War Wounds

This entry was taken from Laura´s blog.

While in Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua, we decided to explore the island via motorbike.  Chloe opted out of the motorbike excursion, thinking it might be too dangerous, and instead hiked the volcano.  Seeing as how I have ridden them all around Thailand and Greece, I thought nothing of it and Gail, Vandria, and I went ahead and arranged for 3 motorbikes to be delivered to our hostel the following morning.  The day started off on the wrong foot when they showed up with legit dirt bikes, aka motorcycles.  I can barely use a manual transmission car so I wasnt about to try to figure out the clutch-and-shift situation on a motorcycle.  We should have taken that as a sign – a.k.a. the roads are too rough for scooters – but instead we had the guys that delivered them drive us the hour-ride back to their office on the back of the motorcycles.  Clutching on to the nice Nicaraguan men as we sped through villages, passing farms and herd of cows…it was certainly an experience.  Along the way, I was chatting with my driver, who happened to be the shop owner and we made a little bet.  If I DONT crash the bike, he owes me a beer, but if I DO crash it, then I will owe him a beer.  I had never had problems before so I thought that this was an easy beer to win.

Once we arrived in town, we got our scooters (since they CLEARLY don’t call them motorbikes in Nicaragua), a map of the island, and took off to explore.

exploring on our motor bikes

All was going great until we turned off onto a rocky, dirt road looking for the beach.  First of all, before I go any further, I would like to explain that this a) wasnt even a real beach, as we were on an island in a lake, and b) that it wasnt even the correct road to the beach in the first place.  Massive fail.  Regardless, we didn’t know all of this yet, and were maneuvering around the rocks on our vespas.  This is when I ate it.  I was actually being very cautious and driving relatively slowly when I saw a patch of rocks in the road up ahead.  I decided to avoid said rocks and go up on a small ledge around the rocks, when my bike skidded out from under me, went sliding INTO the rocks and I was left sliding down the road as well.  Not ideal.

The first thing that came into my mind once I stopped sliding on the gravel was:  Oh man!  Now I have to buy this guy a beer!  Thats when a car came by to help out, picked up my bike and I saw the damage….then I thought:  Oh man!  This is going to be expensive!!  The gas was leaking, a rock was stuck INTO the front and side of the bike, and there were scratches everywhere.  I was still in shock and hadn’t yet noticed the extent of my injuries.  The men helping us did, however, and offered to take me to the hospital.  I thought that seemed a bit unnecessary, so instead they offered to take us all down the road to the hotel they manage and give a place to clean my wounds.  I am so thankful for how helpful they were as they let us use their lobby bathroom, clean towels, and offered me money to buy bandages.

When you fall off a horse motorbike, you’re meant to tough it out and get right back on, right? Right.  So that’s what I did and the rest of the day was so much fun.

scraped up and ready to ride again

We went to the “beach,”  visited the cold springs, rode up to a lookout point to view both volcanos on the island…it was really incredible and DESPITE the injury, I had a lot of fun.

When we returned the bike it was a lot less fun since I had to pay $190 in damages to the bike.  Thats a LOT of money when youre on a Central American budget, let me tell you.

Side note:  I wasnt the only one fell.  On the way back to our hostel, Vandria also had some issues.  She was stuck trying to make it up a slight hill over a rock when her bike wouldn’t go anymore.  Thinking it was a bicycle, she decided to walk it up the hill, but when the bike was too heavy she decided to rev it a bit.  And then a bit more…while still OFF the bike.  Gail and I were watching this from afar thinking “does she know that bike is going to fly away from her???”  She did not, and that’s exactly what happened.  Her bike jolted forward leaving her to chase along side of it grasping for the brakes.  It fell, she fell.  It was classic.  She scraped her knee a bit, but the bike remained intact.

So, the moral of the story…….DO NOT ride scooters off of paved roads. I wish the story ended there….with all of the traveling and humidity, the war wound on my leg got really infected and after 3 days, I thought I should go to a pharmacy to get it checked out.  They took one look at it, gasped, and sent me to the medical clinic.  The doctor had to remove all of the skin that had tried to heal and after about 30 minutes of total agony, I was sent home with a clean leg, antibiotics, and a $150 medical bill.

The injury pre-infection. (I think?) I put this anti-bacterial powder on it to help it scab in the humididty.

