Hey all,

Sorry for leaving the blogging world so abruptly. I left the Friday after that last post for Granada, Nicaragua, with the intention of riding a bus for 18 hours back into Costa Rica, and then on into San Jose, get on a plane, and come on home. All of which I did safely :)

So, Nicaragua.
It is a beautiful country, as lush and green as Costa Rica, but better kept, and far poorer economically. Driving in you could see huge houses with wrought iron gates, and signs in English from estado unidense real estate companies as huge amounts of land are being bought out.

The people are very friendly, very helpful, and all of the beggars magically can speak English, interesting. And there is a LOT of begging. Sitting down at a table for lunch, and average of 8 people will come by (often the same person twice) trying to sell you gum, cheap plastic toys, brightly painted wooden birds that can be used as a whistle, candies, bootleg dvd's, whatever. They do seem startled when you answer them in Spanish though :)

The houses are so brightly colored! They have a very strong Spanish colonial stylistic influence with the flourishes and the red tile roofs, but the walls are all painted in cobalt blue, purple, mint green, yellow, orange. It looks like a festival every day. The other huge difference were the streets. In Nicaragua, the streets don't have elephantine potholes!! the Nicos still drive a bit crazy, but nothing near to the Ticos.

You grab a bus to go everywhere, and there are men whose sole job is to hang out the side and call out granaDA!granaDA! and then jump off of the bus, while it is still moving, and try to push more people on. It gets to a certain max capacity, and then you begin to sit in laps, and occasionally up on the dashboard, if you're a small female. It's all very respectful and chill, it's just how it works when you have small transit buses, and a largish population.

We went to the Mercado Viejo and haggled like crazy for all kinds of souvenirs. Believe it or not, the more you haggle, the more friendly the Nicos are. It's a sign that you respect and understand their culture, even though I felt horrible trying to drive the already low prices down in a city which obviously is so very strapped for cash.

After the Mercado Viejo (where I got a Hammock chair which I then proceeded to hand carry during my entire travel back on three buses, two taxis, and three airplanes across 3 countries and 3 states. it was awesome, I got such disbelieving looks adding this huge string wrapped pole to my huge hiking backpack, small book bag, and purses) we caught a taxi out to the coast of Lago de Nicaragua, and went on a boat tour around the multitude of tiny (I mean one house with no backyard tiny) islas that dot the coast of Nicaragua. Our boat guide was mostly board, and quoted the price of every single island that was for sale (which was most) and quoted the name and cost of each occupied island. It felt a little odd...half sightseeing, and half realty tour. But on the way out, we were able to float past thick trees and came out to an inlet where a bunch of Nicos were splashing around, which was fun to see.

We stopped and ate the most amazing friend plantains ever on one of the islands, and watched the owner's little kids play in the hammocks and try to dance, and giggle, and it was just adorable. We also met a couple of parrots who were snuggling and trying to eat our food, alternatively.

When we got out of the boat tour, we went into a museum in Granada, and check it these ancient statues found in Nicaragua that are combinations of men and animals in very odd ways (don't get all dirty on me here) and that were probably some sort of pantheon a long time ago.

On our way back, it began to pour, so we ducked into this huge yellow church that doesn't appear to have a name that had just been remodeled (and when I say huge and yellow, i mean it. You can see this thing from everywhere in Granada. it glows!) and chilled for bit before heading home to our hostel.

As we arrived back onto our street, we discovered that a live band had set up a huge stage right outside the door to our hostel, and that the street was packed with Nicos. It turns out - from talking to a nice old man from Dublin who was opening a pub in Granada - that we had unknowingly gotten into Granada in time for the biggest festival of the year. There were competitions where women danced in shot shorts, lots of sparkly makeup and feathers, lots of live music, marching drums, and men with masks. It was awesome to watch, and as the music was good, it was pretty cool to listen to all night. I would give you more detail, but we had to push through and climb up people just to get the small views I just described. My favorite part was the group of teens out just behind the stage who were having dance-offs to the music from the stage. It was pretty awesome to walk, all that posturing, but really tongue in cheek. You could tell they were having an awesome time. And were also waiting for the contestants to walk by them behind the stage :D


anyways, I got home, and am now getting ready to go drive back up to Washington for my last year of school. I'll do my best to keep updating during school. Maybe I'll even post a couple of pictures of my work.
anyways, for now: tranquilo, y PuraVida.