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So no need for an alarm clock here, the room is pitch black but not very sound proof from the courtyard even though we are in the corner. Between the rooster and plates clinging together because we are near the kitchen, everyone was up by 7 and some of us (me) even earlier...the locals get up with the sun, when in Rome, do as the Romans.
Typically we are opposed to arranging anything through hotels or tour guides and prefer to find our own way because there are usually 1 to 3 middle men between you and the final tour person who each put their mark-up on the price, but there is a significant language barrier here even though they speak Spanish, most locals speak no English and I'm not confident that I can describe the kind of boat tour that I'm looking for in Spanish. I'm interested to see what the hotel has to offer for boat tour of Las Isletas, so I go to the front desk to enquire about pricing. Remember everything here has 2 prices, what they want, and what they will take. So the front desk clerk who speaks very good English calls his boat guy down at the docks and he says he'll do the tour for $60 USD, which is really cheap by American standards for a 2.5 hour tour on a private boat, but in Nicaragua that's a fortune. So I so, "ok, no thanks, es muy caro, I'll just walk down there and arrange my own price."
"ok sir, he says $50."
"no bueno, es muy caro, gracias." and we start walking out of the hotel.
Then the bellboy comes running after us, "sir, he says he will do it for $30 US."
"ok deal"...which means I could have probably gotten it for $20 down at the docks, but hopefully the hotel's boat guy is one of the better tour guides with a nice boat, so I thought to myself.
The dock is only about 3/4 of a mile down the main road, which should be an enjoyable walk...turns out to be a little more difficult than we thought because of the cobble stone streets and giant curbs, but we get there and find our contact "gordo Moises", who takes us down to the boat and passes us off to the driver...so 2 middle men on this $30 trip, the hotel and "gordo Moises". Turns out that our tour guide doesn't speak a lick of English, but he thinks I speak great Spanish and that I understand his 90 mph speech! We definitely didn't get as much out of the tour as we'd have liked, but we got the general jist of things like the largest houses on the islands belong to the 3 largest families that own most of the things in Nicaragua; one of those families also owns Flor de Cana rum. One of the islands has 4 monkeys on it that look like they used to be someone's pets and they let them go there...but now they are the main tourist attraction on the tour. They appear to live on cookies and cracker jacks from tourists, the monkeys will hand down from branches over the water and take them right out of your hand...but of course that info is not in the guide books and our tour guide didn't bring any with him to sell or give to us...tourism is still a developing industry here, with a LOT of potential for the future. After cruising around for a little while, we pulled into an island that had a restaurant and bar on it. There is very little wind on the lake even though it is the 19th largest lake in the world, so its pretty stifling hot, but nothing a couple cold Tona beers doesn't fix up. The menu consists of pescado or pescado or (yard) chicken. So we decide to go for an entrada (appetizer) of Tostones y Queso; thinking that meant chips and queso dip...boy were we wrong. Tostones are green plantains thick cut and then deep fried (not bad actually with some chili sauce on them), and the queso is Nicaraguan cheese deep fried, but Nic cheese is a tart version of feta that is VERY chewey, almost rubbery...not so good. After 45 mins of hanging loose, we decide its high time to get back on the boat and get some wind blowing in or hair...is hot with no wind!
Back at the dock, its 1:15pm, really hot now, and we have that 3/4 mile walk (uphill) on that cobble stone street to make...better get to humping it! So one of the main modes of transportation in towns is horse drawn carriages; and there are a ton of them, but most are pulled by your typical Central American horses...small, shabby, a little malnourished, and definitely over worked. So we're opposed to supporting their drivers even though we have been eyeing this one team with horses that look to be very well groomed, shoe'd, and healthy. As we're working our way up the hill, a horse carriage stops by and asks me if we want a ride to town, I politely decline and he takes off. I then tell Heather that he only wanted 17 cordobas to take us to own since he was already going that way..."you turned down the ride for less than 75 cents?!?!?!?!"
My response, "hahaha, so its ok to support the unhealthy horses when you're hot??"
But everything happens for a reason right? On the way back through town, we walked past the local Elementary School having class...of course we have to swing in! Most foreign countries we have been to have no concept of safety for their children at school, they just don't worry about it like we do in the States. They let us stroll right in, and man, do we have a lot to be thankful for in the US, these kids have little more than their desk, a pencil, and the chalk board.
Walking back through town, we get accosted by the pottery sales people working out of a bag on their back. Everything has 2 prices...the exchange goes something like this:
"cuantos?" 1 for $30, 2 for $35, es muy caro, 1 for $20, 1 for $20 and 1 for $10, walking away, 1 for $15, 2 for $20, 1 for $12 and 1 for $10, no gracias es muy caro, 1 for $10, deal! And we both walk away happy.
Back at the hotel, its time for some R&R in the pool! Maclaren loves the water. We discover the local alcoholic speciality, Maqua, which is a mixture of papaya juice, rum, and cane sugar. Very tasty, but will cause a mean hang over if you have too many!
We met some folks from Austin in the pool and they recommended a restaurant behind the church called "El Zuguan". Its extremely expensive by Nic standards, but its high quality food on par with anything in the US. $53 US for 2 large steak dinners, a beer, 3 glasses of wine, and a slice of cheese cake.
Stolling back through the Central Plaza we stopped to watch some kids playing soccer...no wonder the rest of the world is better at soccer than we are, their goals were an upturned bicycle facing longways and a light pole; each guarded by 2 boys...not to mention they are playing on concrete, wearing jeans, under the light of some sparsely scattered street lights!
There's a huge thunderstorm rolling in with lightning and thunder...we decide to hang out on the front patio of the hotel and watch the rain. Maclaren makes a new admirer, the bartender, Jairo...she loves him! And he's a a great guy with a 4 year old daughter of his own. An hour of rain, a cuba libre, and some good conversations with the hotel staff, we head to the room for the night!
- comments
Cheryl Her fat cheeks are pink, but she looks like she is having such fun.
Capree Love reading what y'all are up to! How cute is MD?! She's a pro at this traveling the world stuff already! ;)
kmacoog04 Dang! You weren't lying about them being obsessed with her H! They better watch it with my diva :)