Day 28: Ometepe, Nicaragua

Bad day…Lin scratched her eyeball while taking out her contacts last night and is out of commission today to try and heal as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Saben went out and about to entertain himself and even got a haircut with no espanol! Read the rest of this entry »

Day 27: Ometepe, Nicaragua

 Ahhhh…sigh of relief to still be alive this morning since last night’s perilous journey. And all we have to show for it are some funny looking bruises on Lindsey´s thumbs and butt. Another tasty breakfast of hot dog bun french toast before we checkout and head off to hike to a waterfall. During breakfast, one of our bunkmates asked if we had been able to take care of our ATM situation, to which we laughed and recounted our tale of ridiculously awesome proportions. After we told her what we had done, she had this really funny look on her face and said, “You know, that’s the most dangerous stretch of road on the whole island? The locals don´t even ride that road at night!” Read the rest of this entry »

Day 26: Ometepe, Nicaragua

Perfect temperature this morning. Ate a ridiculously cheap breakfast here at Finca (French toast for $1.50 which is actually made with hot dog buns and, even more surprising, it’s pretty good!) before trekking down the hill to check out Balgue at the bottom of the hill. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 25: Granada to Isla d’Ometepe, Nicaragua

Oh, what a glorious breakfast at The Garden Cafe—literally the best place to eat in all of Granada, maybe the whole world! Saben had the world’s most delicious French Toast and Lin had some delectable chocolate & banana pancakes (so I love pancakes, alright?!) with the best orange juice and coffee ever (even better than Antigua, and that was some amazing coffee & OJ at Hostel 5). We just took our time over breakfast and wandering down to the ferry dock since our ferry to Ometepe didn’t leave til 2:00. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 24: Granada, Nicaragua

Ate the cheapest breakfast on the main street this A.M (Banana pancakes—not great) and some terrible organic coffee. We dined with an unexpected guest: a little tail-less street dog with lonely but vaguely dignified eyes. He laid in the shade of our table’s big umbrella to escape the awful heat and used Saben’s foot as a pillow. Poor little thing! He didn’t beg for food even one time, but seemed more inclined to just be near someone who didn’t mind him being there too. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 23: Managua, Nicaragua

Not able to take care of our Brazilian visas here like we had planned so we decided to cut out this morning. In front of Metro Centro (the mall) there is a place for taxis to pull in and wait for passengers (it’s also a chicken bus stop) so we hoofed it over there and waited for an available taxi to take us to the UCA bus terminal where you can catch a bus or shuttle to pretty much anywhere. Read the rest of this entry »

Administrative Post: Feb. 19th, 2009

Well we came back to the hostel last night to find our room ransacked, our bags torn through, and both laptops, lindsey´s camera and mp3 player all gone. It was a long night dealing with the police, they have a suspect but he is most likely gone by now. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 22: Bus from San Salvador to Managua, Nicaragua 

We left the hostel this morning at 3:45AM (3:45AM!!!) by taxi to go buy bus tickets to Managua. We caught the 5AM Tica bus for around $30. The bus ride its self was pretty boring. The Tica buses are quite nice with TV’s and nice reclining seats. Tica only does direct buses and there were only 10 or 12 people on the whole bus with us so we all had plenty of room to stretch out, which we for sure needed after our sleeping arrangements last night. One oddity, one of three Salvadorian guys would take turns riding in the assistant’s seat up in the driver’s cabin and the assistant was sitting in the back of the bus in the “regular” seats. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 21: Bus from Flores, Guatemala to San Salvador, El Salvador

Bought a ticket yesterday for today’s long bus ride at the same tour agency that we got our Tikal transportation from. We paid $30 each and made sure to ask (three times) that it would be a direct bus on a Pullman (the big “Greyhound” type, not the reconditioned old school bus, aka “Chicken bus”). However, like most things, the 9 hour “direct” bus turned into a 12 hour stop-every-quarter-mile-or-so-to-pick-up-more-passengers-than- there-are-seats ride. Read the rest of this entry »

Though we didn´t have much time in Guatemala (unscheduled visit) we packed in quite a bit of action while we were there. We fell in love with Antigua (and its coffee), hiked an active volcano, stood so close to flowing lava that the heat would burn your skin, and probably best of all we walked… alone… through the great ruins of Tikal. Read the rest of this entry »