My Return Back to the States

The super helpful staff at the guest house helped me with all my packaging needs for my newly purchased souvenirs, and arranged for a cab to pick me up in plenty of time to take a little detour through the historic downtown San Salvador. The cab driver was early, as usual, and helped me with last minute taping of boxes, etc. We then jumped in his car and he proceeded to flatter me while showing me various points of interest around downtown. When we got to the zoo, he insisted that we get out of the car two different times to get a close up of the rare birds they had on display near the perimeter of the fence where outsiders could peer in through the tall chain link fence. Once we headed on to the airport, we had a wonderful chat about why in the world I'd want to still be single under my circumstances. Latinos do not find it OK that a girl in her 30's would still be single, especially without kids. I read that most Nicaraguans (I think it was like 70% or higher, and I'd imagine this statistic holds true for most of Central America) have their first child by the age of 20. No wonder I am such an anomaly to these strong cultured wonderful people. After much detailed explanation, he seemed to better understand my point of view, and then we made a promise that since I was cut so short on my time spent in El Salvador, that I'd come back again soon and he'd show me around and take me out to the beaches! We departed with hugs, kisses on the cheeks, and wishes of luck, health, and future travels. I felt teased by my great experience with the warm Salvadorans I only had 24 hours to get to know. For now, back to states until my next anxiously awaited adventure.......

On to San Salvador, El Salvador

2:30 am came oh so early, but alas, I had to go purchase my bus ticket for my departure just an hour later. My friend Norlan told me about King Quality who provided a first class express bus located only one block away from my hotel (gracias a Dios), all the way to San Salvador, El Salvador. Of course the first thing I did upon our departure was sleep. Apart from being awaken to present my passport and custums form to the Honduran Imigration office at the border, I slept fairly for about four more hours. As soon as they served breakfast with cafe con leche however, I decided to look out the window and watch the sun rising over incredibly green forested hillsides and mountaintops with clouds hovering above, while enjoying my morning cafe. What a sight to see - there was something magical about it and although I felt like more sleep, I couldn't look away from the breathtaking scenery provided by Mother Nature. After Mother Nature's show, we were presented with a couple of movies (can't even remember which ones) to watch during the rest of the trip. I continued to stare out into the landscape as we rolled from country to country, enjoying every moment of it. Of course I couldn't help but think of little Pedro Tosh and my little Nicaraguan friend Norlan that I had to leave behind in Nicaragua. I'm sure that all will be well.

Photo Credit: Colonial Church taken by Galen Fry-Singer

The entire ride was beautiful and was encouragement enough to get back to Honduras soon. We arrived in San Salvador around 2 p.m. and a native Salvadoran I'd met on the bus, helped me get a reasonable cab to my guesthouse near downtown. Ximena's Guest House offered up unusually helpful and friendly staff, with a basic somewhat rundown room with a decent bed. Still, it had a safe and positive feel to it, which I loved. No time for a nap, as I was on a mission to hunt down souveniers to take back home with me, since I'd waited four months to do it. I found my way by foot to an enourmous outdoor mall where I found everything a tourist could want and more. I knew that making it back home in the dark with lots of large heavy bags containing breakables would be much more of a challenge, so I decided to grab a cab. Unfortunately the cab driver was not familiar with the guesthouse location, and depended upon me for directions which I thought I may be able to give. Bad mistake - we became terribly lost, and went far beyond the neighborhood. After asking at least nine different people for dirrections, and an hour later (should have been no more than a 10 mins drive), we finally found it. I was so happy that my cab driver was amazingly nice and patient, as I found all Salvadoran's to be, didn't even ask for more than our initially agreed upon price!

One Last Beach Hurrah

Tuesday when I arrived in Pochomil without calling first, Toshy was laying under a huge shady tree taking a long nap. When I whistled for him he came running out and jumped all over me. We were both so happy to see each other, I was a very cool moment. We played a bit and then headed down to the waves for one more short surf session on our local friend's board. The surfing wasn't so great for me, but being in the ocean again felt amazing, as usual. I worked on my tan lines in preparation for my long journey back to the States in just two more days. I was happy to see that Tosh seemed happy in his new home, and I took the three hour bus ride back to Managua followed by a cab ride back to my hotel, with just enough time left to book my hotel in San Salvador for the next evening, discover that I would be taking a 3:30 am bus there, and grab a quick bite to eat before sneaking in a mere 3.5 hours of sleep that night.

