Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 5: We are the “Beasts” (12/31/10)

We get up and head over to La Terraza M, which happens to be attached to the place we plan on going to dinner (El Mediteraneo), for a delicious brunch; my club sandwich was different than what I would expect in America, but it was delicious and the empanada I got was sweet (honey inside?) instead of savory like I am used to. We then head to the cathedral during daylight hours to climb to the roof, however once we get there, they close the doors and kick us out right after we cross the threshold.

Breakfast is served! 

Why you gotta sneak up on me Mr. Lion? You scared me!

Hummingbird visitor at breakfast. Not a bad way to start the end of a year.

We then proceed to go shopping, trying to find a tshirt L wants; instead we buy some 1.75L bottles of FdC for taking home. We go home to drop the bottles off (I don't want to carry that around all day) and as we walk into the hostel, the staff see what we are carrying and just shout out “BEASTS!!!” (clearly our enjoyment of the FdC is noticed by them). We head back out and cannot find this shirt L is looking for. We came back again and asked the staff for info so he can find his shirt, I sit back and relax doing some Sudoku as I don't like being on a fools errand; he returns unsuccessful yet again. We go out for food and realize places run out/low on food or are closed early around here. So we find a place that is open, have some dinner ( I had some tamale type things) and pick up some sandwiches for later. We notice the cathedral is open again and try to go up to the top, however are informed its open for service and the top is still closed. Go back to hostel to shower and get dressed and have another FdC promotion, drinking the ½ and keeping the ¼ for later like last time.  

The only Rum one ever needs to drink. Tis tasty.

After finishing our sandwiches and rum, we head across the street to the Bigfoot hostel for the Warm-up party. We meet some people over there and then the staff announces a scavenger hunt (I do love scavenger hunts!), so we join with the people we've been talking to and set out to take pictures of the things on the list. IT was a great time/idea! Some of the items consisted of switching shirts with a  local, taking a pic of Jesus, etc.

Our list of things to do/find for the night. Lets get it started.

Our team. Americans and Dutch coming together for the dream team of scavenger hunts.

Got a picture with Jesus. If you remember, this was that little statue of Jesus I talked about the other day.

Break-dancing in the street. Check!

Dance with a mannequin lady. Check! Made me feel so small!

We got thirsty on our crawl so we stopped to get some beer.

Riding a lion. Dont mind if we do. Someone has to tame the beast!

As we complete items on the hunt, we realize its 1130pm, so we put that on hold and find a bar with spots for us to have a few drinks to bring in the new year. Our table gets some beers and a bottle of rum (its Nicaragua, so why not?) . At midnight, the streets go crazy with fireworks everywhere. We decide to abandon the hunt and just hang out the rest of the night before returning to the hostel (~1am).

Are you intimidated by this? We were. This is why we went into the bar :) hahah

Us playing in the street as the new year is happening. They just light fireworks in the middle of their streets. Not sure how safe it is but was cool as this was right outside of the bar we were drinking in. So we joined.

Rum and coke action. Ladies be jealous. Actually anyone not Luis should be jealous as he gets to taste the sweet nectar that is FdC. I drew the short straw so I get to drink the coke.

Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 4: Volcano hiking and surfing (12/30/10)

Wake up early (~715am) to walk over to the quetzal trekkers headquarters which is around the corner from our hostel. We group up and head to Cerro Negro for the day of fun. Hike our way up the volcano, the day couldn't be more perfect; partly cloudy w/ a great breeze, both of which helped with the heat. 

At the office of the trekking company. Waiting to depart.

The Volcano range which we will be hiking up one of them today.

This seems safe. If I am reading that sign correctly it says to go ahead and climb these volcanoes as they are extremely safe. Ill go with that.

As we hike up, we strap the board to our backs as they are substantial and carrying it in your hands the whole way would make your arms tired before you get to the top. On the way up, we stopped in the first canyon of the active volcano to see steam coming out of the ground in various places. This steam has a strong sulfur smell to it and the rocks have a strong yellow tint to them, presumably from the sulfur We then hike up to the crest where we will eventually board down; before that we go over and look at the view from the peak which is amazing with the mountain range in the distance and being able to see various parts of the country. 

Found a heat release for the volcano which smelt strongly of sulfur. The rock near here was also yellow tinted due to the sulfur deposits.

We have to go up there? This is not going to be fun. 

Saw a rock in the distance that looked like Donkey Kong so I decided to pet him.  

