Swimming in Volcanoes
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Let's see. Where, at which chapter did I leave off last time? I think I'll start off at one of my favorite beaches from this trip so far, Playa Samara. It was a ideal crescent shaped beach on the Pacific side of Costa Rica, with some fun tides for swimming, and some smallish waves to re-learn my surfing skills. We stayed in this cute little "Soda", a local restaurant with a few rooms to rent above. From the soda, we walked 1/2k to the beach, where I could rent a "fun-board" for a few hours and get my fill of wave time. Surprisingly the motions came back to me quickly and I was riding waves in no time. The town of Samara was not too touristy, but it wasn't real cheap either. Just when I thought I might have found my match, I thought that I'd continue on before I got sucked in forever and missed my opportunity to see more of central america. So we packed up, and bused across the border into Nicaragua. Our first real destination was Isla de Ometepe, a mystical island of twin volcanoes in the middle of the giant murky Lake Nicaragua. The ferry ride across was more like an hour-long carnival ride; we sat on the roof watching our view of the coast bump up and down, as we inched farther into the choppy grey water. The hotel we sought on the island was called Charco Verde and was supposed to be by a nice lagoon, but we found it to be over-flooded and inaccessible due to the rainy season. On the day of Halloween we went to find some of the famous petroglyphs scattered about the island. We found a couple sights with the help of locals directions, but were unable to make any sense of the markings. Upon the return, we got stranded when all the local buses stopped their services (at only 6pm) and had to walk back along a spooky dark road with large vehicles honking and speedy past ever so often. Not one car stopped to offer us two girls a ride for the whole seven kilometers. Why was it that when we finally wanted some attention from the locals who are usually so overly-eager for our attention, nobody offered a simple gesture? Anyways, we didn't stay too much longer on the peculiar island before returning to the mainland. Next stop was the tourist town of San Juan del Sur, supposedly a good surfing/beach town. But we found the town densely touristed, and the beach dirty. Through our hostel, we took a shuttle over to the beach Maderas, which was a beautiful long stretch with some crazy waves that only locals could carve. We spent a day there, soaked in the sun and dug in the sand, and took off the following day. Through the bustling markets of Granada & Masaya we weaved, testing our intake limits of odor, sight, and patience. It was a fun change of pace for a few days and I probably spent more than my budget on unnecessary items: change purses, miniature soccer ball, tanktop, champu, colorful vendor food tasting of things we could not identify... Then we took a chance on a lesser known place called the Laguna de Apoyo, a lagoon inside of an inactive volcano crater--recommended to us by several other travelers. It turned out to be an absolutely wonderful tucked-away paradise. I could only afford to stay there a few nights because the only accommodation was a spendy dorm bed in a resort-ish hotel which included mandatory breakfast, and offered other prepared meals for high American prices. The setting was lake-front, and the water was calm and free of any scary water creatures, so we could go for a dip at any time of the day or night. One day we kayaked around the entire lagoon; it took 6 hours (about 15 kilometers of casual paddling), but it was nice not seeing anyone else on the water nearly the entire time. --- Following the long day on the water, I wanted to use my legs a bit, so I found a trail leading up to the ridge of the crater. I carried a small set of walking directions which told me to look out for a big yellow rock at the trailhead, but found no such markings. I was left to prompt a few local guys on the road for the whereabouts of this trail, and they pointed directly in front of me and immediately began leaping up over the rocks and ravines through what looked like a goat trail. When they noticed me following suit, they asked if I was going all the way to the top. I replied and we struck up a conversation in Spanish that kept me on the tip of my breath while bouncing after these three young guys. They were local students at the University nearby and were on their way home from the lagoon after spending a day in the water since it was a public holiday due to the national elections. We shared our respective hometowns and customs, and chatted away. As it turned out, they spoke quite good english, although they didn't have much experience speaking with actual foreigners. Initially we started out speaking almost completely in Spanish with each other, and by the end of the hike, we transitioned more into English. "What was the first word of Spanish that you learned?" inquired the English-major. I replied that I couldn't really remember my first spanish word, when what embarrassingly popped into my mind was the infamous Taco Bell Chihuahua commercial. "For most people," he explained, "their first Spanish word is: 'Hola'," which was probably correct in my case as well. Continuing on, "but the first English word that most people here want to know is: 'Love'." Corny as it sounds, this kinda hit a heartstring and reminded me of the huge culture gap between Latinos and Americans. He went on to explain after seeing my somewhat surprised reaction, "--it is because the guys here want to impress the girls with their English." Then I realized why I shouldn't be so shocked that 'love' is the most widely known English word in Latinamerica. Suddenly countless memories came to me, of complete strangers on the streets calling out in their machismo ways "baby, I love you," because that really was all the english they knew. The guys ended up taking me all the way to the top, La Mirador, making sure that I was fully prepared to see, "the most beautiful lookout you will ever see". Sure enough, it truly was one of the most beautiful lookouts. From the top we could see the entire perimeter of the crater lagoon, we could see Lake Nicaragua, Lake Managua, and even the great Pacific. Parasailers floated above, swooping to show off to the crowds at the lookout. I relished the whole scene and appreciated the fortunate occasion to share this with some locals who did not just want to call out, "baby, I love yuu."--- Now we've made it to Leon, a more modern university city in northern nicaragua. From here, I'd like to go to the coast again to try more surfing. Today or tomorrow I plan to hit up Las Penitas. Then maybe El Salvador? Checkout is in about twenty minutes, so I better be off to pack my things. Or decide to stay another night in this convenient hostel and take full advantage of the free wifi. Six dollars per night for a clean bed, bathroom, kitchen, courtyard, internet, pool table, book exchange, and breakfast ain't too shabby. Ciao for now- |
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