Travels through Nicaragua

I am happy to report that in the past week I have made a full recovery! I spent a night in Granada. Granada is a lovely town, more touristy than Leon, and so its a bit more spruced up. Its a much more pleasant city to walk about. Thankfully there is more of a breeze than Leon. Granada is right on lake Nicaragua and surrounded by volcanos so there are nicer views as well. I ran into some people who had been at Surfing Turtle. Its so nice to meet the same people randomly on your travels. I think its inevitable here because all the backpackers are roughly following the same 'gringo trail' but it still gives you the feeling that the world is not such a big scary place after all. Not that I have ever been really scared on my travels, i have had such a easy time of it.

The following night (tuesday) I spent at a hostel in the trees just outside of Granada. I thought it was going to be cooler actually, it was a bit disappointing. But understandably it was not at its operational prime, because when I got there I learned that the owner is in a nicaraguan prison! He was driving his truck and hit some drunk man on a motorcycle. Or so the story goes according to his 70 year old mother and aunt who are now running the hostel in the middle of the Nicaraguan jungle. I am very impressed by them, to come down from Texas and run this hostel in the trees for an unknown length of time while their son is in jail. Ugh I don't want to imagine what a Nicaraguan prison is like.

Early in the morning yesterday I set out for San Juan del Sur, a surf town in the south of Nicaragua. I arrived by 930 am and got organized to get a surfing lesson. I am very excited to say that I can stand up!! I definitely need more practice but it was such a rush to be standing on moving water! I was watching the surfers and I couldn't really understand the appeal of it. They spend 10-15 minutes paddling around and waiting for a good wave and then if they get it they only have 5 or 10 seconds riding it and then they crash. Its a lot of work for little reward I think. But when I did actually stand up for a few seconds it felt so great that I kind of understand. The ocean is pretty brutal though, the same big waves that they want to catch coming in they somehow have to paddle through going out.

I am in a race against my visa expiring so I am moving on today again. I like San Juan, it would be nice to stay another day or two. But its also a big party town and I am not feeling like partying too much. I am going to go to another isolated beach hostel where my friend fro Utila is volunteering. It looks like a way nicer place than Surfing Turtle. I will spend 2 or 3 days there, then go to isla Ometepe, a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua, then leave Nicaragua for Costa Rica!