Running with the...Cows?

Needless to say, my sleep wasn't as good as it could have been after the discovery of the frog. It wasn't too bad either though, I was just on edge every time I used the bathroom. We were disappointed in the room though, as there was no wifi, as promised, and of course, critters were able to maneuver their way in. We woke fairly early and went to have breakfast in the adjecent restaurant. I wanted  to have the french toast but Jan pointed out that having protein would be better, so we ordered scrambled eggs and toast. It was.....ok. BUT, they serve black tea and it was such a treat to have  that. The owner came in while we were eating, coming around, introducing himself. Coincidently, the apearance of the owner also meant the appearance of the wifi! hmmmm.....He recommended a lookout point which was a short, hour and a half, hike up Maderas, one of the volcanos. We asked about a waterfall, but since the rainy season has been dry, he didn't recommend it, suggesting instead, the Ojo de Agua, a natural spring pool which they've cemented in. It wasn't too far from our hotel, if we had bikes. We decided to do the volcano first, before the heat of the day. We set out at 10:30, so actually in the heat of the day after all. It didn't take long before we were both super sweaty and regretting the climb.

After about 45 minutes, both of us totally drenched in sweat, I told Jan we could turn around, we'd gotten a bit of a view of the volcano. She said we should go for 10 more minutes so we did....although after 2 she asked how long it had been! We ran into some hikers who said the lookout was just up the hill a bit. We finally made it!

The view was stunning and while enjoying it, we downed a protein bar and guzzled water. Though we had been told it would take an hour and a half, it only took us an hour. The walk back down was much more luxurious. However, we kept coming to forks in the path that didn't look familiar at all. We thought we were on the right track when we passed some cows, which had been there on the way up.

When we found ourselves in a farmer's field though, we knew we'd gone wrong somewhere. The farmer offered to show us the path, and brought his 2 foot machete along. It made me a little nervous, so I rushed ahead of him and Jan on the path. He seemed to be friendly enough talking to Jan, and I doubted I'd have to run for help anytime soon. He showed us the right way just as another farmer on horseback rode past. He whistled at the rider to let him know we were there and off we went on the correct route. I could hear the farmer whistling and yelling at the cows and when I looked back, I realized that they were all running in our direction. WTH! I yelled at Jan that the cows were coming and we both started running down the volcano. Now, the path here was fairly flat but lots of rocks and boulders made the way slightly treacherous for 2, exhausted, sweaty girls running from a herd of cows. Every time we looked back it seemed that they were getting closer. Who knew cows were so light and nimble on their feet! Finally, we reached a part where the cows were no longer breathing down our necks. We were able to slow down and catch our breath. Alll of a sudden, the expression on Jan's face changed and she yelled "cows!". I turned to see the cows quickly coming down the rocky path in a single file. I was sure I was going to break an ankle, or my neck, as we careened down the side of the rocky volcano, at top speed. Keeping in mind how sweaty we had been on the way up and now we were actually running! This is not what I signed up for! We finally made it to the bottom of the path, and moments later the farmer appeared with his herd of cattle behind him. He's lucky he wasn't smiling though, becuase that would have been the end of him! I honestly think he was oblivious to his cows chasing us down the path.

(cows all rounded up)

I can say though, despite this life threatening ordeal we had just been through, we were laughing the whole time. So, at least if we had died, it would have been with smiles on our faces! After we finally made it back to our hostel and we had settled down a bit, we decided to have some lunch. Afterwards, we walked around to get some wifi and book the accomadations for our next stop. We were so tired but since we only had the one day on Ometepe and wanted to make the most of it, we stopped to rent some bicycles and started pedaling the 6 km towards Ojo de Agua. Thankfully, the first portion was downhill. We passed some interesting sights: a few trees, completely wrapped in spider webs, some chickens, cows and horses were heading in our direction too! 

At long last, we arrived, having just biked the last 5 minutes on an extremely rocky, bumpy path. We had to pay an entrance fee but asked if we could just look instead. I really just wanted to get back to the hotel and have a shower. And Jan hadn't wanted to swim at all.

("swimming")

(not sure about this water!)

