Ohhh-metepe to Granada

Hello to all! Gwen and I just finished eating dinner, and are now working on a rum and coke, which seemed like the perfect time to also work on our blog. We were at the beach in San Juan del Sur until Sunday the 18th. The town was less touristy and more surfer-y than anywhere we'd been before. The beach wasn't crowded, and sometimes suffered from windstorms that covered everyone with sand, but the water was great, and the ocean was gorgeous. If you can imagine an open crescent, with cliffs on the very edges, San Juan del Sur was in the middle of the curve...so our view from the beach included mountains, cliffs, and ocean. One day, we walked along the bottom edge of the cliff to see what lay on the other side. We found small tide pools, local fishermen, and a lot of direct sunlight and crazy wind.

One night, we went out to a bar that had an open mic night, so we ate our dinners and had some beers to the sounds of locals singing Johnny Cash songs. The town was really nice to walk around, and we spent most of our time walking and hanging out at the beach!

Early Sunday morning, we boarded a bus that took us to the ferry to Ometepe Island. (Remember, if you will, the excitement surrounding this Island in my last post...) The ferry ride was beautiful. We could see both volcanoes grow bigger and bigger in the distance. Then we landed on the island, and things quickly went downhill. Long story short: An extremely hot day coupled with a series of less-than-helpful encounters (one of which was with someone who seemed to spit/drool uncontrollably), and an excess of donkey shit (and donkeys) everywhere we went (including the "beach") led our first (and last) night in Ometepe. Before we ate dinner, we were discussing what to do the next day- the island apparently has cool petroglyphs and nicer beaches Even after eating a dinner that looked like barf and finding lizards and bugs in our room and bed, we were prepared to wake up in the morning with improved attitudes. At some point between 2 and 3am, we both surpassed our tolerance for the creepy and crawly and watched movies on HBO until 6 in the morning, when we finally got on a ferry.

These are probably very common experiences for lots of people, and we've heard from other travelers that they had a great time in Ometepe, and under different circumstances I'm sure we would have had a very different experience there.

So- Monday morning we headed to Granada, which is a beautiful colonial city in Nicaragua. We arrived early enough in the day to check out a number of hostels before deciding on the Bearded Monkey, which offered us a one-of-a kind loft room that was accessible only by a ladder. Our first day there, we ate a huge and delicious breakfast and walked around the city for a few hours. Gwen says that the city feels somewhat like a European city, similar architecture and layout. It's the oldest colonial city in all of Central America. In contrast to our experience in Ometepe this place is wonderful, plenty to do and see, and it has a great feel to it. The streets are cobblestone in some places and there is an attention to detail that I haven't seen in many other places, sidewalks that are tiled and brilliant colors on buildings. There is also a lot of trash....everywhere. It feels like you can either notice the trash, or notice how pretty everything is, but the two exist in tandem all over the city. Similarly, you can admire beautiful art being sold in the marketplace and be wowed by child street performers dancing for money in the evening, or notice how many children are unsupervised and asking you for food/money. It feels unfair to say "I can't afford that" or "no I don't have any more money" when someone tells you how much a piece of art costs or asks you for money so they can eat, but it also feels like you could spend your whole day walking around giving out money to everyone who asks and still not solve any problems. Last night a guy asked us for money so he could buy milk for his kids. We didn't have much money on us and had given to several people throughout the day...we watched him ask other people for money with the same story, then we watched him go across the street and buy himself an ice cream. At first we were both a little surprised...one of us, more than the other, had been really worried about him and concerned that his children would go hungry if we didn't give him what would have amounted to about 50 cents. That interaction made me aware of the fact that he, just like everyone else, has the right to spend his money on anything he wants to spend it on, and that this man's need for money is a symptom of a larger problem that has much more to do with the country's history and government- and those are problems that we as outsiders don't understand and can't fix.

After spending one night in Monkey hostel, we found a great, beautiful, clean, awesome hotel that lets us use their kitchen and charges $14 a night. It's on a beautiful street that has reduced street traffic, and every so often we hear a horse and buggy go clop-clopping by. As we walk out on the street, we can see this bright yellow church that abuts the town square, where there are lots of people selling handmade crafts and food. We love it!

This afternoon we went on a quest to find a swimming pool. We read in a guide book that the city had a public pool, but when we walked there and asked, we got jumbled directions from a number of people that led us to a hotel that had a pool with a $9 entrance fee. No thanks. Genius gringas that we are, we walked in to another hotel that was rumored to have a pool, and found the cement pit that once held water, but the hotel was under construction and we therefore didn't get to go swimming today. But we did get to have a cocktail, update our blog, and think of all of you. Tomorrow we're going to explore the nearby town of Catarina, which has an artist's market and beautiful lake, and is supposed to be smaller and cleaner than Granada. We have some beautiful pictures to show you of the town, and of a crazy sunset in San Juan del Sur, but you all already know how inept we are at this photo-posting thing.

And now, a few shout-outs:
Happy Belated Birthday to Jesse, Norma, and Noah!!

Sending lots of warm thoughts your way,
Gwen and Margaret