Jesus and Cowboys

It all started out well enough. I had slept ok, though I was still feeling phantom bugs after the Ometepe expereince. We had booked a horse back riding tour for later that day so we decided to walk up to Jesus, a statue overlooking the city, in the morning. But, before anything, I was starving. I'm always starving in the morning and the pancakes were free! We had stayed in the sister hotel of the hostel we stayed in Managua so I had high expectations for breakfast. We were disappointed. They brought over the limp, microwaved pancakes, with 3 slices of bananas and a sad little dallop of whip cream. A tiny raisin hid under the melting cream. I don't usually like Aunt Jemima's or whatever the local equivalent was called, but there were no other options. I slathered it on the tasteless food and went to town. I needed a second helping of syrup to get it down, when all of a sudden Jan started freaking out. Evidently, there were ants in our syrup.

All I could do was laugh. I looked down, and sure enough, there was an ant curled up, dead, on my pancake. Not one to waste food, I scraped that sucker off and finished breakfast...Jan, well, she had a harder time with that and doesn't mind wasting food so much. The lady seemed unfazed by the ants in the syrup and just handed over a new bottle. What next?

After that trauma, we started out towards the beach and then North towards the statue.  

To be honest, for a giant, white Jesus in the sky, he should have been easier to find. We got lost so many times! First, one man told us to walk along the beach, but we missed our turn onto the road...unknowingly. Then, a security guard guided us off the beach and met us at the front of the house he was watching, to give further instructions of where to go. As we neared a dead end street, a young guy came running around the corner, in Vans or something equivalent, and with his perfect English told us to follow him, and up the hill he galloped....not likely. He  runs this steep hill everyday, and just so you know, he was half way down the hill when we met him again, still on our way up. Talk about strong legs! The view, half way, was magnificent so I knew the view from the top, at Jesus, would be stunning.

And it was! For a mere $2 U.S. we took in the entire beach, curved like the moon, and the surrounding hills. Talk about breathtaking.

As "hard" (it wasn't really that hard, just zaps your energy and with the heat too! Phew!) as the walk up hill was, the downhill portion was even harder, on my knees anyways! Thank goodness it was cloudy or we would have been drenched with sweat. It actually rained a bit on the way down, more like a mist actually, and this is what we saw:

SO Sweet!

We headed back to the hotel as we had some downtime before we had to meet for the horse back riding. After sitting on the rooftop for a bit, I suggested we take a nap. I was so tired. I never nap but wow was I out like a light. A 30 minute power nap and I felt so much better. Though, I definitely could have used a little more time with my pillow! We walked down the steep hill from our hotel (our bums are thanking us) to the cafe, where we were meeting for our tour. Jan wasn't feeling tip top so only I ate lunch. It was pretty good. Right on time, a woman walked in....with jeans, a paisley shirt, boots, and a cowboy hat. Do you think this might be the lady we're meeting???? Blue was amazing! She's originally Canadian, from Kamloops/Vancourver, but has been living here in Nicuragua for 8 years. We all jumped into her truck, some in the box, because that's what they do here, and drove the 40 minutes or so out to her ranch. The  sprawling ranch was beautiful, and inside was amazing. I can't imagine what the locals think of such grandeur. The staff were all so friendly and kind, offering us cucumber water and fresh squeezed juice. Then, we got geared up! Yep, they found us jeans to wear, cowboy hats and boots, even a bandanna!

Then they took some fun photos of Jan and I, complete with fake guns and a red velvet couch! Yeehaw! Soon, we were walking down the back lawn to meet our horses. To be honest, I can't remember their names...but mine had a white bum!! 

Off we went, about an hour and half, wandering the beautiful hills of Nicuragua, passing through cow fields (oh how they love us), past local homes and shops, and even a few Howler monkeys. 

Then, just passed the trees, the beautiful beach opened up in front of us.

The sun was low in the sky and the water sparkled with it. We took our frisky horses (they knew what was coming) to some waiting staff. We dismounted, had some water, some snacks, and a beer. Now, it was time to gallop. We got back on our horses and as the sun turned pink in the sky and lowered into the water, we raced across the sandy beach...3 times, back and forth. It was beautiful...and bumpy. My derriere was hitting the rock hard saddle in a big way...my horse was not the smoothest runner. My head even felt a little jarred from the whole event. Jan, however, in her padded saddle, loved every minute. It was dusk now, and we set off towards home. Walking throught the dark, the odd firefly lighting our way, gave us a new perspective on some of the poverty in this country. You could see into people's homes, as we wandered by, and often it consisted of only 2 rooms and then a covered deck they also used. Many seemed to have just dirt floors. About an hour later, we arrived back at the barn,  and dismounted painfully, before handing over our horses. We went back to the "big house" where we changed back into regular old Jan and Kirsty, had some chips and salsa and juice or water...paid our bill (gulp) and were soon loading into the truck and heading back to San Juan. What a beautiful evening. Arriving back in town, we decided to grab dinner and then head home. We were both pooped, dirty and Jan had barely eaten, so starving. We grabbed a rice bowl, which sounds way better than it was, and off we went ot the hotel. In for the night. What an adventure!