August, 2006:

So, after another fun-filled night in Granada, Meika, James, Andrew and I said our goodbyes to Monica and Leah and hopped a chicken bus to Rivas. From there, we haggled a cab ride to San Juan del Sur, on the pacific coast of Nicaragua. All I can say is that I’m glad that we didn’t take the chicken bus, because that ride would have been miserable.

San Juan del Sur is a sleepy harbor town, that appears to be rapidly growing due to a rise of tourists, backpackers, and expats. It has a nice beach, and offers beachside restaurants, bars and cafes. It has a rather “Costa Brava” feel to it, at least to me it does. There is definitely a rising number of gringos and other expats calling this place home, and that will surely affect the overall landscape in the future. Usually it’s for the worse, I’m afraid.

We spent a night at a rather drab hostel called “Casa Oro”. But the good thing about this place was that the beds were awesome. Brand new mattresses, which is a rarity in these parts. So that was worth the price of admission. Unfortunately, the town itself was rather sleepy, so there was not much to do that night. We did have a great dinner at a beachside restaurant though. Then we ended the night at a funky little local bar, taking down a couple of Tona’s.

The next morning, we were to catch a bus to a popular surfing beach called Playa Madera. Though a only a few miles away from SJS, getting there was still a challenge because of the horrific road conditions. We piled into a van, along with our rented surfboards for the trip. Trevor and Sarah, a young couple from Northern California, joined us for the trek. The ride proved to be as hazardous as we had been warned. Once the van got there, we then had to walk down a trail to the beach. Andrew had already been there once, so he prepped us on what was going to happen. So lugging our stuff, and our boards we made our way down to the beach.

When we got there, what we saw was phenomenal. A pristine beach nestled in a bay trestled by high rock formations and cliffs. The waves were pumping at the point break, and there were dozens of surfers out there enjoying the sets. The bad news was that we still had to hike up the beach some more to get to the surf camp/hostel that we were staying at, a place called Bahia Majagual. So we set the boards down, and walked up the beach to get to this place. This place was nestled in the woods just off another pristine beach. After checking in, we picked our bunks, stashed our stuff, and headed back to Playa Madera to get in an afternoon of surfing. I couldn’t wait.

I didn’t even have a pair of boardshorts, so I ended up having to use one of my trusty Gap cargo shorts. I couldn’t believe I forgot to pack a pair when I left Andiamo! I also had to reckon that being out there was going to be a challenge. Considering that I haven ‘t surfed in awhile, I had no idea what to expect. Though I have a board on the boat, I have not yet been to a place yet with Andiamo where there was any good surfing, though I found some good spots on the pacific in Guatemala. I felt reasonably in good shape, so I figured I’d do ok.

And boy, did I ever. I set a goal to catch 1 good ride in the first hour, and ended up doing 3, followed by an awesome wipeout. The next 2 hours, I’d average 2-3 rides. These waves were smooth and easy to ride, and the local Nicos were nice enough to let me have one every once in awhile.

James had never had a lesson, so I gave him a bit of a primer on surfing before he headed out on his rented longboard. We had 3 boards among the 4 of us, Meika opting not to rent one for herself out the gate. She wasn’t sure if she’d like it, but ended up loving it. It was fun watching her hoot and holler everytime she managed a good ride on the longboard.

Trevor was also an experienced surfer, so he had an excellent time. We ended up surfing until well after 5pm, when it was decided that we head back to Majagual, wash up, and get some dinner. Being that this place was in the middle of nowhere on the coast of Nicaragua, there was no place to go. So we had our own little party at sunset, which was spectacular by the way, and ended up having a great casual night of talking, playing cards and smoking Cohibas. Very, very cool.

The next morning, we made our way back to Playa Madera for another day of surfing. I decided that I would head down to Costa Rica with Trevor and Sarah the next day, so we would have to make our way back to San Juan by that evening to catch the Tica bus in Rivas. So we all wanted to get some more beach time and surfing in before heading out. The weather was a bit iffier that morning, but cleared up by about noon.