Granada, Nicaragua

Managua is a large capital city full of barrios, but like most central american capitals, also has lots of beautiful historical buildings and culture. There are about 1.7 Million people living in Managua, which is also the largest city in Nicaragua. In 1824, after Nicaragua and other C.A. countries became independent from Spain, Managua began to grow from a small fishing village on the shore of beautiful Lake Managua into the nation's large capital city. Photo Credit: Galen Fry-Singer

Once I got settled into a nice hotel in the safer part of town also known as the "inter", in barrio Martha Quezada, I felt much better. Salsa, Bachata, and Merengue on Saturday night, along with a very nice tour of the city on Sunday via motorcycle which included a visit to the museum, the most impressive Pacacio Nacional (above photo), the famous Teatro Ruben Dario (unfortunately only a children's program was playing that day), the Santo Domingo Cathedral, and the Asemblea Nicional. We also included a boat tour accross the Lago de Managua to see Momotombo volcano, all of which helped me enjoy my stay in Managua and not worry so much about the absence of my little travel buddy Tosh. I still missed him horribly though, so on Tuesday, I decided to take a little visit back to the beach to see how he was doing, as well as try to sneak one more day of beach time in before leaving Nicaragua the next day.

Photo Credit: Galen Fry-Singer

From the Beach to the Big Scary Capital

Toshy found a good home on the beach in Pochomil with a 22-year old local surfer named Evelio. Evelio was happy to take in Tosh, and I was getting extremely worried knowing that he would not be allowed on the bus to San Salvador or the plane ride home with the pet embargo in effect during the summer months. Unfortunately - or fortunately - he had grown so big and healthy that he no longer could fit underneath the seat of the plane. I cried my eyes out the entire morning and promptly left the yard I left him in with his new owner with sunglasses trying to cover my wet, red, puffy eyes. I cried on the bus all the way until I arrived in Managua and had to start worrying about my safety. I had spoken to my friend Norlan, whom I'd met in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica last January, and we'd been communicating since. He came to pick me up on his motorcycle from the bus terminal, thank God, as I was waiting for him to come, two disgusting men got in my face and insisted that I needed to "have relations" with them because as they claimed, Latinos are sooooooo much better in the sac! At first I kept my cool, but after a few minutes of their harassing, they became down right scary, putting their hands on me and refusing to leave me in peace. I used my best 'malpalabras' I'd learned during my travels, and then turned to two gentlemen I'd been chatting with before the creepy dudes came along, who helped me shew them off - although not without words and a bit of a fight. A few minutes later, Norlan showed up and I jumped on the back of his bike, glad to be with a trusting familiar friend again in a very large and scary city.

Pochomil - Surfer's Paradise

Pedro Tosh was anxious to depart from Granada, so we decided to head straight for the beach. Having some difficulty figuring out which bus to take to our destination, Pochomil, we jumped a cab for $35 to take us directly from Masaya (where the first bus out of Granada dropped us). The drive was a little more than an hour long - much easier than spending three hours on different buses to get there, and totally enjoyable. The cab driver was fun to chat it up with while pointing out different interesting facts along the way, such as the highest point of the mountain we had to climb on our way out to the Pacific. The entire drive was beautiful with great travel companions. Once we arrived at the entrance gate to the community of Pochomil, a hustler was waiting to lure any arriving tourist to his beach cabinas. I paid the fee to enter and we followed him on his bike to the rooms on the beach. Of course, being the savvy business man that he was, he insisted that his was the best location as one could walk a mere 20 steps and be in the water. This was true, then he also generously offered to have his wife cook up any meal on the menu immediately, insisting that I must be starved. When he asked for $20 for his very basic room, I pulled out my handy guide book and showed him that others were recommended and were much cheaper. We then agreed on a fair price of $10 per night. They ended up making a killing off of the price for the meals, as did every outfit along the beach. Meals were two to three times the price of anywhere else I'd been in Nicaragua. According to the locals, this is because it is a popular tourist stop. However, being there during the week, I saw no other tourists with completely empty waves and beaches all to ourselves. I even talked a local surfer boy into letting me borrow his board for a quick surf session to test out the arm. It was heaven, and the waves were HUGE.

Granada, Nicaragua - Day 4

I love sipping my cafe con leche each morning with a view of beatifully constructed archway corridors surrounding a courtyard, wooden staircases, and old wooden plantation shutters - some open and some closed. The contrasting bright and cheerful colors on the buildings, clay roof shingles, and tiled floors inside and out, remind me with each glance that I am indeed living an amazing, if temporary life, in Central America. This morning as I sipped my cafe con leche, three handsome little boys were waiting outside in the courtyard for their math teacher to show up. Since she never showed, they strolled back and forth accross the tiled courtyard, flashing little smiles and deep beautiful brown eyes, with occasional spanish greetings, and practiced a few english words with me, through the wooden banistered wall which sits behind my computer. Yesterday I took the bus up to Masaya, a truly native market which reminded me some of the Korean markets I used to frequent many many years ago. Items are sold unbelievably inexpensively, and there are tons of beautiful works of artisanship. One could spend an entire day strolling through the thousands of isles throughout the open air market. I often sit in awe on the hot and stuffy buses, at the beauty of the people boarding and exiting, as well as those we pass by on the street. If I had my camera, I would have taken a thousand photos just of people yesterday. For now though, I will store it all in my mind.