At the medical clinic trying to look happy... Vandria let me squeeze her hand really hard

Three weekends in a row

While down here I got to spend three weekends in a row with my friend Bryan. He frist came and met us in Antigua, then I flew to Managua a day before the other girls and finally in Gigante. On Friday morning Bryan, Eliza and Joe picked us up in Granada to head to a really remote beach called Gigante.

The day started off hilariously (is that a word?) Not having booked a place in Granada, we decided to choose a "hostel" that was offered to us as we got off the bus. It was super cheap for private rooms and after all this traveling a room is a room. Well our hostel was in the middle of a market - which made for quite a mess when Joe decided to drive his hug truck through it to pick up our bags. People were literally picking up their goods fromtheir stalls on the floor to avoid being hit. Joe is quite the trooper because if it were me I would have probally had a heart attack!

 Bryan Chloe and I found it quite funny as we were in the bed of the truck. After making it out of the city Bryan and I stayed in the back and enjoyed the beautiful peaceful scenery. That was until we hut the bumpy dirt road to the beach town.

 

Once we got there we understood why Bryan was so insistent we came. It was absolutely beautiful! We spent 2 days there with a really tight schedule of laying out, swimming, eating, surfing, eating, and swimming, drinking, etc... It was the perfect break from our go go go mentality that we had been on since Guatemala. Also it was great to be back at the beach!

The Awesome Fawesome take on Nica

After about of week of traveling with our new South African friends, Chloe and Gail, we decided we needed to come up with a name for our group. Chloe was so proud of herself when she came up with the amazing rhyme "Awesome Foursome". Upon hearing this, Laura and I looked at her puzzled as this clearly does not rhyme.... but after she repeated it again we discovered that in a South African accent it in fact does. So thus we became the "Awesome Fawsome".

After seeing pretty much all of Guatemala, (honestly when we looked at the map it was crazy how much we covered in 10 days), it was now time to explore Nicaragua. First stop the old capital city of Leon. Leon is a really pretty colonial city, but what attracts people to this town is the volcano that lays about 30 min outside of town. Cerro Negro (which is appropriately named meaning Black Hill) is famous for volcano boarding, which is essentially hiking up to the top of a volcano and boarding down on a toboggan. It is a 50 degree slope down about 700 meters and is guaranteed to give one of the best adrenaline rushes of all time. Laura went the fastest and got the 3rd fastest speed of our group (#1 amongst the girls) at 64 km/hour. I don´t remember exactly how fast I was but it was in the 40km/hr range. What I can tell you is i got DIRTY! I honestly had a mustache and beard from the volcano ash! Sexy look don´t you think? For those planning to travel to Leon I highly recommend staying at Via Via Hostel and then booking the volcano boarding across the street at Bigfoot Hostel.

After Leon, we bussed down to Granada, where we did a tour of the lake islands and a horse carriage around town. Its a really cute town very to Antigua. After about hours we had seen it all.... which was a good thing because it started POURING. SO what better thing to do than eat and drink? We settled in at a restaurant and made the most of the happy hour and spent the next 10 hours or so tasting the delicious Nicaraguan cocktails :).

Separation Anxiety

Laura and my next stop was to Guatemala's second largest city,  Quetzaltenango, know by locals as Xela. We added this to our itinerary because the girl who moved into my room in Buenos Aires recommended it.  She is Guatemalan and said ion her opinion it was the pretties part of the whole country.  Now, I definitely agree with her that it is absolutely gorgeous.... that being said would I recommend you go there??  No. It is really far out and while popular for Spanish immersion courses, there is very little happening in the town itself.   What attracts tourists to this region is.... wait for it... volcanoes.  Having seen our share of volcanoes on this trip, we opted for the more leisurely tour up to the hot springs.  The rest of our time in Xela was pretty much spent eating, reading in the main square, people watching, and watching TV in bed.  It was nice to have time to relax, especially since I was sick.

