Surfing ... sort of.

Well, I can stand on a board in white water, but beyond that, I am at a loss. But that´s OK. Boogie boards are fun as well. I found a great spot called Matihlda´s, a camping surfer´s paradise on Playa Madera, 40 bumpy minutes from SJDS. It is beautiful there, and I´m enjoying speaking Spanish and learning about other countries from my fellow travelers. It´s amazing what a few days of hanging out at a beautiful Pacific beach can do for you.
The first few nights I spent $5 to sleep in a hut the size and shape of a doghouse. But I have perservered and moved into a private room with private bath, which is amazing compared to what I have been staying in. It´s still only $15 for a place right on the beach, food included. Wild, eh? Some people love it so much there, they´ve been staying here for 5 months at a time and seem like a regular fixture.
I have to keep it short, hitching a ride back to the beach takes some time. I´m leaving for Leon again in a few days, to do a hike of the Somoto Canyon. It should be swell.
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Gringolandia ...

So, in an effort to not be stuck on Ometepe with no money (there are no cash machines that work with my card), I was forced to leave yesterday and head for the coast. Somehow on the island I managed to get both a cold and a sore neck. I know how silly this sounds, but they are both the result of the ice cold showers there. As for the latter, I basically bent too far backward trying to wash only my hair and I am paying for it. I have however become pretty adept at visiting the pharmacy here. I was given 12 pills of some amoxycillan variant for about $3. No prescriptions needed for anything, as far as I can tell.
Anyway, I´m currently in San Juan Del Sur, which is more or less an offshoot of certain parts of California or Florida. It´s so Americanized, it´s annoying; and that´s coming from someone who is American and proud of it.
I am going to take a shuttle bus to some nearby beach today and stay there for a few nights, and then head back up to areas where people actually speak Spanish and girls with giant sunglasses and highlights are few and far between. Then it´s onto Granada for a few nights, and then to the illustrious Little Corn Island, which I have heard oh so much about.
Well, I´m off to ride with a bunch of surfers in the back of a pick-up truck with the words ¨Gringo Shuttle¨ painted on the side. It´s good to have some humility at times, isn´t it?

Where I be ...

I am currently laying my head under a mosquito net at a coffee farm on the side of Maderas Volcan on Isla de Ometepe. I wish these computers were fast enough to upload some photos,but that will have to wait until I reach the mainland. The view is incredible. I found some like-minded travelers and we have been hiking, playing guitar and hanging out with the locals. Two major occurences of note: 1) I killed a scorpion the other day. It was gross. 2) A monkey tried to climb down my shirt yesterday. He was adorable.
Breakfast time. Yay gallo pinto.


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ch-ch-ch-ch-changes ...

Sometimes plans change. In Nicaragua so far, everytime I have something planned, something happens and it doesn´t work out and I end up doing something completely different than I had planned, yet equally if not more awesome.
I can´t get into details right now as it´s costing me a hefty sum to use the Internet, but I´m on Isla de Ometepe. It´s one of the coolest places I´ve ever been. A candidate for the 8th natural wonder of the world, it´s an island made up of two volcanos, an isthmus. I have been riding around this paradise on a 150cc Yamaha motorbike (which functions at times); dodging cattle and wild horses, and occasionally German tourists. The sunsets are scarlet and the lagunas are green. Monkeys and parrots are everywhere. I have much to say about this country and its people; taking public boat transport down the Rio San Juan, scoping out the Solentime Archipelago and Los Gautuzos wildlife reserve, an old fortress city of El Castillo, on the border of Costa Rica - eating shrimp as big as lobsters. I´ve been lost, found, scared, blessed and euphoric. Nothing here works right, or runs on time. The showers are ice cold and the power goes out often enough that blackouts and brownouts are commonplace. I´ve eaten so much rice and beans, I´m starting to fantasize about the sushi and pizza I´m going to indulge in when I get home. Every thing every day is a challenge. But, nothing is cooler than having nothing to do and a beautiful place to do nothing in. Learning as much about this country and how others view our world as long as my Spanish holds out. I have no idea when I´m leaving Ometepe or where I´m going next; and I´m completely fine with that.

Off the grid ...

I´ve been out of civilization for quite a while now, and I´m back on the grid for one night only before heading to the Internet-less Cosiguina Peninsula and Jiquilillo beach. I have a TON to say and write, as a million interesting things happen each day. But I don´t have time, as there are some really antsy Swedish teenagers who are eager to check their facebooks and there´s only one computer in my hotel.
So, first I will say this. Last Sunday and Monday, I did what was simultaneously one of the most difficult and amazing things of my life. I hiked three volcanos in one day with the nonprofit group Quetzaltrekkers and slept out under the stars on top of a giant sink-hole crater called El Hoyo, overlooking 12 other volcanoes, the Pacific Ocean, a trazillion stars and in the far, far distance, Managua. It was, to say the least, incredible. A bloody back-breaking experience, but incredible. I have an entire chapter in my journal devoted to this experience which I would like to publish at a later date. But right now, I will make this quick, which means nothing is capitalized or punctuated correctly -
Just got back into civilization after 8 hours of central american public transport ... which means i was switching from rickety old bus to rickety old bus on rickety old roads squashed up against chickens and backpacks. but, the cloud forest was amazing. BLOODY FREEZING. must have gotten down to 35 or 40 at night and that´s cold for not bringing stuff for that kind of weather. we were told that´s the coldest it gets, the wind made it worse, plus i think i might have gotten fleas from a horse. but ... i´m in chinandega right now, leaving for the beach tomorrow and it´s inferno hot again.
but yeah, the cloud forest. We stayed at a farm called La Posada de Soñada in Miraflor, just outside of Esteli (an awesome cowboy town, reminds me of a Texas truck stop). We had a cabin and were fed three amazing meals per day of organic vegetables, fruit and meat by the cooperative´s owner, a Nica woman who used to work as a nurse but chose to come to the countryside to help with getting better nutrition to children. The cooperative is really neat, everyone works together and they and their animals eat better than anyone else in the country. Miraflor is broken up into a group of cooperative farmers that share work and goods with each other, and posada´s owner, Doña Corina and her staff - were incredibly hospitable. and what an amazing cook, whipping up inventive and complex meals with nothing but the most simple of wood stoves. we had some awesome fresh, organic chicken killed just hours before we ate it, fresh chamomile tea picked from her garden, literally sitting under blankets in a treehouse and watching the clouds rolling by. met an interesting girl from belgium - as well as many other interesting europeans - and she and helene and i went for a 7 hour horseback ride yesterday. which, is kind of long for a horseback ride, but we had a guide and he took us to two amazing waterfalls and these peaks where we could see all the way to the mountains of honduras. it was refreshing because everything was so green. it actually rains there, as opposed to the rest of the country which is in a dry season right now. it was gorgeous. wild flowers and random little barebones homes on HUGE plots of land, wild horses, pigs running around, donkeys, baby chickens. saw some of those crazy discovery channel army ants, which was kinda gross, and massive Ceba trees that you can literally climb up through the inside, if you don´t mind the gargantuan arachnids and bats that dwell inside, which i do, so i didn´t climb all the way to the top. but yeah, riding a horse for 7 hours kinda hurts.
i am really, really tan. the central american sun is ridiculously strong. in the mountains yesterday during the day it was partly cloudy and 70 degrees but i got about as tan as i do in a WHOLE michigan summer in one day of partly cloudy sky here. wild.
anyway, i am at the hotel in chinandega after showering for the first time in several days. this cold as ice shower was possibly one of the best things to have ever happened to me. tomorrow is my last bus ride for at least two weeks, which is awesome. jiquilillo, here i come.