Here we go on our way up. Climb! Climb! Climb!

Luis and I working our way up the mountain. He had to lug our jumpers and boards with us (the second time up my board burned my shirt a little bit as i didnt let it cool off enough before putting it on my back - that shirt is still faded where the burn took the color out of the shirt).

We came over once we got to the top to enjoy the view that our labor allowed us to take in.

Get to the boarding area, suit up in protective garments, and board down one at a time; was really fun and definitely not as scary as it looked from the bottom – granted I did it sitting down and I am sure if you try to do it standing it could be more challenging/scary.

Who you going to call? Not us as we look like lame ass ghost-busters. But safety first. Just glad we didnt hike up the mountain with these on. I would have died for sure!

Our group is suited up and ready for the short trip down the side of the volcano.

We are ready for sledding down this volcano. 

At the bottom we get a snack and are able to go up again for a second go if we want, so I head up and do it again. Our group was great with tons of friendly chit chat and an overall good time. After the second trip down, we pack up the truck and stop at the entry way to have lunch and clean up a bit. 

Lunch is served. If I remember right, the lunch was veggie tacos. They were really good after all the exertion of climbing that mountain twice.

The lunch area had this pin of lizards so I decided to go pay them a visit. So many lizards in one area. Dont know why they were there.

After lunch, we get back to HQ and are given a free shirt, then we head to hostel to shower and relax until dinner time. We walked around for a bit trying to find a restaurant LP suggested and again, I could not find it. Instead we stopped at Antonio's pizzeria and split a medium house special which was pretty good. 

Luis is ready to destroy the pizza after we both had a slice. Delicious. 

After eating, we went walking and wound up at Alamo Bar and Restaurant, which also has karaoke tonight (starting to think everyone does karaoke all day every day in Leon). We grab some beers and sit on the rooftop terrace looking out over the city before heading out to walk over to the cathedral and central market area and then heading back to the hostel to spend the rest of the night. We saw our tour guide lady (Jenny) from earlier hanging out with some of her friends so we stopped and talked for a bit before retiring to our own area to enjoy the rest of our FdC promotion (1/2L and 1/4L of FdC Gran Reserva for 145C) drinking the ½ L and keeping the ¼ for a souvenir. As we are chilling in the patio area, we enjoy watching the bats fly around the trees within the hostel (had open areas everywhere). Once the 1/2L is gone, we turn in.

We made it through the day. Time to enjoy some FdC.

Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 3: a Leon! (12/29/10)

Had breakfast at the hostel and headed out towards Leon. Upon checking out, we pay our tab (137$ - for 2 people eating, drinking, sleeping, etc. not too bad) and get on the bus back to Leon. From the bus station, we get a cab to Via Via hostel, who actually kept the reservation I made and checked us in to the El Hoyo room (350C or 17$ a night). We put our names down for a sand-boarding trek with quetzal trekkers and then go change cash. Have lunch at the hostel while looking at places to eat and drink while in Leon. We hang out and L takes my Sudoku book (I taught him how to do it in LP) as he is now obsessed. We hang out a bit having some drinks before showering and heading out to explore a little bit and get some dinner. 

I believe this is the main cathedral in Leon. It was a huge, beautiful church near the center of town. 

Little area near the cathedral with a miniature Jesus statue in the little fountain looking thing behind me

We got thirsty as we walked around town so we settled into a random hole in the wall place and had a beer watching people walk to work and hang out nearby. 

One of my MOs when I travel is to check out local places of worship. This was the inside of a church that was allowing people to enter. So pristine and beautiful.

Outside of the church we went into. The outside is as fabulous as the inside was.

Wind up going to Taquezal which is having karaoke tonight (Wednesday seems to be Karaoke night in Leon as we saw many places with it walking around). After dinner, Luis takes some shots for some friends back home so he lines up whiskey, tequila, and vodka shots and proceeds to take them, struggling after the second one as one should. During dinner we noticed giant dressed creatures walking around on stilts with kids escorting them banging on drums. 

Having dinner at a cafe having karaoke night so I get a sippy drink.

Time to eat dinner. Looks tasty. If you noticed I am not currently eating for this picture. I am a quick learner.

Apparently tonight there was a contest of sorts for these giant mannequin things. After dinner, we find Olla Queada, a bar that Jill recommended as they had a live band on Wednesday nights. The band was good, playing American music, and the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves. Have a few beers there hanging out and enjoying the music before making our way back to the hostel to get some sleep for tomorrow's excursion.

