. The whole time the guide was saying- can you see it, isn't it amazing? I can see something in the tree, it could be what you are saying or it could be a stuffed animal. We also got to walk w/ a chick who was new to using a headlamp and a dude who took forever to take a damp pic. The guide said we needed to be quiet. If we don't see any animals it's because we are talking. Right- as Andy said it has nothing to do w/ you loud walkie talkie. We enjoyed the show and headed back to the hostel at 8 and got two hot dogs and quesadillas (Velveta cheese and canned mushrooms- yum). It's been a long day. We passed out in Andy's bed ~9.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Ocean waves kicking my ass
Up at 440 to catch a taxi at 5 to catch the first ferry to the mainland. The driver dropped us off at a different terminal because the banana boat was leaving at 540. These guys seriously moved about a ton of bananas from a truck to the boat. The price was half of what the other ferry was and we got there at the same time not to mention we got to enjoy another fabulous sunrise. Jumped in a cab to Rivas and caught the chicken bus to San Juan del Sur. The bus ride was fast and we sat the whole time. We got to the beach for breakfast around 830- awesome!
We were taking our time until I realized a bus from our Casa Oro Hostel was leaving for Maderas beach in 10 min. We quickly jumped at the chance and paid our $5 each for the ride. The ride was fast and the beach was pretty empty. There were three restaurants and two places to rent boards. We opted for the boogie boards. The waves were amazing and high- and this was supposed to be the small wave beach! I haven't done this is a looong time and it showed. The waves kicked my ass. I tumbled so much, once my feet touched the back of my head. That was enough for a while and I took a break. Back to the sand for a nap. Andy kicked some ass of course, but he took a couple of good spills as well. The sun wasn't out so it was perfect for napping. Once the sun came back out I went back into the water for the last run. It definitely got busier and now it was high tide and the waves were huge! I took caution and didn't crash and burn this time. My stomach was rubbed raw from the salt water and board, it was time to relax.
We relaxed at the bar for a bit w/ some beers and guac. Back to the hostel at 4. It was a great day and I'm so glad we got to experience a whole day here. It's a chill beach town, would def be back. Dinner consisted of fish sticks, fries, and quesedillas. The food was average, but good to us at the time, plus we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset overlooking the harbor. We still have a couple days for typico food. We are spent. Tomorrow is a long travel day. Going to catch the 5am bus to Rivas and head for the boarder. Let's hope there are minibuses on the other side of the boarder, I don't want it to be a chicken bus day.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Scooting between volcanoes and relaxing in a watering hole
Up at 630 after an awesome night of sleep. Finally! We were going to risk breakfast at these restaurants so we rented a two person scooter to tour the island for $40. We headed to Maderas Volcano first but the roads weren't paved and our vehicle wasn't ready to off-road. Then we came across a nice hotel and restaurant, where Jill and Todd probably stayed, and we ate breakfast. We had two egg sandwiches w/ cheese and they put garlic butter on them. Pretty damn good. Andy broke a metal piece of the bike because he thought (says) it was part of the pedestal so he leaned it against a wall. When we came out after breakfast someone had stood the bike on the real pedestal. Great it's not too broken, we might get away w/ it. Back on the scooter to tour the larger island. Up to Altagracia and down and around to Moyogalpa which is the main city. We took our more cash and came across a pizza place. Yes please! We filled up w/ pizza and real papaya shakes since this would be the only real food until we leave the island. It was delish.
Andy drove us around until this point and I took over. This was my first time driving a scooter so of course I drove it off the road. Not much. I was turning it around and hit the gas instead of the brakes. No damage was done except to my ego. I might have cracked the dashboard but I don't think that was me. I drove us to Ojo de Agua, the natural spring swimming hole. It was beautiful. Fresh refreshing water, small fishes swimming around, and large plants growing everywhere. We had a coconut for $1 to compare to the ones in Belize. The water had an interesting tang to it and the meat was yum. There was a rope swim so we had to try it out. Andy of course did a back flip and I did the old fashioned cannonball. Not everyone else had such luck. One girl pulled her arm out of her socket and another didn't make it to the water- she fell on her feet then ass. It was time to get out of there before blood spills.
Not sure how we drove around most of the day but we were back at our hotel, Hospedaje Buena Vista, by 330. I was going to relax on the beach but close to sunset there are millions of tiny bugs swarming around the sun. Fine I'll just take a cold shower. Andy Tom and I went to dinner at the one and only good restaurant, plus the power was out and the hotel had it's own generator. The Dutch gals stayed because they are on a budget although it costs the same as last night's dinner. For some reason I'm needing to carbo overload because I had to go for the lasagna this place can't get it wrong right? It was good, and so were the two drinks of Flor de Cauco rum straight up. We really enjoyed our dinner and cocktails. So much that Tom asked our waiter for a small bottle of rum to go. Of course the guy said, and the cost wasn't on the bill. When we went to pay Tom was trying to figure out how much to give the guy for the rum and the waiter got flustered and said just give me $8. Totally legit.
