by Toni St.Clair on Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 9:50am via FB
Jean and I arrived pretty smoothly in Managua, after a 6 hour layover at Houston International Airport. I was very grateful for the company as 6 hours can feel like such a long time, but Jean and I made the best of it!!
We arrived in Managua, and breezed through customs and met our waiting Best Western guy. As we're standing at the baggage carousel waiting for our luggage, I look over towards the windows and notice this girl waving her arms and holding up some sign. Since the guy behind us was waving too, I assumed this crazy girl belonged to him, but as it turns out it was OUR crazy girl! Ms. Kyley made the trip in Thursday evening to meet us at the airport, and it was such a great surprise!!
After a nice evening and a hot shower (our last for awhile as it turns out), we were off to meet up with Tabitha and Nestor - Kyley's boss and her husband. Kyley had called Christian, who is a cousin of Nestor, and he was kind enough to drive us off to our rendezvous. It's very nice having people you can trust in this country b/c you know you are safe - that and you are helping out a friend too.
We meet up with Tabi and Nestor and head off to the ferry - a 2 hour drive from Managua to San Jorge, via Rivas. Again, I was grateful for the ride as a cab can cost about $40-$50 from Managua to San Jorge, but it's faster than the bus.
The ferry ride is inexpensive and oh so beautiful. You have plenty of time in the 1 hr ride to get some great pics of the 2 volcanoes on Ometepe, as well as get a mini shower when the ferry goes over a wave!!
Located right on the beach of Lago Cocibola, it's name stands for "place of the moquitos" in Nahuatl. It is the commercial center of Ometepe, and has many hostels, restaurants and tour places for tourists.
For the most part, we have spent our days outside of the town. We have breakfast at the Cornerhouse, a B and B run by Gary and Laura, ex-pats who have been here for just over a year now.
On the island we have visited El Ojo De Agua, a gorgeous natural springs that has chairs and hammocks along it's sides, and refreshing water to swim in. It costs $2 to enter and you can get there by bus or micro bus, but make sure if you take a cab you organize for them to come back and pick you up or have them wait for you hile you enjoy the springs; the latter is what we did and it worked out greatly in our favour! Of course, we walked a couple kilometers before we realized there wasn't too much traffic on the road, and so Kyley called her family, got a number for a microbus and we were quickly picked up o the side of the road!! Good times...haha!!
Yesterday, Jean and I went to Charco Verde while Kyley was at the hospital seeing patients. We asked one of her friends, Roger to take us out there in his mototaxi - like a Tuk Tuk but safer I imagine - and the 12 km ride was an adventure. I had only ever ridden in one of these before in Guatemala, but it wasn't nearly as far, so my butt was a little sore by the time we got to Charco Verde.
Once there, we walked the Natural Reserve trail to the lagoon, and enjoyed the beautiful Ceibo trees - enormous trees with trunks that would need at least 6 people to wrap around - as well as the flora, fauna and monkeys. We only saw one monkey, and were pretty thankful for that was we had heard that the monkeys sometimes throw their feces at people, something I wasn't looking forward to. We were lucky that the beach wasn't covered in water yet, as it is technically rainy season and at this time it is common for the beaches to all but disappear in some places as the water level in the lake rises.
Tomorrow I, sadly, am leaving Kyley and her mom and heading off early in the morning to San Jose to meet up with Jess - my awesome fantastic friend from Michigan, who I have only spent 2 weeks with in the last 6 years! I am excited to see her and to spend our 3rd week together!!
- xoxo
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