The sets were not as consistent as the day before, but the waves were still quite excellent. I managed to get a good four solid rides in the first couple of hours, and then felt myself getting tired pretty fast. So I took a break. Trevor’s board was quite nice, an epoxy board with a nice fun-shape, so I wanted to give it a whirl before leaving. I’m really glad I did, because I got two more AWESOME rides on it. My last wave was my best one, having an excellent face ride with a couple of really sweet “off the lip” cutbacks, which I hadn’t done since I was, god, 15 maybe?! I decided to end my surf session on that note, and got out of the water ecstatic about how well it went. I really need to start surfing more often again.

So after getting back to the beach, we bid Meika, James and Andrew farewell, since they were going to stay another couple of days and keep surfing. Trevor, Sara and I trekked back to the Majagual, got our stuff, and waited for the shuttle that was supposed to be there at 4:30, and NEVER CAME! We started getting rather nervous by 5:30 that we would not find a way back to San Juan. Like I said, this place was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The manager tried to call a cab, but nobody was answering. Right about that time, a tourist couple from Colorado stopped by the lodge to have a drink, they saw us waiting, and offered us a ride. THANK GOD!

So we made it back to San Juan del Sur in good time, got situated at a hotel, and went into town to have dinner. There was a nice little gringo pizza joint where Sarah and Trevor had already been once, so we went there. After a little bit of shopping, and internet, we headed back and prepared for our early morning rise to get to Rivas so we can catch the morning Tica bus.

After a couple of taxi snafus the next morning, we managed to score a cab, and make it to Rivas on time. The Tica bus showed up a little later, and off we were on our way to Costa Rica! After an interesting border crossing, we jumped off in Liberia, and caught a bus to Flamingo. That was an interesting and bumpy ride. On that bus, I ran into Anke, a german backpacker who I’ve seen pretty much everywhere I’ve been in El Salvador and Nicaragua, but never really talked to. So after some nice conversation, we made it to Flamingo. I called Scotty’s phone, and he came over and met us where Trevor and Sarah were staying.

So since then, I’ve been their guest at their VERY nice house they just movfed into at in a part of town called Portrero, just around the bay from Flamingo.

It’s been nice here so far, but the staggering level of gringo influx is everywhere. Costa Rica has been an attraction for gringos for years now, and it shows. To me, it’s a shame to see places so virgin and untamed get so gringo-ized and developed. I’ve been here quite a few times since 1988, and man the changes are stunning. Especially places like this where the roads are virtually non-existent, and there is simply no infrastructure to support all the growth. I just don’t understand why any gringo with a few bucks would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house or worse, a CONDO, and live here, where there is virtually no police, and the rest of the area simply can’t support them. It’s beyond idiotic. But I guess everyone’s idea of “paradise” has different meanings. I understand now what Don Henley means when he sings, “…if you call someplace ‘paradise’, kiss it goodbye”…

Ok, rant over…

I’ve heard from Lisa (crazy ex-lawyer from Ohio), she’s still in country, and hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with her before I head out. She just finished a job as a youth counselor, and is doing a few days of travel before heading back to Ohio. I may head down to Jaco Beach this weekend to see about meeting up with her while I’m there.

I only have a few days left in Costa Rica, before heading back to Guatemala City to catch a bus back to the Rio. Then I’ll have less than a week before having to head back to the real world for yet another, different kind of adventure.

It sometimes just never stops, but that’s the way I like it right now.

Comment from: Raf Truyers [Visitor]

Smoking Cohibas behind my back!?