Back to the hotel and the power is still out. No worries, we have rum. We didn't have any glasses so Andy cut open two coconuts and we mixed the coconut water w/ the rum and it was goooood. The moon was out in full force, lighting up everything. We kicked back and sipped our drinks and chatted. Time for bed, up at 440am to catch the first ferry.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Now to relax a bit on Ometepe
I slept like shit last night. It was so hot and every time I moved on the top bunk it made a loud screetching sound. I could tell Andy was awake early because I heard him moving across the room. He said every time he moved the chick below him would groan, hehe. I was up early too so we set out for breakfast. We found an open barbershop at 7 which was empty so Andy jumped at his chance to get his beard trimmed. The barber trimmed his bead and hair proper. The seat was old-fashioned so when it was time for the neck shave the barber put in the headrest and kicked back the chair. Not only did he shave his neck once, but again after the cream was shaved off. While he was beautified I played w/ the kitten who was just spayed (I was impressed).
We found a nice cafe for breakfast and since we weren't in a hurry we ordered breakfast sammies and a pineapple shake w/ ice and mango shake w/ milk- both w/o sugar. Refreshing and delisious we went back to the dorm for our move to Ometepe. The girls from Holland were already gone so we headed to the bus stop. Alas it was chicken bus time again. This bus sucked. We didn't have a seat so Andy had to stand the whole time. I was about to say there's no way they can fit more people in the bus when I stopped myself because I knew what was going to happen. They shoved in 20 more people. Like clowns. I got half a seat which wasn't really helpful since I had to hold my body up the whole two hours w/ my arms. Andy bumped packages w/ another dude and I had a fat lady's boobs against my head and then a girl's hair in my face. I'm almost over this public transportation. Once we got to Rivas we took a cab to the ferry which left at noon.
The ride across the lake to Ometepe was beautiful and it only took an hour. Once we arrived on the island we jumped back in the chicken bus. This time I'm officially over the fucking chicken bus. A kid was puking next to me, people shoving and sweating all over you. We didn't know where we were going and Lonely Planet wasn't being too helpful. We got off the bus at the first option and walked 15 min down a dirt road. The hotel was booked, I wasn't sure if the hotel was the town of Charco Verde or what the hell was going on. Another 15 min back to the main road and I tried to ask someone where the hotels were but it was lost in translation. Finally I ask the taxi to take us to a new park of the island, unfortunately this cost us $20. We are going to be sucked dry on this island.
The hotel we found was very nice w/ a beautiful view of the north side of the lake (we are staying in between the two volcanoes). We paid for two nights at $20/night, not too bad since we were paying $12-$16 to stay in a dorm. We quickly got two Tona's (I think I like Victoria beer better) and headed next door for lunch. We found the Holland girls at the same hotel and it sounded like their experience was a bit better than ours. I think we need to follow them to San Juan del Sur. For food we orders hamburgers because we were very hungry and didn't know what else was on the menu. Mistake. They tasted and looked like they were veggies burgers because I'm pretty sure that mush wasn't beef.
Let me preface this by saying I'm OK not rushing through dinner, it is vacation after all. With that said these people are slow as shit and as Andy said, anyone can run a restaurant. We met up w/ Karin and Jolanda (our Holland friends) and a guy they befriended Tom from Minnesota/Switzerland. We headed to the other dinner option at 7 because none of us had good experiences earlier that day. Granted there was another large dinner party there, but it took us an hour to get our drinks (which all came out at random times). After they delivered our drinks a guys came out and confirmed our food order. You're just now getting to the food? We laughed at the insanity. They got our chicken finger order wrong and instead delivered fajitas w/o the tortillas. We asked for some, sure no prob. 30 min later, the girls were done w/ their so called lasagne and the waiter said, the tortillas- they are no good. WTF haha! OK we'll eat the chicken. Then Tom got his fish which he said was delish. I know I know, when you're this remote stick to the food they know. Another hour later we got our check. We all chipped in for the 10% tip. Tom said it was optional and that's where the great "cultural divide" occurred. The Americans said just give them the tip, the Europeans said they didn't provide service they don't deserve a tip. Yes I tip even for bad service, I guess I'm a typical American.
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