San Juan del Sur to Esteli
Trip Start
Jun 16, 2008
1
9
23
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Esteli,
Nicaragua
Monday, July 14, 2008
As Marlon wasn´t allowed in the bar we had one drink with him in the bar opposite where he claimed that it had been his friend that had been involved with drugs and that he was kicked out for being with him. I´m not sure whether this is true or not but after he had told us how anti-drugs he was the previous night, and how he had lost a lot of friends through distancing himself from drugs, we decided we weren´t going to not go to the bar we wanted to go to because he wasn´t allowed there when we didn´t know if we could believe him.
We said buenos noches to Marlon and went to the good bar where we got talking to a few people including my Bolivian friend from our hostel, an Aussie surfer and a local called Walter - who seemed funny at first and plain weird/annoying at second! Really wanting to go surfing and claiming that she´d be able to stand within an hour and surf within a day (easily), Rachael arranged for the guy to take us surfing the following morning where she would rule the waves.
After the Bob-Sinclair bar we headed to the bar that was open latest in San Juan del Sur with the two Aussie surfers, Lisa and a waiter from Marlon´s restaurant (who had tagged along with us!) for more drinks. In the new bar we finalised the surfing plans (we would meet the guy at 11am outside our hostel the next day and we would definitely be there as Rachael was so eager to learn to surf) and advised the Aussies on where and where not to go in England. When I told him to steer clear of Liverpool if he was fond of his wallet Rachael´s cocktail-tongue responded with a completely fair, deserved, just and judged response: "you horrible, little shit!". It wasn´t at all uncalled for or overly harsh - and it proved my point about Scousers! In her true style, Ellie bailed on the night out early and headed back for bed with Lisa whilst I waited for Rachael to finish another drink before escorting her on her staggered zig-zag home.
We awoke the next day ready to catch the bus to the beach at 10:00am, giving Rachael, who was still drunk and had decided to sleep completely naked in her mixed-gender eight-person dorm (she awoke to a thumbs-up from a guy across the dorm and stares from two American guys), plenty of time to escape before the surfers turned up to fulfil the water-tight agreement that Rachael had made for them to take us surfing! The beach we went to was really nice and it was the hottest day we´ve had so far so the tans were worked upon. We swam in the sea and messed around on the beach before heading back for the bus at 5:00pm, slowly but surely as Rachael stopped every so often to puke! In the evening it absolutely chucked it down so we made a brief dash to a restaurant for some dinner before returning for an early night. We got talking to a crazy Dutch guy who had just had another tattoo done along the length of his forearm and then headed to bed for some much needed sleep, that I was denied by the couple who respected hostel etiquette as they ´slept´ on the lower half of the bunk bed I was in!
Friday was very uneventful with the most activity for me being my switching to the same dorm as the girls. Rachael was feeling ill again so we just lazed around reading, listening to music. In the afternoon Lisa returned to the dorm and told us that she´d seen Marlon in the street and that he wanted to meet us tonight to give the girls a present. After our final San Juan del Sur meal we passed by the restaurant where Marlon works and we went to a karaoke bar with him. Marlon promised to sing karaoke but wanted to go to another bar where they play the music a bit louder! We agreed and ended up in a bar where we were clearly the only tourists and, although it seemed a little intimidating at first, the longer we were there the friendlier it seemed and eventually we were up dancing with the locals. Marlon was true to his word and sang ´Hero´ by Enrique Iglesias - I´d give him 10 out of 10 for effort but he won´t win Latin American Idol anytime soon! The only downside of the night was when Marlon told us that we´d been overcharged for some rum but as we´d had a good night we decided to leave it as it was only a matter of pence and not worth causing grief over.
Three and a half hours after getting in from the karaoke bar we were up at 6:30am getting ready for our bus to Esteli. After a cold and quick shower and some speed-packing we hopped onto the bus to Esteli as it was pulling away - literally! The man who helps people on at the back had to shout to the driver who was pulling away as Rachael climbed aboard! The journey to Esteli was broken with a change in the Nicaraguan capital Managua but along the first stretch of the journey there were various people getting on the bus trying to sell things including fruit, bread, some mystery pills and even a preacher who wanted money for his sermon!
Three and a half hours later we were in Managua and needed to get a taxi to the bus station 10 minutes away. We made a schoolgirl error by not agreeing a price beforehand and the driver told us it was 200 cordobas when we got there. Despite me telling him that he was trying to rip us off we ended up just paying the ridiculous fare (to put it into perspective we paid 400 cordobas for an hour journey from the border to San Jaun del Sur whereas this one was 10 minutes at most, the long way round - it probably should have been more like 20 cordobas).
We didn´t have to wait too long at the station and were soon on the bus to Esteli after eventually finding our correct seats but before we pulled off various beggars got on the bus asking for money. For the first five minutes of the journey we also had two little lads performing a clown routine in the aisle of the bus and had I had some small change then I would have given them something for actually working for their money rather than simply sticking a hand out at us as is happening a lot here.
We got to Esteli and after realising we wouldn´t be able to make it to our host families until the following day, we got in a taxi to go to a hostel from our guidebook (the driver wouldn´t let me put my seatbelt on!) . We checked into our room in the nicest place we have stayed so far and took full advantage of Sky TV by spending the whole night watching rubbish American reality TV shows and eating marshmallows. After checking out on Sunday, having received a David Brent-style impromptu performance on a guitar from a nice lady who worked at the hostel, we made plans to get to our host families where we would meet Oli and Natasha.