09/06/06 @ 09:46

So we’re back from 2 nights up at Laguna Apoyo. It was absolutely, staggeringly beautiful. The lake itself is really something. It’s in an extinct volcanic crater that filled up with rainwater over several millennia. There are no streams, waterfalls, or any other bodies of water feeding into it. In fact, the fish that are in the lake have evolved into 6 species that are completely, totally different than fish found anywhere else in the world. This is due to the fact that they were kept isolated from any other gene pools or other natural influences. The lake is also VERY deep, more than 300 meters at the center of it.

Anyway, there are few lakeside retreats and posadas. We stayed at one called “The Monkey Hut”, which featured a beautiful property, with a great view of the lake. There was much relaxing, swimming, kayaking, and just general bumming around to be had.

It was still the same crew that came to Granada from Leon. This time, we also met up with Andrew, a guy who hung out with us back in Leon, but didn’t come with us to Granada. The days were filled with swimming, hanging out, playing cards, and floating in the water. The nights were filled with music, conversation, and god help us… drinking games. It was really a fun time, with some really cool people.

So now the plan is to head down to San Juan del Sur, a popular beachside spot in southern Nicaragua. From there, I’ll probably catch a bus over the border into Costa Rica, and work my way to Playa Flamingo, where I should find Rosie and Scott.

I actually met a girl here who lives in Playa Flamingo and KNOWS them! So once again, it really is a small world.

So as of last week, I bid the cats goodbye to make my way down Central America over land for the next couple of weeks. I first got on a bus and made my obligatory stop to Guatemala City, where I spent a night at a very nice hotel there, courtesy of Mitzy. The next day, I was aboard a Tica bus, making my way to San Salvador. I’ve spent two nights in San Salvador, not doing much there due to the weather, but I did get one fun night out at Zona Rosa, the city’s restaurant and nightclub district.

Before leaving Guatemala City, I got an email from Monica of Tranquila, telling me that she was going to be in Nicaragua, and we should all meet. So I managed to get our dates coordinated, and we met up at a hostel in Leon, Nicaragua. Since then, we’ve been more or less a rag-tag group of about five people, which include Meika, a Scottish girl who worked in Tranquila, Leah, an Occupational Therapist from Canada, and James, an engineering student also from Canada.

The next day, we took a trip up to Cerro Negro, a young volcano just outside of Leon. Moni opted out of the trip, because she wasn’t up to hiking. So it would be Meika, James, Leah, Andrew and me. The main attraction on this particular trip was that we were going to do VOLCANO BOARDING! That’s right, we were going to surf/sled down the smooth side of Cerro Negro’s crater. Jake, an Aussie guy who had been big in pioneering volcano boarding came up with the concept only about 7 months earlier.

So after a very picturesque ride through the Nicaraguan countryside, we arrived to Cerro Negro. We parked the truck on the foot of the crater, where we were basically going to come down from. The hike was not too hard, other than the fact that we had lug our boards up with us. It was an awesome day though, and the views were pretty spectacular. It took us roughly an hour to get up to the crater. After spending about an hour there, checking out the crater itself, we went over to the smooth west side of the crater to get serious about volcano boarding. Jake gave us the rundown on how to handle the boards, and what position to take. After a primer and a practice run about 10 meters down, we started heading down.

I was about the third or fourth guy to head down. I had an older board with a little more wear, so it took awhile to gain some speed. About halfway down, I was moving at a pretty good clip. I was hanging on and loving the ride, but then my board started slowing down. It kinda filled up with lava gravel and sand, and I came to an unwanted halt. I had to empty out my board, and start up again. But after that, I started moving again. I picked a good amount of speed and reached the bottom of the slope with some good momentum. It was really quite fun.

Meika, on the other hand, took a bit of a spill and came off the board. She continued to slide a good distance without her board on her stomach. She did manage to not get hurt to any extent, except for a good scraped knee. Another guy grabbed her board and brought it to her. She managed to get back on and finish the trip, quite speedily I might add. All the others made it down without a hitch. The jaunt was a great success.