Granada

Granada is a beautiful colonial city. It sits on the north shore of Lake Nicaragua, is full of charm, beautiful cathedrals and colonial houses. I'm so disappointed with that evil-doer William Walker for trying to burn the city down. Screw him, the city is still beautiful. Wish I had a camera to take photos for you, but I've posted a couple from my favorite website, taken by Galen Fry Singer. Above is the cathedral around the corner from my hotel. Beautiful, isn't it? The lower photo, also taken by Mr. FrySinger is the Central Parque Pedro Tosh and I stroll through every day.

I've found that people in Granada are especially cruel to animals. Pedro Tosh has been poked, scared, and kicked several times just because it makes idiots laugh. Yesterday I got pissed off enough to make two different huge scenes on the street.

The first, which happened in the morning while walking back to our hotel after breakfast, was a dirty little homeless boy sitting with his brothers, sisters and mom on the sidewalk up a gainst a bldg., and he punched Pedro as we walked by. Tosh yiped loudly, and I turned around and yelled, 'what are you doing?' I stood there staring at him, and of course he said nothing but was startled by my reaction. I then looked at his mother and asked the question again. She then decided to reprimand her son, so we walked on. The second event happened when I accidentally wandered into the local's market part of town in search of dog food for Toshy. When I stopped at a corner store to inquire, a man 'fake hit' pedro and startled him. I gave him a nasty hard look and he did nothing but laugh. After I inquired within the store for the dog food, and began to walk back by the man, I did the same thing to him - that is I put my whole body into a fake punch to his face while all of his friends were watching, he flinched harder than Toshy did, thinking I would actually do it because he knew I was pissed. His friends were just as shocked, said nothing, and Pedro Tosh strutted home happily once again.

Ometepe Island, Bugs, Rain, and more Bugs

I left San Juan del Sur Saturday morning with a fellow traveler I met in town from Honduras who spoke perfect English and perfect Spanish, and therefore knew that our journey would be a smooth one. It was. After barely catching the 9:30 am bus to Rivas as it was just driving off, we were on the first leg, and off to a perfect start. In Rivas, we promptly found a cab to take us to Rivas San Jorge to the dock, jumped on the ferry, and took a 40 minute ride accross Lake Nicaragua to the largest island on any fresh water lake in the world, Ometepe. Lake Nicaragua is also the only fresh-water lake to contain sharks! Yes indeed, the sharks migrated up the river at some point in time, adapted to the fresh water, and have lived in the lake for decades. I only stayed on the island for two nights and two days, as I discovered that hiking the second Volcano (Maderas) was just too muddy, as the rainy season started with a bang, and Concepcion, the larger of the two, is an all day event and is anybody's guess as to whether you'll have a view from the view point with the clouds most every day. I was happy that I didn't book a guided hike up the volcano for Monday, as I had the worst sleep of my life that night. You see, Pedro Tosh and I were informed that the first hotel we stayed in, no longer had rooms available upon asking to have the shower cleaned - there were disgusting long creatures floating when I showered which resembled worms from someones intestines and I couldn't do a second shower unless they were gone and it was cleaned with cleaner. Anyhow, the $7 Hotelito Aly, decided they were full upon our request to clean, and Pedro Tosh and I went to a $4 hostel, which was open to all bugs, and there were millions! I got no sleep as the bugs (gnats, mosquitos, and spiders) crawled on me, buzzed around my head, and feasted upon me the entire night - bug spray and all. When I arose in the morning, my blood was on the sheets from where the skeeters had filled themselves and I slapped them. Time to move on................ Back to Rivas on the launcha and on to Granada.

San Juan del Sur

Since arriving in San Juan del Sur, I've experienced the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. The good: 1) Excellent people spending their time and vacations here as well. 2) I bumped into my old pal Billie from Playa Venao - we hitched a ride into Pedasi together one day and said our goodbyes, so that was a nice surprise to see a familiar face here! 3) I was able to get great info. regarding a water filtration project just outside of town - should be helpful in our Engineers without Borders projects. I also was able to spend the entire day yesterday helping build some of the units - a great opportunity indeed, and much awaited. 4) I took a salsa lesson a couple of nights ago which helped me on my turns - yeah, God bless Salsa! The bad: 1) While exploring Playa Madera (a nice but overly crowded and possessive surf break) on Wednesday, I was pummeled into the water by floating trees taken out by the intense tropical storm last week, a strong break, and the rising tide, as I was trying to make my way back to the beach along a fairly steep rocky cliff, carrying my backpack containing my ipod, camera, memory stick, notepad, and other items. I was also carrying Tosh, as he could not swim the breaking waves crashing against the rocks. Twice, I was taken out by floating trees from the storm last week and the strong waves against the rocks, and everything got soaked, including little Pedro Tosh. He was crying and trying to keep his little head above the water. I'm sad also to report that the second camera of this trip, is now too non-functioning, and since I'll be home soon I don't plan to buy a third. The Ugly: None to report, thank goodness, other than finding out through my second medical consult, that my nerves are all inflamed and will not recover until I am able to completely rest my arm. Not likely to happen this trip while having to sling a huge pack over my shoulders every time we move to a different place. No mas...... Getting ready to head to Ometepe Island tomorrow - can't wait!