One of the mannequin ladies we saw running around the streets. More of them would appear over the next few days.

Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 2: Chilling on the beach in paradise (12/28/10)

Thinking I slept in (L tells me its 10:20 when its actually 730) I get up to have breakfast (eggs w/ onion/tomato, rice and beans, juice). When we finish eating, we go for a walk up and down the beach which is gorgeous. We then get back to the hostel to make sure we are there to receive L's bag when the airline delivers it. We play some games and have a beer with lunch, where his bag arrives while waiting on our food. Once he has his clothes, we change into our swimsuits and go for another walk on the beach before going into the water to swim/body-board for a while.

Good morning. I had to explain to Luis there was more to the beach than the hostel's bar. hahah just kidding, he is trying to order breakfast (maybe?).

We are exploring the beach area. It was high tide as this area during low tide is barren. Kinda cool that you can come walking by here and see boats sitting in the sand sometimes and in water others. 

This was the hostel's entrance to the beach. I took my cousin's kid's flat Stanley on this trip so he appears in a few of these pictures.  

Get back to the hostel and grab a drink while we shower before heading out to dinner at Olazul which was recommended online but the address that was given to us was incorrect so we go to La Palmera instead. La Palmera was more pricey and not as good as our hostel's food, however it is a nice place with view of the pool. 

Sunset on the beach. Not a bad deal to be able to see this every night.

Should not have put the whole thing in my mouth with Luis holding a camera. Dont know what I was eating but clearly I enjoyed it.

Luis learned from my mistake and waited for the picture to be taken before eating his food. Touche sir!

We get back to our hostel for some drinks on our deck and after spending some time up there, the security guard comes up and we chat for a bit. We then see the family we saw on the bus the other day from Managua and say hey. We go by to see if they want to play some cards, Wendy comes out but Jill and her boy-toy stay in. We play some rounds of rummy before turning in for the night.

Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 1: Arriving into the country and to our first stop, Las Penitas (12/27/10)

Luis and I get into Managua after a normal, relatively short for international standards, flight. Get through immigration and realize L's bag didn't make it somehow (direct flight, don't know how you mess that up and just leave it in Houston). We arrange with customer service to deliver it to our hostel where we will be the next couple days and then head out to the bus station via a taxi (20$ - I read later that there are cheaper taxis elsewhere at the airport but we got to our bus in time so that's what matters I guess) that decided to break down on our way to the station (twice – first time locals helped get it going again, second time for good where our driver got another one for us). At the bus station we get in a large van (~12 of us) and head to Leon (~2$pp) where we get a cab (50C) to the bus station to get to Las Penitas. That bus was a yellow school bus (as many of the future ones will be) for 20C that took us to the coast, through El Poneloyn, to our hostel's town of Las Penitas. The beach community seems to be very laid back and friendly with people hanging out outside along the road and on the beaches in bars. When we get to our hostel (Hostelito y cafe Oasis), the driver signals to us to get out (good thing cause I couldn't see our hostel's sign, which was on the wall somewhere that you have to know where to look) and we check in. Turns out the reservation that I made was not received, but they had a queen room open anyways thank goodness – I think options were not too many in this area. We grab some beer to celebrate our arrival and the start of our adventures, however when I go to pay, I learn they just keep a tab and you pay for everything as you leave. 

We are on the bus on our way to the hostel. Has been years since I have been on a yellow school bus. Luis looking like a badass.

Cheers we made it to our hostel! Getting this trip started off right!

The people running it were incredibly friendly and patient as I would try and practice my Spanish on this trip with L helping out occasionally when I was in a rut. We check out the hostel and chill there for a bit while having some drinks (beers and some local rum, Flor de Cana) and dinner (double cheeseburgers and fresh fish ceviche). After dinner, we get some drinks and go out to the beach with some chairs to watch the water crash into the shore under the starlight. 

Our guide book and a local rum on a beach just hanging out. 

Us enjoying the relatively private beach of the hostel with a couple glasses of rum.

Luis and I enjoying a beer on the beach before going to explore the neighboring area. 

We finish our beers, and head down the street where we found another hostel and a taco shack. After trying to communicate to the taco shack people unsuccessfully, we go into the hostel (Playa Roca) to have a beer on their top deck and then head home around 10pm to turn in for the night.

Hanging on a hammock at the end of the night cause why not?