So, we basically looked and then turned around and went back the way we had comeWe returned the bikes after an hour and a quarter and both desperately needing a shower. We did just that and decided to eat at the hotel again since we were too tired to walk anywhere else. After a nice dinner, we headed back to the room to chill. Jan got up to use the bathroom and once again I heard "Kirsty! Get in here!" What was it going to be this time? Well, my friends, it was a scorpion.

That's right, staring at us, at eye level, just sitting in the door jamb, waiting for some unsuspecting hotel guest to pass by, was a freaking scorpion. I took pictures while Jan freaked out on the other side of the door! Thankfully, the woman from the restaurant was still in and she came, with a broom and some kitchen tongs, to get rid of him for us. She scooped him up in her tongs, and as she talked to us in spanish, his tail was flinging about trying to stab at something! She left and Jan went to wash her hands, only to find no water. She went back to ask the same lady about it and all she said was no water until morning! What??? It was barely 9 pm, but after our day, we were both exhausted, (but grateful we'd already showered). However, as soon as we turned out the lights, I could just feel creepy crawlies all over me. And with every gust of wind from the fan, I was sure something was on my legs. Needless to say, I barely slept! We both woke up at about 6:30 and Jan went to check the time on her phone only to find a lizard had pooped on it during the night!

The day before, she had found lizard poop on her bed and on her luggage! I had nothing, no poop anywhere. The lizard did not like Jan. Jan was officially ready to get off of Ometepe. We ate at a leisurely pace, enjoyng the wifi, which was on early. We had already packed and were ready to go. A taxi was coming to pick us up and we were sharing it with a couple from Holland. We got into the decrepit white van once it arrived and made our way to the ferry terminal. We had only one roadblock on the way, a herd of cows, taking up the entire road.

What is it with the cows on this island!?!?! We finally made it to the boat on time and, who should we see, the american woman with her family of 15! The ride passed much more quickly than last time and before we knew it we were catching a taxi with our Dutch friends to San Juan Del Sur. A short 40 minutes later and we had arrived at our hotel. We were very happy with these accommodations...It felt good to be in a critter free space! We took a walk around the small beach town, stopped for some cheesy (ick) fish tacos, and explored some shops and markets.

We enjoyed the sunset from the roof top terrace at our hotel, before heading out for some mediocre and not too satisfying italian pasta. We walked to a gelato place and enjoyed our dessert immensly. Thankfully there is no excitement tonight as I really just need a good, bug free sleep! Tomorrow, horseback riding on the beach!

Frog in the Toilet, Scorpion under the Sink

I definitely didn't sleep as well as I did last night. It was hotter and so uncomfortable. I was up at 1:30, again at 3:30, and it seems that somewhere around 5:30 I was up for good, dozing here and there until I finally got up at 7:30. I went downstairs to have some breakfast. Sometime in the night I had woken up starving so by morning I was ravenous. We headed out, after some cereal, to get money from the ATM, knowing Ometepe, our next stop, would have limited options. Afterwards, we got ready and packed up all of our stuff to go to catch the chicken bus. Since we knew it would be a long day, and we were already hot, we took a taxi. The driver was talking in spanish, and the other passengers were laughing, but Jan could not quite understand what he was saying. He kept making the motion of cutting his neck...which was quite worrisome. Once the other passengers had gotten out, he finally made it clear that he could drive us to San Jorge, where we were going on the chicken bus, for the low price of $20 U.S. each! We politely declined and he let us off at the bus station. We had talked about going for "lunch", though it was 10 am when we left the hostel. But, because we would have to order food, wait for it, and then still get to the bus station for 11:30. We decided to skip it and head directly to the bus. We arrived at 10:30 and a good thing too as the bus was filling up fast and we were told it was actually leaving at 11! We settled in and waited on the chicken bus, basically a yellow school bus, which thankfully had racks above our heads to hold our luggage so it didn't have to go on the roof. We finally left at 11:30, so I guess the schedule was right after all. Most of the ride, I was falling asleep as I was so tired from my lack of zzzz's the night before. We finally arrived just after 1pm and were accosted by taxi drivers and men who have bicycles with seats in front. The man was saying that the ferry was leaving at 1:30 and the bicycles would take too long. We were so tired and overwhelmed that we agreed to take the taxi, at $5 U.S. each. To be fair, it was quite a drive, about 15 minutes, so would have taken forever on the front of a bicycle. But, when we arrived, we found that the ferry was in fact leaving at...duh duh duh...2:30, like we thought. We were tired, hungry, and frustrated at being taken advantage of. Not cool. While we waited, we ate our second peanut butter sandwich (we had eaten the first on the bus ride) and it wasn't too long before we were loading the ferry. Jan and I decided to sit on the top level of the boat as the second level was indoors with no air flow and gross uphostered seating, which gives me the heebie jeebies. Most of the way there, we chatted with an American woman who was travelling through Nicuragua with 15 members of her family. She was very kind and it helped take our mind of the rolling of the boat and the hot sun. One poor girl turned white and rushed to the front of the boat (dress fling in the wind revealing her bum!), returning only when we docked, and a little girl travelling with her parents threw up in a plastic bag.The waves were very choppy.