Nicaragua Border Crossing

Tosh and I crossed the Nicaraguan border Sunday afternoon without any questions or problem at all, thanks to a very nice, helpful, Nica man who knew everyone at the border and also happened to be crossing over from Costa Rica at the same time. He informed me that a lot of people get robbed at the border crossing area, and therefore he wanted to make sure that nothing happened. He was a wonderful help and much appreciated, keeping us safe and speeding up the unkowns of the whole border crossing process. There were a couple of policemen who joked about seeing Toshy's passport, but when I replied "sure" they all laughed and told me they were only kidding - crazy Nica border cops! The nice man - I've forgotten his name already - saw us to the bus, introduced me to the bus driver, who then took over looking after us, and who also tried to set me up with two different single friends on the bus. All was in good fun, and the bus driver found it amusing during our hour-long conversation while waiting for passengers that I had not been married yet, and when he asked me if and when I will get married, cracked up at my response which was "mas tarde", meaning "later". He insisted on relating this to at least five of his pals who in turn, boarded our bus. The nice Nica man from the border crossing referred me to Hotel de Coco in Rivas, the closest town to the border since it was getting late and pouring rain like gatos and perritos, which charged a mere $8 per night for a bed, a 'super deluxe rotary fan', and a bathroom which has no doubt seen better days, with a very tiny trickle of water for a shower in the morning for only a couple of minutes at most and then..... no water. Who needs water anyway? No problem though, we then found our way to the bank and then to the bus station, although ended up taking a cab to San Juan del Sur for a mere $1.75, a steal for an hour cab ride with four others. So far, I find Nicaragua to be refreshingly pleasant without anyone hassling the token American tourist for taxis, goods, or unnecessary services. God bless Nicaragua!

Playa Conchal and the Familiar Town of Brasilito

Tosh loves to play on the beach. Besides eating scraps off the street, I think it may be his favorite thing to do. He's got a spring in his step every walk we take toward and along the beach. He prefers not to enter the water, but has been known to venture out after me, as I paddle out on my surfboard when he wants to come along. He also enjoys riding it back to land, and has very good balance for a four-month old puppy. Otherwise, he sits contently on the beach and awaits my return so that we can walk back to the room together. He's looking very good now, and almost like a healthy pup probably for the first time since he was born. While in Brasilito, Pedro Tosh and I hit Playa Conchal for the dryer part of the day, although still got caught in a downpoor one day, having to seek shelter under some old plastic tarp with holes, strung to a tree. It worked. My brother, puppy and I, all stayed at my favorite Hotel Brasilito, where I always feel welcome, and got to hang out with lots of old friends from town. It rained hard, and we were all bit by mosquitos, but still had fun. Lots has changed over the past four years since my first visit, but change is inevitable in developing countries. Even my favorite Wednesday night ritual of 'Las Brisas' had a different feel to it, however when I later asked my local pals about it and why they weren't there, they insisted that it was because of the enormous amount of rain falling that evening, as a very large Tropical Storm named Alma, was passing through during the week. See the following link for more info on it's damage. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-storm30-2008may30,0,7547125.story Brasilito always feels like my home away from home and I love spending time there, especially when I haven't been home in what feels like forever (or no time at all, sometimes). It was a nice place to be after my big bro. had to return back home and leave me to my solo wanderings.

Sick Pup

Poor little Pedro Tosh. He was very sick, but is now recovering nicely after receiving all vaccinations, weekly medicated baths, vitamins, and plenty of food, water, and love. I was going to have to leave him in an outside cage at the vet's office in Coronado, Panama, without knowing if or when he'd find a home, so I changed my mind at the last minute and on the way to the vet to drop him off, decided he was coming with me up the coast. Tosh is more well-traveled than most people at this point. We've been through Panama, Costa Rica, and are now in Nicaragua. The only problems we've had are 1) Talking my little stray pal into thinking that puppy food is better for him than two-week old scraps he finds laying in the street, and 2) sneaking him into hotels/hostels. When we are not granted a room due to his race, we just move on until we find one who allows Toshy's. So far all is well and he's a great travel partner - always happy to stay put or to move on to the next cool place.