Later that day, we got back to Leon, all black from the lava sand. Showers were much needed, and thankfully the water and power was on so we can get cleaned up (Nicaragua has been having HUGE problems with their water and power service lately). We had a nice dinner in town, where there was a religious festival going on. And we prepared for our trip out of Leon the next day.

Trying to leave Leon was rather interesting, as we had to jump on a collectivo bus that would take us to Managua, from there, we’d catch another bus to Granada. Well, we got to the bus station early Tuesday afternoon. But the buses were sparse and not running on any reliable schedule. After waiting in line for what seemed like an eternity, we all decided that we were indeed getting on the next bus (which was actually a van).

After about another 30 minutes of waiting, a bus showed up, and before it even stopped, we rushed it. Backpacks flailing, as if we were going to incite a riot. Monica, being the first to get to it, swung the door open, and then stretched her arms out to keep anyone else from getting to it. Then she diligently and politely let everyone out of the bus. I was behind her, holding several backpacks, and the rest of the group was huddled around me as we waited for everybody to get off the bus. By this time, there was a horde of Nicaraguans pushing up against us also trying to get into the bus.

Then, in one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen happened. Monica pulled her arms in, and in a split second, Meika and I both dove in to the van entrance. My flip flop got caught on the floor rail, which hampered my ability to get in. Meika, was stuffing in her large backpack, and once it was in the van, she made a rather clean swan dive onto it, throwing her body into the van. Monica, James, Leah and I were all pulling ourselves into the van in unison. Within a matter of seconds, we were all in the bus, making our place there clearly known. We had won the battle!

It wasn’t going to be a comfortable ride though, because we were all cramped up in the bus, with our backpacks and other gear stacked all around us. It was hysterical. We all tried to relax in the strangest positions as the bus made its way to Managua.

Once we got there, we got on another collectivo to Granada, and this time it was not nearly as much trouble to get aboard.

Anyway, I don’t know if I captured just how funny that whole deal was, but trust me, if you were there, you’d have died.

So now, we’re going off to a place called Laguna Apoyo for a day or so at lakeside retreat called “The Monkey Hut”. It’s a crater lake that is so pristine, it’s considered the cleanest water in Nicaragua. I’ll be making my bus reservation to head on down to San Jose, Costa Rica most likely by the weekend. Then it’s off to the Pacific Coast to hang out with Rosie and Scotty for awhile, and perhaps, Lisa, the crazy ex-lawyer from Ohio, who’s also in Costa Rica working as a teen counselor.

Should be interesting…

So I’m up to my armpits in dirty laundry and umpteen boat projects, when Mitzy (of the Guatemala City gang) mucks up my plans once again. This time, she skypes me and invites me to meet up with her in Flores the next day or so for a couple days of checking out ruins and other stuff.

At first, my better judgment said I should stick around the boat and get some more work done. Yet, somehow, I find myself hitching a ride last Wednesday with Gabriela and Juan, some friends of Mitzy’s who live in Peten. They pick me up when they pass through Frontreras on their way back from the city and I’m off to Flores. I really don’t know how these things happen, but they do.

So a couple of hours later, I’m in Flores. Mitzy is already there, having flown in earlier that day to deal with some stuff for the magazine she works for. After we all meet up, we’re off on our way to Gabriela’s lodge which is just outside Yaxha national park, about an hour away. Yaxha is the ancient Mayan city that earned its claim to fame by being the backdrop for “Survivor:Guatemala”, which aired last fall. Not that I got to see any of it, nor do I care, since I think the show is dreck. The lodge is right on Lago Yaxha, and overlooks the ruins on the other side, elevated in mountains and hills. Really quite magnificent.

Yaxha is still basically being discovered. It is a city that’s pretty much the same size as Tikal. And, it’s actually OLDER than Tikal. But what’s particularly interesting is that the city of Yaxha is still underneath the jungle in a big way. Over the years, Tikal, which is also in the belly of deep guatemalan jungle has been excavated and somewhat restored to the tune of about 20% of its overall city layout.