When we did dock, we found 3 other travellers heading in our direction and shared a taxi. We got him down to $5 each, which is a good price on the island, and didn't worry too much about how 5 bacpackers and their backpacks were going to fit in the vehicle, we assumed would be a car. Luckily, he was driving a big van with plenty of space for all of us, and more! He was friendly and gave us some ifnormation on the sights we were passing. The island of Ometepe was beautiful. We were dropped off in front of our hotel sign, but with no actual hotel in sight.

We had to walk about 350 meters down the road until we found it. It was cute, with beautiful flower gardens, tons of butterflies, and a gorgeous view of the volcano. 

While our room was quite open with nature, there were, at least, screens over all the openings. We were starved after our long day, so had dinner right away, and then decided to go down the road to get wifi as the hotel's wasn't working. We found wifi at a hostel at the top of the hill and even though we both ordered a drink, we had to pay C$30 for it...we needed to book our next stops accommodation and wanted to connect with the outside world so we bit the bullet. We were back in our room, showering before 8:30, exhausted. Jan fell asleep after reading for only a few minutes and I was working on my last blog post. Jan got up to get herself ready for bed and was in the bathroom when I heard her yelling. "Kirsty get in HERE!" When I got in there, she was yelling about a frog being in the toilet.

The ninja on the wall!!!

She said she was pretty sure it swam up the drain and it was working like a MOFO not to get flushed down. I hate frogs. They are gross and creepy and jump without notice. This was way worse than there being a spider or something. I've also had nightmares of things living in the toilet so the combination was just too much and I was freaking out. I told Jan it was all on her to get the thing out, and I left to sit on my bed and wait for news of the removal of the frog. All of a sudden, she was yelling again. The frog had jumped out of the toilet and onto the wall...like a ninja! I was just about ready to pass out from fear and couldn't handle the fact that we now had a frog that could climb walls, jumping around our bathroom. We had to get him out. We figured we could use a plastic bag and maybe the garbage can to trap him and take him outside, but while we were working out our plan this sucker jumped behind the sink where we couldn't get him (it had to be a boy). I left again, ready to have a full on panic attack. Jan pulled the bottom of the sink cover away. I came in with my flashlight and we still couldn't find the frog! He had disappeared! Jan pushed the sink back together but now the sink was leaking! A huge puddle was forming in the middle of our bathroom! Pullling out the sink again, we both leaned down to have a peek. What we found lurking under the basin was the corpse of a scorpion trapped in a spider's web. Awesome. Now, the scorpion may have been dead, but the fact that it had been there at all was slightly disturbing! O.M.G. How was I supposed to sleep now. Getting the sink back together and finding it not leaking, Jan and I crawled into bed. Apparently, Jan hates Ometepe...I can't really blame her! This ordeal had taken a toll and we were both laying snug in our sleep sack, wondering what creature would be waking us up next!

A day for drinks....

Waking up at 5 am has never been my thing. I'm not a morning person at all. But when it's steaming hot in your room once the sun rises, it's sort of easy to want to get up. You sweat all day and you sweat all night. We have cold showers in the morning to clean off the sweat of the night, cold showers before dinner to clean up before going out, and cold showers before bed to wash off the bug spray/sweat of the evening. Good thing cold showers are quick or Nicuragua would start charging for water usage! Anyways, back to waking up early! Since I slept like a log...literally, until 5 am, I was pretty much ready to get up. Being that it was much cooler downstairs in the "common" area, I took my iPad down there to work on my blog. Jan stayed in bed a bit longer, before bringing down our breakfast. We had stocked up on some cereal and milk to save having to go out for breaky. Just as I was about to edit the post I had been working on for an hour...I lost it. Enough about that though! I am totally over it! The night before we had met one of the girls that Jan went to school with, who was leaving the following day. She brought along her new room mate, Rachel. We invited Rachel to come to the Laguna with us since she was going to be alone over the weekend. We met her the next morning around 9:30 and caught the chicken bus to our stop.

