SJDS, Nicaragua

Trip Start Apr 07, 2006

Trip End Aug 18, 2006

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Flag of Nicaragua San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
Saturday, May 27, 2006

On Saturday it was a 5 AM start for the bus-taxi-bus-border crossing-bus-taxi-bus to San Juan Del Sur. For the 5 hour bus it was standing room only, which is where I remembered the Bolivians ability to sleep while standing. The Nicaraguans / Costa Ricans have the same skill. I unfortunately don't. But luckily Zack (American from La Fortuna I travelled to Nicaragua with) thought ahead and made a ¨spodi¨ (a hollowed out papaya filled with rum and left to soak overnight). I think that's what got me through the standing.

The border crossing was easy enough, just a few perplexed looks at the old SA passport. Arriving through the Nicaraguan side was another baptism of fire though. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (Haiti is the poorest) and it shows. You can quite literally see the difference between the relative prosperity of Costa Rica versus Nicaragua

01_Sunset over SJDS

. It was great fun catching the local bus (me and Zack were like a tourist attraction). Eventually, 13 hours later I arrived in San Juan Del Sur, where even though my Spanish is on the up, I've got a long way to go so will be doing lessons from tomorrow.

I've now done a few days of Spanish lessons and its going pretty well (it would have been better if I din't have a killer hangover the first morning). I can hold a basic conversation in Spanish (names, where I / they live, what work I / they do, how many kids / brothers / sisters I / they have, whether I / they have a girlfriend, why I don't have a girlfriend etc). I can also order and understand most foods (and as there only seems to be chicken, rice & beans in CA this was the easiest part), times, directions etc. I still think the best way to learn is just to talk it as much as possible, which is what I've been trying. The girl at the hostel told me she couldn't speak English so I've been battling through conversations with her, only to find out later in the week her English is better than my Spanish, but it all helps!

A Canadian girl showed me the find of Nicaragua so far: the fancy hotel has 3 swimming pools where you can hang around for the day for $5. By some amount of luck I haven't had to pay yet (maybe I don't look like a backpacker?!)

02_Relaxing at the pool at the fancy hotel

. The hotel has the best views of SJDS, a pool I can do laps in, lounge chairs - basically pure luxury. Its the second place I've found in CA that is worthy of taking my future wife to for honeymoon (the other is Baldi baths in La Fortuna), and where I can forget that I'm getting around on $20 a day. There are also a couple of nice beaches around SJDS so I've been there too.

Today I climbed the cliffs above SJDS because the views were meant to be good, but mainly to prevent myself from going into a catatonic humidity & heat induced hibernation. There really isn't much to do in SJDS except relax. The most action I saw was today when a pig got run over by a taxi in the town centre. It seemed everyone from the entire town was there to give their opinion on how the situation was to be resolved. In the end the car was lifted over the pig and I guess everyone had bacon for dinner.

Tomorrow its off to Ometepe to see some more volcnoes