 As mentioned we parted ways with all 4 other girls (Lia, Ereni, Chloe, and Gail) in Lago de Atitlán.  Already it felt kind of strange traveling as just two. Then when we got to Xela our hotel offered a room with a double bed for 60 Q (about 7.50USD) total or our own room for 50 Q (6.25USD) each.  Since I was sick Laura decided we should opt for the second option.... as if spending 24/7 with each other up until this point wouldn't already have infected her (not she did end up getting sick on her second day in town).   I was fine with this as by this point I felt like shit and all I wanted to do was sleep.  Well despite the fact that we were only across the hall from each other I really started to miss Laura.  I would find myself having things to tell her all the time!  haha.  I decided it would be stupid to cross the hall for every small thing that popped into my mind so instead I would make a list.  Not only did she laugh at me for this, but also asked what was I going to do when we actually separated in Sept?!? GOOD QUESTION!!!!

Well I found out the next day when I said goodbye to Laura for 2 days.  I wanted to go to Managua for the weekend to hang out with my friend Bryan.  Unfortunately the tickets were rather expensive to Laura opted to take a flight on Sunday night.  I left her early Saturday morning to catch a bus to Guatemala City.  That in itself was an adventure... Is there ever such a thing as a smooth transport in this region!? Well long story short, my bus broke down.  After waiting for 2 hours on the side of the road I decided I wasn't going to make my flight unless I took a different form of transportation.  So with the help of one of the guys on the bus I hailed a local shuttle to take me to Guatemala City.  From the outside the shuttle looked like the same mini-buses we had been taking all throughout Guatemala..... inside was a different story.  It was jammed pack with about 25 Guatemalan men. And I was on a makeshift bench created at the front of the van facing all of them! it was so hilarious i just had to take a picture! In the end I made it with plenty of time.

It was definitely worth the money and trip!  I had such a great time going out with Bryan, his girlfriend Eliza and friend Joe.  The night I arrived we went to a concert that one of their friends was putting on and then out at night to a club that no joke looked like a pyramid in Tikal.   The next day the four of us went to Laguna de Apoyegue, a lake in the center of a volcano.  It was such a beautiful and fun place!  Sunday night the three ladies flew in and we all enjoyed a WONDERFUL night's sleep and glorious shower at Joe's luxurious apartment thanks to his job at the US Embassy.  The next morning we began the Nica portion of the trip!

Very Little Internet = No Blogging Time

So it has been almost a month since my last blog and in this time we have done SOOOO much! The reason for my lack of blogging is twofold. 1) In the majority of towns we have been in there has been either NO internet at all or only WiFi meaning I was able to check email and Facebook on iPods but could not blog. 2) In the towns that did have internet cafes, we seemed to be having too much fun doing crazy activities and/or cocktailing to stop and blog. We finally have a day to just relax and chill so I am planting myself at the internet cafe to upload photos to Facebook and blog. We have some great stories to tell, so I will try to be as brief and descriptive as possible. In case I do not fully catch-up today here is a quick summary of what you´ve missed (blogs links to come):

 

Where we´ve been:

• Lago de Atitlán, Guatemala with our fab Ausie ladies
• Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (known as Xela)
• A weekend with my friend Bryan in Managua, Nicaragua
• Volcano boarding in León, Nicaragua
• Sightseeing and an accidental night out in Granada, Nicaragua
• Weekend at the beach in Gigante, Nicaragua
• Motorbike disaster in Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua
• 16 hour travel day crossing into Costa Rica
• Relaxing and partying at Playa Santa Teresa , Costa Rica
• Zip-Line Canopy tour in Monteverde, Costa Rica

 

Where we´re going:

• White water rafting outside of La Fortuna, Costa Rica
• Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
• Bocas del Toro, Panama
• Panama City, Panama
• Home Sept 1st

My Summer Itinerary

After 8 months of living in Buenos Aires I leave today at 6:30pm.  While I am SOO sad to leave this wonderful city and all of my new friends I am really excited to embark on a new journey. I will be heading to Europe for the month of June to travel with my friend Laura. We will then head to Central America for the months of July and August before heading back to The States Sept 1. This will my longest backpacking experience - 100 days total. This is 23 days more than my trip last summer!

Argentina > Turkey on Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Turkey > Greece on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Greece > Croatia on Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Croatia > London on Tuesday, June 21, 2011
London > Honduras on Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Honduras > Belize > Guatemala > Nicaragua >  Costa Rica >  Panama during July and August, 2011
Panama > LAX on Thursday, September 1, 2011

Thank you to all who have started following my blog again.  I promise to keep up-to-date on my travels!  I hope you enjoy!