(Kids enjoying T.V. on Saturday morning)

After a short trip, we got off and crossed the highway and caught a cab who drove us up the volcano and then down towards the crater which holds the laguna. There, we went to the Laguna Beach Club where we could sit and relax while enjoying their amenities. 

The gals wanted to go straight into the water but I coulnd't focus on anything but my blog so I stayed to work on that. 

Not to shabby though, to be able to write facing the beautiful scenery of the Lagoon. It was a lovely day of smoothies (mine was Pina Colada), WIFI, and paddle boarding.

I was so excited to get out onto the water and try paddle boarding. It's much harder than it looks! At first, Jan joined me on the board to get out deeper in the water a bit, but our board was floating below the water and we kept losing balance. Plus, it was hard to paddle from the back. I went off on my own and even made it to my feet! Yay. I paddled around a bit but I was so unsteady. I also didn't want to go too far into the lagoon so decided to turn around. This is where I fell. It all happned in slow moton. I lost my balance. Not wanting to fall face first onto my board, I pushed myself away from the board where I fell straight back into the water. When I resurfaced, I was sure I had broken my hand. I was in so much pain across the bottom of my palm. Jan assured me that I would be crying if I broke my hand, but I wasn't so sure.

After that, we decided we should get going anyways to avoid being in the rush of leaving with everyone else. 

(This guy spent 4 days painting this "billboard")

(Home/shop on the side of the highway)

When we arrived back in Grenada, we headed to the market to buy some bread to make PB sandwiches for the next days travel day and also some fruit. The market is a small blocked off area where there are wooden tables for vendors to sell their goods.

The ground is dirt/pavement...often it looks like dirt because it's so dirty. The smell is awful. One because there are fruits and veggies rotting in the heat, two because they also sell meat and anything else you can think of and three because it is filthy! There are puddles of liquid to step over and who knows what those puddles are. We managed to buy a small pineapple and 2 mangoes for about 50 cents for all of it!! Afterwards, we went to walk up the bell tower of one of the churches in town where there's supposed to be amazing views. Unfortuntely, it had closed only minutes before. 

Some pics of Granada:

The Old Hospital...so beautiful!

Next, we decided to walk along a very touristy promenade where they sell fun jewellery and other cool thing-a-ma-bobs. Rachel decided she'd better go home as her host family had planned a special meal that night. Jan and I decided to stop for happy hour...2 for 1 cocktails! At that point, we also decided that instead of walking all the way back to our gross hostel, we would stay out and eat. Then once we got back we would stay in for the night, showering and bed. Slurping back our pineapple mojitos (best.drink.ever), we decided to order the fish tacos, which were the best in Granada, or so their sign said. They WERE pretty delicious. We had just asked for our waiter to order a third round of drinks when the waitress came over and said she'd buy us a round if we moved tables. She had a big party coming in. No problem! She brought us over two pineapple mojitos while we relaxed in super awesome lounge chairs. Then, along came our watier with 2 more drinks. Apparently, they had gotten their wires crossed and they'd both brought us the free drinks! He shrugged and told us to drink them. Have you ever heard the expression one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor....it applies to mojitos as well! Jan took her last drink to go but I pounded those tasty juices back in no time. Since it was just before 8:30 (the cutoff for walking home safely at night in Granda), we decded to walk back quickly instead of taking a cab. Basically we ran, one of us may have had to go to the bathroom! We got back to the hostel, sweating and huffing and puffing. I was feeling no pain in my hand at this point! Since it was still early, we decided to do some facetiming!!! We spoke to our friends back home, laughing over some of the events that had happened so far. Soon enough, after our showers, we were passed out in bed, tired from our day in the sun. The next day, we were headed to Ometepe, an island in a large lake in Nicuragua. Since we knew it would be a long day of buses, taxis, and ferries, we planned on leaving early. And I could not wait to get out of that hostel!