Yaxha, by contrast is only about TWO percent exposed. Which means, there’s still quite a bit of city to excavate. Everywhere you look, you see “hills” that are actually buildings and temples buried under dirt, foliage and trees! This park just recently received national park status (after being made famous by “Survivor”), so the work has just recently begun in earnest. I have some great pics that will be on the gallery soon, if not already.

After a killer day of climbing temples, hiking ancient trails, exploring jungle, watching spider monkeys, and observing spectacular lightning storms, we headed back to Flores. On the way back, we dropped off a friend of Mitzy’s who accompanied us, Cristina back at her beautiful house that was right on Lake Peten. We had beverages on the edge of the lake, while Cristina’s dogs romped around in and out of the water. Quite a nice place. Cristina and her husband Carlos own a popular restaurant in Flores, which I’ve actually been to a few times before I ever met them.

After that little jaunt, we got to Flores. I decided that I’d try to leave the next day being that there was still quite a lot to do back on the boat. I was on a bit of a pressing schedule due to the fact that I’m trying to get out of here end of this week to work my way down to Costa Rica on the Tica bus, by way of El Salvador, and Nicaragua. So we found out what time the bus back to Rio Dulce was leaving the next afternoon. We stayed in a hotel in town that night owned by some friends of hers, and had a most excellent dinner at a restaurant owned by some friends of hers. BTW, did I mention that Mitzy knows pretty much EVERYBODY in Guatemala?

When we got to where the bus was supposed to be, we found that there was NO bus that day. It was simply cancelled without explanation. We went into Santa Elena, the bigger town just across the bridge from Flores to check out their bus station. Unfortunately, all the safe buses were gone from the day, and all that was left was the dreaded “Fuente del Muerte” bus. Which I simply refuse to get on for a myriad of reasons.

So, the writing was on the wall, I was stuck in Peten for another night. Dammit! =P Mitzy didn’t seem to be too upset about it, being that she was flying out the next day back to the city. We got a major hookup at a nice hotel in Santa Elena, since Mitzy’s also in the travel biz. So hotel lodging for us that nite was FREE. Boy, do I love that word…

Next morning, I had to scramble a bit to make the bus. But I did. I said bye to Mitzy, and off I was back to Rio Dulce. Made it back in time for lunch, but decided I’d wait until I got back to Marios before eating. By the time the lancha showed up, I was starving. But then I got to the restaurant and saw that they were closed for a WEDDING. One of the guatemalan girls who works in the restaurant, Glendy, was getting married that day. So they decided to close the restaurant to prepare for the festivities.

This was a rather bizarre wedding being that the word was that Glendy didn’t want to actually marry this guy she was marrying. Apparently, he was quite the “playa” in local circles here, and already has at least one kid around here. Nothing new if you’re a guatemalan guy that is. Unfortunately, the number of kids you have with other women is nothing more than a sign of machismo and virility. Nevermind that they don’t support the kids in most cases. Despite the fact that I really like Glendy, I didn’t really feel like I wanted to participate in this kind of wedding. Personally, I think anybody who gets married these days is nuts, but who am I to judge? =)

Well, anyway, I wasn’t thrilled at all being that I was hungry and didn’t want to stick around to raid the wedding food.

Needless to say, I survived enough to get a few cookies in me on the boat, shower, change, and head back into town to have a bite and head out for a few drinks that night. I made it back to the boat, got a splitting headache, and went to bed.

Since then, I’ve been pretty much knocking off projects left and right. A couple of guys are handling the sanding and varnishing of my exterior wood. And doing a bang-up job of it. Should have most of the varnishing done by the time I leave, which is great. I’m installing and fixing several items inside the boat, which I should have mostly done by end of this week.

And then, if all goes well, I’m Costa Rica bound this weekend… woo-hoo!

Still working on my mom’s story, hope to have it up before I leave…